Blake + Rachel

Blake and Rachel, we wish you many, many years!

This weekend we returned to Bellingham and Camp Firwood to celebrate with some of our closest friends. Blake was instrumental in getting Brian and me together and stood by our side in *both* of our weddings. Since then, he has been a constant friend -- the only non-family member to stay in all of our houses, including Beijing. We are just getting to know Rachel, but our family has already grown fond of her.

Brian was excited to give a toast to his friend. 

The quote of the night: "talked him off the monastic ledge"

I enjoyed catching up with dear friends throughout the entire weekend. 

The girls played and danced and got a first glimpse at the special place where their parents' relationship began. 

Camping!

Brothers!

This last month we got two unique opportunities: visiting with our brothers. My brother, Jeremy, lives in Honolulu and Brian's brother (+ family) lives in Calgary, so we don't get to see either of them very often.

Our first visit was to Everett/Seattle to celebrate Jeremy's 30th birthday.

We went to our first Mariner game in a very long time.

Everyone really got into "Louie, Louie."

The following day, my parents hosted a brunch for all the extended family that came to see Jer.

Then, Maggie and Kaleia got some good uncle bonding time while Brian and I went out to celebrate our anniversary.
What a goof! It was fun seeing you Uncle Jeremy!

For our second special visit, we camped with Uncle Kevin, Auntie Melanie, and cousin Jamie. We had a great time playing games with Kevin and talking education with Mel. Jamie (3 1/2) and Magnolia (2 1/2) were inseperable. They had typical moments of learning how to play nicely, but mostly these two were best friends.

Kaleia had fun too! She practiced her new walking skills on the uneven ground, played "fetch" with Jamie's dog, Maddie, and scaled all of the camp chairs.

By the end of our visits we were all pretty tired out, but the good kind of tired.

Celebrating Ten and Seven

Yesterday Brian and I returned to the place we first met, Camp Firwood, for a reunion with fellow '99 counselors. Firwood always reminds us of our unfavorable first impressions of each other.
Today, we're celebrating our seventh anniversary. :)

S'mores

During weekly camp outs at Camp Firwood I perfected my favorite standard S'more recipe:

• Spread peanut butter on half a graham cracker


• Put chocolate on top of peanut butter


• Place cracker combo on foil on a rock at the edge of the coals so the chocolate softens


• Roast marshmallow until golden brown


• Squeeze marshmallow off roasting stick between prepared cracker and a second cracker

In the years following my summers at Firwood, my sister and I have experimented with various candy bars to replace the traditional Hershey's chocolate -- Our favorites are Milky Way and Peppermint Patties -- so we were excited to see coconut marshmellows at the store yesterday. We had yet to experiment with the marshmallow in s'mores and we both love chocolate dipped macaroons so we had to try them.

Our verdict: They tasted very similar to a macaroon, were best with dark chocolate, rich enough that you didn't want to eat many.

Warning: If you try the coconut marshmallows, they are very HOT after they are roasted. I recieved a huge blister on my finger when trying to position mine on my cracker.

What are your favorite ways to enjoy this campfire treat? Leave a recipe in the comments and participate in the poll!