RASPBERRIES!!

It is raspberry pickin' season! Woohoo! Raspberries are my all time favorite fruit. We ventured out to Boxx Berry farm for some good ol' raspberry picking this morning. I'm eating some of the bright red fruity deliciousness as I type this. Cant'... stop... eating... them!! They are so scrumptious!

AB had a good time exploring the bushes. She likes to pick the unripe ones and put them in our buckets. Or she would pick the ripe ones and slowly tear them apart. Once she tasted one and immediately said, "Yuck!"... I just don't get it. How can she not like raspberries?! In time, I hope.

This is the first time Trev has gone raspberry picking. He loved it!

No family outing is complete unless Trev does something silly... like munch on leaves. Oh boy.

I think Belle is worn out from all the hard work.

The farm had a swing set near where you pick, which we took full advantage of.

Auntie Dooby's visit!

Grammy Jane and Aunt Dooby came up for a visit earlier this week. Aunt Dooby lives down in California, so it is always a special treat when we see her. We enjoyed some meals together, some walks, some talks and more. It was so great to see you both!

Taking a break on a rock from all that hard walking.

Sew Fun!

Last Friday night Diana hosted a sewing party for a bunch of us ladies. Her mom, Carrie, owns a sewing shop in Spokane called The Top Stitch. Carrie came to town for the weekend for a visit and spent her Friday night teaching seven of us how to make this cute and stylish apron! It's called the Emmaline apron, which is just a precious name for an apron. They are reversible, so there is a different pattern on the opposite side. You can have one side for baking during the day and the other side is for entertaining in the evening. So fun! All the fabric is by Amy Butler, who has created such a beautiful line of fabrics. Seriously, they are all great. We had a great time making the aprons and Carrie was a wonderful instructor! What a sound to hear so many sewing machines all going at the same time. I think Anne Marie (above) looks fabulous in her new apron! I think I needed to tie mine a little tighter and higher up for this picture. Oops!

I love doing sewing projects and making this apron just fires me up to do even more! I ordered one of Amy Butler's sewing books that comes with 25 sewing projects and I can't wait to start making some of them. Seriously, I can't wait. I've got some serious sewing cravings going on.

A few more pics

Thanks to Auntie J for this cute pic!

Sisters!!! (Except Wink is missing from the picture)

Singing together... I think it was the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Grammy Jane is bringing the rain down and Belle is washing that spider out!

Birthday Boat Trip

I celebrated my 27th birthday this last Saturday. We went out my parents boat for a few hours and had such a wonderful time! The Tall Ships were in Tacoma over the weekend so we were able to see a ton of the beautifully crafted old sailboats. Did I mention we had strawberry shortcake for dessert? Yum. My parents watched Belle in the evening and Trev treated me to a birthday dinner. We walked around downtown Tacoma for a bit. Thank you to my family for such a wonderful birthday!

My mommeee busy working

There is my high school from the water... the castle on the hill. Beautiful!

This was my favorite ship that we saw. I love all the sails! Trev and I were planning on commandeering it, but alas, we did not. Another time perhaps. I mean, we didn't even have a sword or a pirate hat.

Trev hanging off the side of the boat... moments later he thought he might not make it back up. Haha!

Our sweet sweet girl. I love this picture.

This is "The Bounty", which was used in movies such as Mutiny on the Bounty and the second installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.

4th of July

It has long been a tradition for the Mauss family to head down to the Stovin cabin for the 4th of July. We have continued the tradition and headed down there for the holiday. It was a great day full of good food, great friends, a fireworks show and much more!

The guys hitting golf balls on the beach.

Our good friends Sarah and Melissa

Trev spent a good part of the day building platforms above the stairs down to the beach. Pete needed a platform to light off his fireworks from since it was high tide.

Here is Pete with maybe a quarter of his fireworks. This is no small fireworks show he puts on. It is amazing!

Annabelle and Brenda

Water Park!

Annabelle and I went to a little water park this morning. There were a bunch of other kids there and Belle had a fun time playing with them or just watching them. We've been blessed to have some beautiful weather over the past week - sunny and in the 70's and sometimes 80's! Can you believe it?! We're trying to make the most of it.

Splashin' around. Notice the ginormous band-aid on her knee? She's tripped and fallen in that same place three times. Only the second and third times drew enough blood to make it worthy of a band-aid.

Taking a lunch break. Thanks to Cory for selling Tupperware so we could use our sweet new divided dish! Yay!

Hanging out

AB dancing a little jig while carrying around her favorite pink bag. She likes to stuff her lamby, pacifier and anything she is playing with into this bag. Then she carries it around wherever she goes.

Art, AB and Eva just hanging out.