Boys and herbs

Close family and friends will remember this picture from two years ago. We got together with some college friends and went on a bike ride through a 2 mile tunnel in Montana. It was our first time to takes kids on a bike ride w/ a trailer. We didn't think to put down the plastic cover over the screen cover. Needless to say, when we made it out of the tunnel we found that some mud drops made it through the screen cover and got the kids dirty. Despite the mud, Bex seemed to have a fun time because he didn't cry and thus didn't find out about the mud until we got back into the sun.



Two years later and with Caeden almost the exact same age to the day, we happened to do another bike ride. Being the third child has benefits that your parents learned how to parent on your older siblings. Caeden had a warm, dry and fun time.

One of the things that define Marisa and me is that we like to cook together and use herbs out of our garden. We started with the usuals like Basil and Oregano. We went to a big nursery down the road that specializes in unusual and hard to find plants. There we got Chocolate Mint, Grapefruit Mint and Pineapple Sage. We added this to our Orange Mint and Lemon Balm. They are fun to throw into things like ice cream and yogurt. The picture below is our harvest today of Sage, Oregano, Lemon Balm and Orange Mint. We pull it out of the garden to cook and save some for the winter in both dried and frozen forms. One benefit to the rainy Washington winters is that some of these plants will grow year round.