Tasty Treats | Amy Scott's Thoughts

Good-Bye Summer, Hello School! September 1, 2026

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:10 pm

We said good-bye to summer yesterday and hello to school! It was a great summer – truly one for the record books! If you’ve been following my blog this summer, you know we’ve put our suitcases to good use! It seemed like we were always preparing for a trip or recovering from one. When we were home, we were working on our cooking class or swimming with friends. We filled this summer to the brim with so much goodness.

Some recent highlights include a day trip to the coast (right after our Montana road trip) to visit my forever friend, Maggie, and her family. Maggie’s family visits once a year and we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be in the same state at the same time. What a joy! Maggie and I took a long morning walk while the husbands supervised pool time. Then we explored the nearby kite festival and visited the beach. We played a quick game of Wingspan Pocket while the kids played outside. It was a lovely day and we are already looking forward to their next visit!

One of our big house projects was procuring a desk from IKEA. This year, we are using a computer for a few classes. I didn’t think working at the dining room table with both students creating competing noise would work well. Thus, the new school space in the playroom. One student works at the desk while the other works at the dining room table. Two days into our new routine and it’s going well. The kids are very enthusiastic about their new online classes. It’s a novelty at the moment… I wonder if it will wear off? The playroom closet is now mostly storage (all the things I want to hold onto for potential grandchildren – like Duplos and Hot Wheels). The room itself contains our collection of kids games and books. The piano is set-up for daily practice. It really is a multi-purpose room since the boys hardly ever “play” in the space these days. This room continues to change with the many seasons of our family. I love it!

For some local fun, we attended a volunteer appreciation event at our church featuring ice cream from PNW Scoops. This was our first time trying this new local favorite. The wait was long, but the ice cream was good. The crowd that turned out was impressive. It takes a lot of people to make ministry happen at our church. It was special to honor our volunteers with a parking lot party. We were also invited the following weekend to attend a youth pickleball clinic for the grand opening of Cooks Hill Courts. These new covered pickleball courts are going to be quite popular, I’m sure! We hope to possibly join one of their pickleball leagues later this fall. What an exciting new opportunity!

As I mention, we started school yesterday. It was a soft launch with today being our first day back with a full work load. Yesterday was sunny and it felt like summer was holding on… Today, it’s cloudy and cool. Jeremy was out the door early for our our church’s before school program. The whole vibe has felt drastically different from our soft launch yesterday. All the fall feels are real today. The change in schedule and the weather truly have me saying good-bye to summer and hello to school! It’s happening!

Cooking Class: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

No matter the distance, forever friends always!

Remembering Our Mountain-A-Month Summer:
May – Mt. St. Helens
June – Mt. Rainier
July – North Cascades
August – Rocky Mountains at Glacier NP
*“The mountains are calling and I must go” – John Muir*

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Glacier National Park Road Trip 2026 August 25, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:36 pm

The grand finale of our traveling summer was a road trip to Glacier National Park. This was Graham’s year to have the free 4th grade national parks pass. For Owen’s 4th grade year, we used the pass to go to Yellowstone. Graham wanted an equally awesome experience. In fact, we contemplated going back to Yellowstone because it’s just that amazing… But, very quickly, Graham settled on Glacier and we started to strategize on how to make that happen. I’m so glad we did!

In a way, this was a redemption trip. We had one day in Glacier in 2023 and, sadly, it was a dud. The park was so busy we couldn’t find parking anywhere. Part of Going-to-the-Sun Road was massively torn up. Jeremy didn’t want to turn around to see if any parking spots opened up behind us. We did a quick drive, a short hike, and then got Jr. Ranger badges at the Apgar Visitor Center. We were done with the park by early afternoon. It was a bit of a letdown. We know Glacier is popular and we saw that reflected in the crowds. We didn’t get to explore the park for our ourselves and it felt like a missed opportunity.

So, yes, this was our chance to do Glacier again and, hopefully, have a much more positive experience. I’m happy to report that our second attempt at Glacier was a success! Hooray! We arrived in Kalispell in time for lunch on Monday. We went grocery shopping and checked into our hotel a bit early. After we settled on what we could leave at the hotel and what we needed to keep with us in park, we took off for Logan Pass. We ate a picnic dinner in the minivan before doing the Hidden Lake Overlook hike at Logan Pass. It was a beautiful hike! The mountains were stunning and the wildlife was fun to spot. We saw a couple of marmots, a bunch of squirrels and chipmunks, and a herd of big horn sheep cut us off from the trail as they passed by. It was a very up close wildlife encounter! After our hike to the Hidden Lake Overlook, we took the Highline trail to where it becomes a cliff-face that you must hold a cord to walk along. Graham dreams of hiking this dangerous trail some day. I do not. This can be a man hike. I will bring my Kindle and read in the van. I will not hike a trail that people have fallen off and died. I know my limits! The other excitement of the Highline trail was a grizzly bear was sighted nearby. With bear spray ready, we kept an eye out, but sadly/thankfully, we didn’t see it. I much prefer to spot grizzly bears from the safety of my vehicle, not on a trail.

Tuesday was moose day! It was our mission to find a moose and we found three! Graham was disappointed that we didn’t see any bull moose, but I’ll take any moose, any day. It’s special no matter what. We took a morning hike to Aster Falls in Two Medicine. We saw our first two moose on this trail. We did a picnic lunch at Two Medicine before driving over to Many Glacier. We took an afternoon hike to Red Rock Falls and saw our third moose in Fishercap Lake. Jeremy had researched these hikes for moose spotting and they were winners! We had dinner at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn. We explored the Many Glacier Hotel our way out of the area. Driving back towards Logan Pass, we saw two black bears berry picking near the road! The hikes on Tuesday were great for wildlife spotting and our waterfall destinations were pretty. Because Two Medicine and Many Glacier aren’t accessible from Going-to-the-Sun Road, it was exciting to explore new parts of the park.

Wednesday was our low-key day. We drove over to the east side of the park in hopes of spotting grizzly bears. Sadly, we did not find any. We were a little too late in the morning. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at Rising Sun before heading back to the west side of the park. We did some souvenir shopping at Lake McDonald Lodge, West Glacier, and the Apgar Visitor Center. The boys enjoyed getting wet at Lake McDonald and perfecting their ability to skip rocks. We had dinner at Glacier National Pizza in West Glacier. We ended our day in the park by walking the Trail of the Cedars and stopping at all the lookouts along the westside of the park. There are many places to the enjoy the waterfalls of McDonald Creek. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at The Huckleberry Patch for pie and milkshakes. It was a very tasty way to end our day!

Thursday was our final visit to Glacier. We checked out of our hotel early and prayed for parking so we could do one last hike. The parking at Trail of the Cedars is also for the hike to Avalanche Lake. It fills up quickly and often you can be out of luck. Thankfully, we found parking and were able to do one final adventure! The hike to Avalanche Lake had the most elevation gain of the hikes we did, but it was through a shaded forest, so it didn’t feel too bad. The lake and surrounding mountains were beautiful and worth the effort. The only improvement would have been less haze due to wildfires. We had pretty clear skies at the beginning of our trip, but the smoke was moving back into the area by the end. We had a mule deer decide to take the trail right in front of us on the way back. We followed behind her for a quite a well. It was certainly a unique experience! I’m so glad we got one more hike in before hitting the road for home.

We made it to Coeur d’Alene for dinner on Thursday. Jeremy and I got our CDA favorite – Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese. Yum! We treated the boys to Gooeys at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. Jeremy and I stay at the resort every year for a conference, so it was extra special to have these tasty treats in August when we usually only get them once a year in April. We walked the floating boardwalk at the resort before heading to our hotel in Spokane Valley. Overall, it was a great trip from start to finish! We saw so many beautiful sights and wildlife. We took awesome hikes and enjoyed good food! It was definitely a road trip we won’t forget any time soon! Adventuring together is my favorite thing!

The suitcases are packed and ready to go – again!

Hiking at Logan Pass! Wildflowers are my favorite!

As far as I was willing to go on the Highline Trail

Huckleberry treats are a must in Montana!

Introducing the boys to Gooeys at The CDA Resort

Not sure how they swam each day after all our hiking and adventuring, but they did!

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The Suitcase Summer August 11, 2026

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Amy's Bookshelf,Family Time,Travels,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 1:36 pm

Our suitcases are getting a lot of use this summer! It seems like we’re always prepping for a trip or a recovering from one. This pace of life has certainly been an adjustment. Thankfully, it’s only for the summer. We’re having all the fun and then we’ll hunker back down this fall. I’m loving the adventures, but I’m also looking forward to going back to routine. Both things can be true. This last go-around of suitcase packing was for Jeremy and the boys. I assisted in packing, but I didn’t actually travel. It was a nice pause for me! Jeremy directs two kids camps each summer. He is gone from Sunday to Saturday. One camp runs Sunday through Wednesday. The next camp is Wednesday through Saturday. I’m a single parent the first half of the week and then I’m on my own the second half of the week as the boys join their dad at camp. As a family who does almost everything together, it’s a weird week. We all feel a bit off… but it’s only a week, so we roll with it.

As an introvert, I use my three days home alone as a personal retreat. This year, I went shopping at Goodwill with a friend, enjoyed brunch with my mom, had phone dates with my east coast friends, and hosted my book club. While I was home, I did school projects, baking projects, and created photobooks on Shutterfly. I also watched the Little House of the Prairie series on Netflix. Curiosity got the best of me! It was a good mix of social and solitude for me. I missed my family immensely, but I never struggled to fill the time while they are away. There is always something to do and I actually enjoy silence. It fills up my soul.

The highlight of kids camp this year was the guest speaker, Kyle Jorris. Apparently, he is quite talented! He can rap, play the ukulele, and juggle knives while riding a unicycle. My boys idolized him! It was neat to hear how God moved and stirred their hearts. The messages really resonated with them and their faith was stretched with earnest prayers and times of seeking the Lord. I love all the fun that camp offers, but these times in chapel are really the heart behind the adventure. Other highlights would be the fact the kids ate most of the food offered at camp – this is a new thing! They loved boating on the lake and getting treats at the snack shack. They had a great time playing alongside their cousins and church friends. They really connected with their cabin leader. Overall, it was a good time. It’s crazy to think that this was Owen’s last year at kids camp. I’m still struggling to accept that the teen years are right around the corner and the elementary years are fading fast for our household.

Other bright spots include a visit the zoo with free tickets from the library, VBA on Sundays, cooking class, milkshakes, and playing lots of board/card games. August isn’t over and there are still more adventures on the horizon! The suitcases will be out and repacked soon enough…. Stay tuned!

Visiting Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium with free tickets from our library summer reading program

Rainforest Falls: VBA every Sunday in August

The games we’ve been playing! So fun to learn a new version of Wingspan. Not pictured: Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza and Moose Match Mayham

What dinner looks like while Dad is away…

Baking projects! Homemade pumpkin oatmeal bars with mini chocolate chips and dried cranberries. From a box gluten-free lemon bars.

Brunch at Berry Fields with my mom. I very much recommend the cinnamon roll French toast. Yum!

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Summer Travel Begins! July 13, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 11:16 am

We usually don’t travel much during the summer. Being a homeschool family, we often save our travels for the school year. While others are at school and work, we adventure during the quieter seasons. This works very well for me. I’m not a huge fan of crowds and off-season prices are much more reasonable. However, this year we have quite a few summer travel plans. It’s not our usual summer flow, but we love to adventure together as a family, so we’re embracing the summer travel season! Here’s a look at our first summer travel adventure…

We met up with my family at the beach to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and my dad’s 70th birthday. The vibe of the weekend was chill and relaxing. We had lots of downtime. The boys enjoyed early morning beach walks with Jeremy and video game discussions with Auntie. Graham took to playing darts and Owen discovered Smash Bros. on Grandpa’s arcade console. I enjoyed afternoon walks in the sunshine, plenty of time to read, and a few family games. The highlight of the beach is always the massive amount of fireworks. The deck of the beach house has the perfect view of all the action. We get the show for free and without the crowds. It’s a set-up that works well for us! After celebrating America’s birthday, we celebrated my dad’s birthday with waffles and dinner out at one of our favorite places, Mo’s. I’m glad we were able to celebrate these milestone birthdays together!

After the beach, we had less than twenty-four hours at home before we packed up and hit the road again. This time we went away from the coast and into the mountains. To celebrate Jeremy and I’s 20th wedding anniversary, we planned a trip to explore Wenatchee, North Cascades National Park, and Leavenworth. There was a lot of drive time on this trip, but we were all sucked into listening to audiobooks while taking in new and interesting scenery. It made the time in the car fly by. Wenatchee was a bit hot, but we still had lots of fun birding, swimming in the hotel pool, and finding local favorites to eat. Our day at North Cascades was beautiful. We went many years ago, but it was too smoky to see the mountains. This time the mountains were out in all their glory! We enjoyed the views as we drove around as well a few hikes along the way. Our final day was spent in Leavenworth. The boys had never been so we were excited to introduce them to the Bavarian experience. We ate cookies at The Gingerbread Factory before 10am. We explored the shops and purchased ornaments at Kris Kringl. The scavenger hunt at The Nutcracker Museum was a huge hit, so was the giant pretzel we had at lunch. Our final adventure was min-golf before hitting the road for home. We packed a lot of fun into three days!

The kick-off to our summer travel plans was a good one. I’m looking forward to even more adventures right around the corner. Summer travels can be pretty great – especially when we’re together!

Enjoying the beach before the big celebration

Watching the beach explode with fireworks!

Happy 20th Wedding Anniversary!
North Cascades National Park

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Fridays are Fun! July 2, 2026

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 4:02 pm

Fridays are my favorite day of the week! Jeremy has the day off and it’s a family day. Our field trip adventures often happen on Fridays so we can explore the world together as a family. We will run errands on Fridays (yes, going to Costco is my definition of fun). Occasionally, we’ll be home all day on a Friday. We’ll take care of projects around the house, but at at slow pace. Fridays at home have a very chill vibe. I really enjoy how we spend our Fridays. On my kitchen white board I have our school schedule written out and Friday is listed as a Family Adventure Day. Our homeschool lifestyle allows Fridays to be whatever we need them to be. They are often the highlight of my week!

This last Friday was a great mix of all my favorite things! We got up to the Olympia mid-morning. I’ve been holding on to some Chick-fil-A gift cards that Jeremy and I won at a conference. We love Chick-fil-A breakfast so we decided brunch at Chick-fil-A would be a great way to start our day out. After we ate, we went over to the mall to watch Toy Story 5 at the theater. This specific movie theater has “luxury loungers” that let you put our feet up and lean back. Another special treat! We enjoyed the movie and then splurged on Crumbl Cookies because the churro cookie was on the menu. It’s Jeremy and Graham’s favorite. The kids were hungry so we slid through McDonald’s for FIFA Squishmallow Happy Meals (we have a weakness for Squishmallows). Someone ahead of us paid for our meals and added extra joy and kindness into our day. Next was a stop at Costco to fill up on essentials and samples and then home! A fun day out as a family would have been enough and I would have been happy with a quiet evening at home, but this last Friday was book club! Bonus fun! Book club Fridays are always my favorite! It was wonderful to connect with my mom friends and fellow book lovers. Our conversations are so life-giving and I always come home with more books to add to my TBR. All around, Friday was a fantastically fun day! Hooray!

Okay, what else have we been up to? The weather around Father’s Day and a little after was hot. We were able to host a couple of pool swim hang outs with friends. It’s not often that swimming in our pool feels good in June, so this was a bonus that we took full advantage of. We love sharing our pool with others! We’ve had some quiet moments, especially when the weather changed back to misty and cool. The boys completed our library’s summer reading program and turned in their paperwork for free zoo tickets and coupons. We hosted a dinner and introduced yet another family to The Bible is Funny card game. I made strawberry shortcake for dessert which felt like the perfect treat to wrap up June with. Our next cooking class lesson was guacamole. This lesson was appreciated more than the eggs and salsa. Owen loves guacamole so it was nice to see him devouring what he made instead of just lightly tasting it.

Now we are looking forward to celebrating some special milestones over the next week! First, America’s 250th birthday. Then, my dad’s 70th birthday. Followed by, Jeremy and I’s 20th wedding anniversary. The next week will be one giant celebration! So much fun to look forward to (even though none of those milestones fall on a Friday this year, too bad).

Some family outings call for selfies in the minivan!

Already missing this strawberry shortcake. So good!

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The June Highlight Reel June 21, 2026

Filed under: Cooking Experiments,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:21 pm

This will be a highlight reel of the many, many celebrations and activities we’ve been a part of recently. Remember that highlight reels are the “highs” of life. They are not the full picture. Not pictured in this post are the headaches, light sunburns, bug bites, seasonal allergy attacks, broken AC, or canceled plans. Nothing too major; just the normal stuff of life. I often focus on the positive moments in this blog. I love sharing our adventures and I would like this blog to be an encouraging place. The internet has enough negativity; I don’t want to add to it. (I also value being authentic in my writing, so it’s definitely a balance!) God is good! We have a very good life. But, in case you ever wonder, we have bad days and hard moments, just like the rest of humanity. If we don’t have the lows, the highs wouldn’t be as amazing. Okay, now that I have the fine print out of the way, I hope you enjoy our highlight reel!

Also Not Pictured: our yummy Chinese food from a favorite restaurant, the many variations of pizza we ate over last weekend, the multiple house tours we gave to collogues and out-of-state family members, the two full carts we checked out with at Costco, the number of greeting cards we signed, chatting at the dining table with a good friend, various games played, making smores in the backyard, and all the changes of clothes I packed for our adventures (just in case we needed them)! It’s been a full couple of weeks. June was definitely a month about people. We’ve had so many meals, celebrations, and adventures with oodles of friends and family. We are super thankful to do life alongside such a wonderful community!

Celebrating Grandma birthday (and Father’s Day) with Chinese food and apple pie!

The Scott brothers did a fantastic job throwing their parents a 50th wedding anniversary party! The room was filled with hundreds of photos from over the decades. Everywhere you looked was a testimony to the legacy of love Bill & Debbie have built for this family.

Super proud of both boys for performing a few piano pieces they’ve learned with Nana to honor her.

Spent the “work” day with Jeremy and the Bethel staff at the Mariner’s game on Thursday! It had been over a decade since I’d been to a game. It was a lot of fun and the Mariners won. Good times!

Going to the ballpark is all about the food… oh wait… I mean baseball… Nope… I mean the food!

Father’s Day Adventure to Mt. Rainier: Can you spot the marmot?

Playing the new game we got Jeremy for Father’s Day!

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Soccer, Seattle, & Swim! May 16, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:17 pm

Apparently, I’m into alliterations this month. My last post was Flowers, Food, & Fun! and this one is Soccer, Seattle, & Swim! I’m curious if I can keep the theme going and what letter will represent the next part of our month. Okay, I’m taking mental rabbit trails early on in this post. I’ll rein myself in now!

Spring soccer started a week ago. It’s a short season. Only 4 sessions. The boys were a little nervous because their favorite coach and her kiddos weren’t participating this time. Thankfully, they recognized quite a few kids on their team and they connected well with the new coaches. Homeschool soccer is run like a sports camp. The kids do drills and skills practice for the first half of the time and then they scrimmage the second half. It’s been neat to watch them grow over the last few years. They both mentioned their legs being tired the next day. It had been a while since they ran full tilt! It’s joy to watch them from the sidelines; cheering alongside the grandparents. They are blessed with a faithful cheering squad!

For Mother’s Day weekend, I requested an adventure in Seattle. It had been over a decade since I’d been to Pike Place Market. We’d never taken the boys to this part of a Seattle. It was fun to walk them through the highlights of the market. They saw the first Starbucks, watched cheese being made at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, gobbled a couple of cookies from Cinnamon Works, and got to watch the fishmongers tossing fish into the market. My favorite moment was the look on their faces when we went down to the iconic gum wall below the market. So gross! After taking in the sights (and smells) of the market, we wandered down to the waterfront to purchase tickets for the Great Wheel. The giant Ferris wheel sits on Pier 57 and has great views of the sound and the city. Despite some reservations about the height, a good time was had by all and memories were definitely made.

Mother’s Day weekend was spent celebrating Grandma on Saturday and Nana on Sunday. Celebrating with food is important to our family! On Saturday, we enjoyed Papa Murphy’s pizza and Nothing Bundt Cakes. On Sunday, we had my favorite mac and cheese from the Costco deli and in honor of Nana we got fried chicken from KFC. My love of chocolate cake was fulfilled with both Linda’s Fudge Cake at The Cheesecake Factory on Friday (split with Owen) and a tuxedo chocolate mousse cake from Costco on Sunday. To break up the chocolate, my bundt cake was lemon flavored on Saturday. All were delightful! I love cheese and cake! It was a blessing to share the weekend with our moms. These ladies are dearly loved by our families. They add so much joy to our lives and we are thankful for them!

We did a round of spring swim lessons this week to prepare for summer pool season! Our backyard pool should go up next weekend! Owen is a strong swimmer, but Graham needed a confidence boost. We don’t swim often enough over the winter months to keep swim skills sharp. They both improved their strokes and stamina over the course of the week. Friday was an open swim and the kids got put their swim skills to good use while playing! Jeremy has been out of town the last few days at a men’s conference. Swimming lessons, piano lessons, an afternoon with friends, and special dinner plans have keep us hopping. We’ve tired ourselves out! I’m very thankful that today is a home day and a day of rest. The Lord knew what he was doing when He created the Sabbath! Amen!

3rd Strike, I’m out! I made three attempts at Bo Berry Biscuits (top left is the original from Bojangles). They were all flops in shape and texture. I’m going to have to go back to the drawing board and rethink my strategy!

Pike Place Market for Mother’s Day: My Cookie Monster, especially anything with cinnamon!

The Seattle Great Wheel: There were big feels…

We ate a lot of pizza while Jeremy was out of town!

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Flowers, Food, & Fun! May 5, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:43 pm

There might be more nature and food pictures in this blog post than people pictures! It’s been a fun couple of weeks and I’m excited to share the highlights with you. Let’s start with our last family field trip. It was an extra special one for me. I spent a good part of my childhood years in Woodland, WA. I remember visiting the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens many times. I especially remember touring the historic farm house as a child. (I have a thing for touring old houses; I love them!) It’s been on my field trip list for years to visit these gardens as family. I was so excited when our calendar lined up with the Lilac Days and we could finally make it happen! The gardens smelled amazing. I had forgotten how fragrant lilacs are. We explored every inch of the gardens before waiting in line to tour the house. The house will filled with historic and time-period appropriate lilac décor. Our final stop was the plant sale where Owen purchased his very own lilac. We all agreed that the Sensation variety was one of our favorites. We’ll see if it survives and thrives in our little corner of the world.

After the lilac gardens was book club for me and preparing to be out of town yet again in April. Jeremy and I attend Network Conference in Coeur d’Alene, ID with our pastoral team every year. We gather with churches from around Washington state and northern Idaho. The content is always top notch and it’s a great time to connect as a team and also with friends around our network. The main focus of this conference is also the eating. We are always discussing our next meal. I enjoy the break from cooking and our team appreciates good food. Another highlight of the week away was going to see Project Hail Mary in the theaters. I read the book at the request of a friend and we were supposed to see the movie together. Unfornately, sickness derailed our movie plans and I thought I’d missed my chance to see the movie in theaters. Jeremy and I shared our plans to see the movie on the final night of the conference and most of the staff joined us. So fun! (For those that are wondering, I thought they did a good job of translating the book into a movie.)

We came home from conference and poured ourselves into projects around the house. Jeremy spent most of Friday and Saturday in our yard. He cleared our new fire pit spot and laid down two loads of gravel. The boys helped him. It was fun to watch them all working together. This project isn’t quite complete yet, so I’ll save photos for later. My projects were indoor this weekend. I had lots of laundry to do after our travels. The boys spent the week with Nana and Papa at their house. I had a lot of laundry to catch up on. The travel laundry also corresponded with my bedding washing schedule. My laundry room saw a lot of action this weekend! While I was waiting on loads of laundry, I typed up my school record notes. Every year I create documents that list what curriculum we used, what extracurriculars we joined, what field trips we took, and what books each boy read. All of these notes help document our 180 days of school. As I work to tie up all the loose ends of this school, I’ve also made our complete summer school plan. It’s now all written down in our official record planner. It feels good have these projects tackled! Hooray!

The last adventure to share was more hiking in our local state parks! We’ve been putting our Discover Pass to good use! In April, we made to Ike Kinswa State Park. This month, we hiked at Lewis and Clark State Park. The next park we hope to visit is Seaquest State Park. We’ve been meeting up with friends to make the adventures extra fun. The trails at Lewis and Clark wander through a lovely old growth forest. At the front of the park is a stream that the kids could have spent hours in. I drove home with wet, muddy, and happy kids! I love that we get to enjoy nature like this right down the road from our house!

Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese is a CDA must!

Celebrating 40 years of the CDA Resort with a ginormous “Gooey” ice cream sundae!

Dutch baby at the Honey Eatery and Social Club. Super cute (and tasty) place!

Taking a walk on a new trail after all that eating… We actually went to dinner and ice cream after this walk. Always eating in CDA!

A Nana and Papa Tradition: NW Trek Wildlife Park. My MIL sent this throwback to 2019 alongside 2026.

Messed up my 2nd attempt at Bo Berry Biscuits by rolling them to thin. Here’s hoping third times the charm!

Happy May Day! Jeremy got fresh flowers for all the outside planters on Friday, but he also got flowers for inside, too!

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Adventuring Through April April 22, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:43 pm

Last week and this week are my “normal” weeks in the middle of an out-of-the-ordinary month! I’m enjoying the relaxed pace and having our routine back. It’s also nice to be on the other side of sickness. I finally feel like I have my energy back and I can keep up with life again. I’m so happy! Hooray!

One of the first projects I tackled with my renewed energy was a copycat Bo Berry Biscuit recipe. I enjoyed these biscuits when I visited South Carolina in January. Sadly, Bojangles is not a PNW chain. I’ve been daydreaming about Bo Berry Biscuits and the only option was to make them myself. I chose an extremely easy recipe which led to so-so results. The flavor was great, but the texture and appearance were lacking. I ended up making this batch more of a drop biscuit style and next time I plan to shape them so the appearance is less rustic. I also plan to add another leavening agent to make them fluffier. Overall, the flavor was what I remembered. Between flavor, texture, and appearance, my opinion is flavor matters most. Time to experiment and see if I can perfect the recipe! Stay tuned!

We finally made it the Washington State History Museum! We opted to go on the third Thursday of the month. For this monthly event, the museum stays open late into the evening and offers free admission. I was concerned that free admission would make for a crowded experience, but thankfully, I was wrong. Going during the day might have been more crowded since the museum is a popular location for school field trips. I would rather visit with a quiet group of adults then a rowdy school field trip. It was a definite win! We enjoyed the new Native American exhibit and the information on Washington’s geology and global exports. This field trip was a great addition to the Washington State History unit we’ve been working on this school year. After the museum, we enjoyed dessert at The Cheesecake Factory before the late ride home. It was a big day, but a fun one!

The weather is starting change which means nicer days and less time for board games. We’ve switched to playing quicker cards when we want to pull off a family game night. Owen got Wild, Wild, Taco in his Easter basket and Graham got Uno Teams (We now own 12 versions of Uno. Yikes!). We used new decks of cards from Christmas to play War last night. We have still yet to unbox Jeremy’s birthday present – an expansion to Heat, a race car board game. Time just keeps getting away from us. Card games seem to be the easy win right now.

This weekend was full of spring cleaning and house projects. We had a work party on Saturday to help my parents tidy up their beach house after a season of construction. We also did lots of work and cleaning around our own house as well. The sun was out all weekend and it was the ideal weather to get things done. I cleaned and did laundry inside while Jeremy tackled the outdoors. One of his final projects was building a new fire pit on Sunday afternoon. He pulled out the red chairs he bought last year and the backyard looked quite picturesque. We grabbed smores supplies and had the first backyard fire in the new pit. I’m sure we will have many more as we cultivate this part of our yard moving into the summer months.

The final adventure to highlight was hiking with friends at Ike Kinswa State Park. This beautiful park is right by Mayfield Lake and the hiking trail wanders above the Tilton River. The boys loved adventuring with friends. I loved catching up with my mom friend and her daughters. Lots of rocks were tossed into the water and many nature photos were taken. It was lovely weather and a wonderful day to be outside enjoying nature with friends. The PNW is a fantastic place to explore. I’m thankful that adventures like these are nearby!

My first attempt at a copycat Bo Berry Biscuit

Washington State History Museum Field Trip

Our brave and fearless leader! I’m so glad Jeremy jumps on board and helps make our family field trips happen. It’s so much fun adventuring together!

All field trips should end with dessert! Amen!

The beginning our new backyard adventures!

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A Few March Snapshots March 30, 2026

Filed under: Family Time,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 1:40 pm

Most of March was fun and games! Lots of time with friends and family. Lots of time spent outside running amok or indoors playing games. Our family filled out NCAA brackets and we’ve been obsessively following college basketball. Nothing too big or too flashy. Just the ordinary adventures of good food, good times, and good friends. All our big plans were for the end of the month… and they all got canceled. Our area has been hit with some bad germs and our family went down with the crud. The big, fun “extras” on our calendar gave way to fevers and endless rest. Recovery has been slow. In true family fashion, the bug started with one family member and then staggered its way through the rest of us. It feels a bit never-ending at this point. I was the last holdout, the last one standing… And then it finally got me, too. Boo! Thankfully, I didn’t go down quite as hard as my menfolk, but it has been a crummy time nonetheless. When I look at our March as a whole, I see it was a good month. But… I am terribly disappointed with how it ended. Canceled plans and lay-you-out-flat illnesses are discouraging. I am optimistic as I look ahead to April. Hopefully, with cold and flu season behinds us, we can recapture some of the magic that was lost in March. We’ll see!