Life Lately: July 2023

We are midway through Summer and I am really enjoying the nice weather and being outside! July has never been my favorite month but this one was filled with lots of friend and family time. My garden is full of beautiful flowers and delicious vegetables and I have loved sharing my harvests over on my gardening Instagram account! Here is what I got up to this month!

4th of July

July 4th has never been my favorite holiday to celebrate and it is usually pretty low-key for us. This year was no different for us. We had a slow morning and then decided to go swimming for a couple of hours. After that, we got dinner and spent the evening sharing wine and listening to music, and watching some neighborhood fireworks out on our back patio. It was the perfect evening.

Dinner & Keith Sweat concert with friends

We got an invitation from our friends Calvin and Vicki to go to dinner and the Keith Sweat concert at the Emerald Queen Casino. Dinner was at this delicious Italian restaurant near PLU and the concert was a fun time. Most of all it was so nice to catch up with Calvin and Vicki!

Family Reunion

My dad’s cousins from Illinois and California came into town for a reunion. Jake and I attended and it was nice catching up with some family we hadn’t seen in a while including my grandpa Dan who lives over in Ellensburg.

A Night Out with Cousins

After the reunion, Jake and I made plans to go out to the BOOTS Tavern in Black Diamond with my cousin Mandy, my cousin Annie, and her boyfriend Trevor for karaoke! We had a fun time having some drinks and singing our hearts out!

Floating the River

To try and keep cool, Jake and I took our friend Kevin to the Cedar River to float. We went twice in one week we loved it so much. After we floated we went out to some local breweries for good beer and good conversation!

Pool Party with Two Good Friends

For her birthday, my friend Brooke invited me over for a girls’ night pool party at her house. It was a lovely evening catching up with her and our friend Holly!

Sailing with Jake

Jake has always talked about wanting to learn how to sail and this month he signed up for a course through a local sailing club. When he was finished with the course he asked if I wanted to go sailing with him. Last Sunday, went to the sailing club where he took the course and took one of their boats out, and then yesterday we went to Magnuson Park in Seattle and rented a Hobie Cat from Sail Sand Point. It was fun to see how much he learned and I am glad he got to have this experience!

In The Garden

Harvesting…

This month we have gotten a little bit of everything that the garden has to offer. I have harvested the last of the peas but the beans are coming in right behind them. We have gotten a bounty of cherry tomatoes which happen to be the best snack! We have several larger tomatoes on the vines but just waiting for them to ripen. I am hoping with the pruning I’ve done they will start to!

The blueberries became ripe so we were able to enjoy them with yogurt and in smoothies. The zucchinis have been a little slow going but we got a few this month and they are delicious! Still waiting on the golden nugget squash to produce but we do have a patti pan squash that is almost ready to harvest! I have also been able to harvest several carrots and just yesterday, I picked our first banana pepper!

Planting…

I have not done much planting this month. In an attempt to get some actual cucumbers, I planted a few more seeds of those in a different bed but lost one of the sprouts to the dang slugs. I also planted two more zucchini seeds that have sprouted and are chugging along!

I bought a pepper start from Carpinito Bros farm stand earlier in the month and transplanted it into a pot on the patio and finally found a home for the Lupine I bought on clearance at Home Depot.