Enjoying Fall

This year's fall season is so much better compared to last year. Last year, most trees stayed green and just lost their leaves during winter. But this year, autumn seems to be more alive and colorful. It still rains once in a while, but not as much as last year. I love waking up to a sunny, cool weather, enjoying colorful foliage outside my windows.

Ezzat is 8

Today is Ezzat's birthday and he's 8. We didn't really plan for anything special since the boys said they wanted to have a combined party. Well, I actually gave them the idea since I am really not up to having 3 birthday parties 2 weeks apart from each other. With my condition at the moment, preparing for one already sounds pretty daunting. As a matter of fact, we've never thrown one before. Not even once. It was always a small family affair. But the boys have been going to their friends' birthday parties and now they really want one for themselves, especially Emir. He's been talking about it for quite awhile. But the birthday boy is getting his present today and he is getting his chocolate cupcakes  and cheese pizza. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

I've been looking at his pictures since last night since he first came to the States. He actually changed quite a bit. I really miss his chubbiness. He is also more talkative now. He used to be the quiet one. I thought I'd share some of them with you guys. 

All of these pictures were taken in Dec 2009 when the kids first got to Hawaii. Ezzat just turned six in October that year.

Jan 2010 - Jul 2010 in Hawaii.

Learning to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time 

Montana, Jul 13 2010

 Fishing with Grammy and Poppy - Montana, Jul 16 2010

Fort  Ward State Park, Bainbridge Island WA - May 14 2011 

The Unfinished Hike...Dungeness Spit, Sequim WA

Jul 2 2011

Photo: http://photoblog.seandaniel.com

 Aerial view of Dungeness Spit

 Photo: http://markwhitesell.blogspot.com/2010/06/wild-washington-chapter-18-dungeness.html

We decided to go to Dungeness Spit in Sequim right after Poppy left for Montana. The weather was great that day and it would be such a shame if we were to just stay at home. It was about an hour plus to drive there so it wasn't that far considering it was an impromptu decision. 

The spit is a 5.5 miles very narrow long sand pit (eleven miles round trip). It is the longest natural sand pit in the world.

At the end of the spit is a lighthouse. But since it's quite a hike to walk the 11 miles round trip to the lighthouse, there's certainly a need for some kind of planning especially if children were to be involved. There are no restroom facilities or drinking water. Plus everybody needs to be off the spit by dusk. We didn't finish our hike. The kids were tired after the 2nd mile. I personally would like to go back to finish the hike and to visit the lighthouse.

Taking turns to use binoculars to see the view of the spit

 Oh look a squirrel!

On the way back, we stopped at one of the few scenic view stops and saw this breathtaking sight.

These are views taken from the car somewhere in Sequim

Photo: http://markwhitesell.blogspot.com/2010/06/wild-washington-chapter-18-dungeness.html

Hopefully we will be back for this!

Backdated Entries

School has started for the boys and life resumes as usual as if summer never happened. We did have some great time, did some fun stuff as a family. Not to mention we went through Ramadan without a hitch, especially for the boys. I was glad that they were home throughout the whole fasting month. It just made things a little bit easier. We had a nice quiet Eid at home and then we took Emir  later that day to his first soccer practice. Still the greatest summer so far was when we spent some time with  Poppy and Grammy in Montana. I love the road trip we took and the view was amazing. And I haven't shared any of those experiences with you guys, especially my family. I will, eventually. That's the whole reason for this blog existence anyway. Being a platform for me to share our life here, with family and friends since we're far far away from each other.

Fun Time with Poppy - Day 4, Jul 1 2011

We went to Kitsap Memorial State Park on the 4th morning Poppy was here. As with most beaches around Puget Sound, the beach is a mix of sand and pebbles. Shellfish harvesting used to be the highlight of the park until recent surveys by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife show declination of clams and oysters,  and the fishing season is temporarily closed since May 2011 until further notice. Crabbing is still allowed though but one can catch only up to 6 crabs if I am not mistaken. We found a couple of crabs under some rocks and they were pretty big! We stopped to chat with a guy who happened to fish for the crustacean creatures and he was short of one crab and we pointed out to him to one of the crabs we found.

Moon snail. Interesting creature. When we first saw its shell, we thought that was all to it. Who would have thought that underneath the sand, after some considerable digging, poking and prodding, there was a lot more to be discovered.

 Photo: http://www.eyefetch.com

We were intrigued by this thing that looks like a piece of rubber.  There were many of them scattered  around the beach. Poppy later informed me that this is actually a moon snail egg case! "Moon snails use sand and mucus to make pliable cases. The eggs hang out in the case for a couple of months, then break free and become free-swimming larvae for a while before they settle down and become fully-realized moon snails."(http://hamahamaoysters.com/blog)

Giant star fish!

Oyster heaven! Despite the fact that there are insufficient oysters for harvest, we saw tons of oysters on the beach during the low tide. 

The beach

Poppy with the goofy kids

On the way back, we stopped to pick some wild blackberries although they were not quite ripe yet. But it was all fun!

Later in the afternoon we all went to Point Defiance, Tacoma to meet Poppy's sisters, Aunt Dottie and Aunt Susan, Daniel's cousin, Sam and his girlfriend, Robin. Sam is Aunt Susan's son.

Aunt Dottie

Aunt Susan

 The kids

The food

Fun Time With Poppy - Day 3

I didn't have any pictures the second day Poppy was here. The guys spent a few hours at a state park nearby but I decided to stay at home and do something else. On the third day, Poppy and the boys went to  a park nearby our house called Island Lake and they had fun trying to find a Bigfoot. The boys truly believe the creature exists. We had satay on our grill later that day. I have been wanting to have a grill for quite awhile and since there was really not much space in the backyard, the idea was never materialized until we found this cute grill that fits our needs. BBQ time is fun!

Satay sticks on the grill

Our planter boxes filled with all sorts of herbs. Daniel built them. 

Our backyard garden in early summer.

Click on the enlarge button on the bottom left to view a larger size of the pictures.

Fun time with Poppy - Day 1

Daniel's dad visited us a few weeks ago. He came all the way from Oklahoma and stayed with us for 4 days and we got to do quite a few fun things with him. The boys especially were so happy to have Poppy around to play with them. I took tons of pictures - as usual, and that's the easiest part. The hardest part is to post them in here and there are tons of excuses for that. I'm not proud. But I will certainly be if I could post all of the pictures until the last day Poppy was here. Keep your fingers crossed!

Day 1 - June 28th, 2011

We took Poppy to Point No Point beach in Hansville. We were worried if it was going to be raining the entire time he was here, especially when the weather forecast looked ominous. Luckily there was not a single drop of rain except for some gloomy mornings.

I went overboard with the birds. But I love them and seeing them flocking away never fail to amaze me.

It took me a few takes before I got the picture right. It's getting harder to get the boys to pose and smile at the same time.