Amy Scott's Thoughts

Sharing the thoughts that bounce around in my brain!

Jam Making 101 July 14, 2013

Filed under: Cooking Experiments — Amy Scott @ 7:30 am

I <3 Raspberries

Summer is such a diverse time for me – especially this summer! It seems like I keep hopping from one thing to the next. It’s contained a lot of celebrating – the 4th of July, my Dad’s birthday, Jeremy & I’s wedding anniversary. Then I’m in full on VBA (Vacation Bible Adventure) prep mode and my head is totally at work. We have furniture for the baby’s room stocking up and Jeremy bought paint for the nursery. One evening we headed over to his parent’s house to help them pick berries and I’m learned how to make jam for the first time.  The next day I’m visiting a friend up north to have lunch and the day after that I’m in a 6-hour childbirth class… Work, family, friends, cooking, baby… Hop, hop, hop!

While I have many topics to write about in the near future (baby updates, VBA updates, my 400th blog post!), today is going to briefly highlight making jam for the first time! Jeremy’s parents have been visiting family and asked us to pick some of their raspberries while they were gone. They had a ton of berries so they told us to take a few for ourselves as well. I was amazed at how many berries they had and even after picking a generous amount for them, we were able to have enough to make some jam for ourselves. Picking the berries reminded me of my own childhood. My neighbor had a bunch of raspberry bushes that us kids would attack every summer. So good! I love picking them right off the bush and popping them into my mouth!

My hubby is so much more domestic than me! Really, he is a whiz in the kitchen. He’s been making jam and salsa the last couple of years and I just let that be his “thing”. I never really dropped in or offered to help. This year he let me be a part of the whole process! When we got home, I cleaned the raspberries and mashed them up! I added the lemon juice and the pectin and the sugar. I watched things boil and even got a chance to pour the jam into the jars! Jeremy helped me by sterilizing the jars and helping me move the funnel from jar to jar. He also lowered the full jars into the boiling water so they can could set or whatever the official canning term is! I don’t really know!

It was a lot of fun working alongside my hubby and he was very patient with me as I asked questions. I view jam making as so 1950’s even though a lot of people do it today. It love the feeling that I’m doing something that people have done for a long time. It’s like passing on a legacy or something. It just feels special. It was also fun to see the whole process from berry picking to the jar! There is something satisfying about knowing we made this jam! It might seem silly, but it was a highlight of my week!

I used to view jam making as something complicated and kind of a scary, but I’m here to encourage you to try it! It’s not as hard as it seems and I’m glad I learned! Thanks, Jeremy! You’re a good teacher!

 

Prototype by Jonathan Martin July 13, 2013

Filed under: Amy's Bookshelf — Amy Scott @ 6:20 pm

I love Jonathan Martin’s preaching. I listen to his podcasts from Renovatus, his church in North Carolina. I just love the way he phrases things and his tangents and his southern style (it’s just southern enough to be cool without annoying me – it’s a fine line). When I heard that he was writing a book, I was very excited. My only fear was that I might not enjoy reading his words as much as I do listening to them, but this book did not disappoint. I could hear him as I read and it was the same style that I enjoy so much about preaching.

One of the highlights for me was how he talked about Jesus showing us a new way to be human. I’m a huge Switchfoot fan and they had a big hit called “New Way to Human” so the topic kept making me think of this song. It was a lovely connection that tickled me. The purpose of this book is get back to the basics in a lot of ways. It’s about embracing the fact that you are God’s beloved. When you truly know how loved you are it changes things, it changes you! He talks about how Jesus brought us these new ways to embrace ourselves, our relationship with God and our relationship with others.

One of the main points Jonathan hits is our identity. He used the story of the demon possessed man who when Jesus asked the demon for his name, the reply was “Legion” for there were many inside this man. For the first time I heard this story used to describe us and the overwhelming stimulation and voices we have in our life. It was very powerful to think that we suffer from too many voices, too many screens, too many versions of ourselves in our present time. We can relate to the man with the legion inside. Jonathan writes:

“Instead of being repelled by all the clamor, I rather enjoy being the center of my own universe. So I hear it as, ‘A thousand voices are competing for my attention. I must be really important.'”

This is something I struggled with for a long time. The greater the demand on me, the more I thought I was something special. In ministry, it’s easy to develop a hero complex that puts me at the center of everything, instead of Jesus. After years of frustration and burn out, I’m learning that my life is so much more peaceful when I know my place. When I allow God to define me and not my many roles or the people in my life, I am able to see who I really am. It’s easier to stay focused on what I am supposed to do and what I’m not called to do. In the story of the demon possessed man, his fellow townspeople got scared when they saw him in right mind. Martin brought out the point that in a world full many voices, it freaks people out to be around others who have a peace and understanding of who they are. We are so used to crazy that is the sane people that worry us. That peace that surpasses all understanding can be pretty freaky when you’re used to chaos, clamor and noise.

There are so many other thoughts that I could share from this book. I highlighted a lot! I love  it when I’m highlighting up a book and thinking – “There are other people that get this! I’m not the only one that feels this way!” It’s so reassuring to my soul. In a lot of ways I feel like I live a counter-intuitive life. Not because of the things I don’t do. I’m not taking about the goody-goody Christian behavior list, but more on a gut level of I know who I am, I know what I want to do and I know where I draw the line. I know what feeds my soul and I know what drains me. I am learning more and more to balance my roles and not to wrap my identity up in them. I am learning a new way to be human. One that embraces God’s vision for my life and goes after it knowing that I will not always have fans and be popular because of my decisions, but with Jesus leading the way, I am willing to follow. Prototype is an excellent book that will make you want to follow after Jesus with a great passion!

 

Christmas in July July 11, 2013

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Cooking Experiments — Amy Scott @ 5:20 pm
Homemade Gingerbread Cake

Homemade Gingerbread Cake

Last night, I did something different with my Wednesday night class of girls. I decided it would be fun to do Christmas in July. Growing up, my mom would pull out the Christmas dishes in the month of July so we could get some extra mileage out of them. It was always a lot of fun and kind of a silly. My class really loved the idea of bringing Christmas to July and so I set off to plan a Christmasy evening.

The night started off with Christmas Games. We did a Christmas Word Search, A Guess that Carol Game, Christmas Carol Word Scramble and Fill in the 12 Days of Christmas. I gave out prizes as the night went on for whoever got the most answers correctly. We finished the Christmas games with the Left/Right Game. I handed out the last of the prizes and as I read a story, the girls had to pass the presents to the left or the right when they heard the words left or right. It was a lot of fun and in the end everyone walked away with a prize, so it was like Christmas!

As much as I wanted to do a Christmas lesson, I had to continue on with our current unit so I didn’t get behind. There are only so many Wednesday nights left with my class and each lesson is carefully planned so we end our unit in time for the school year and the class transition. So, from Christmas, we popped over to our Self-Esteem lesson.

After the lesson time, we did a Christmas craft which involved decorating a Christmas ornament while listening to Christmas music. I made gingerbread cake for snack from scratch. This was my first time not using the packaged mix and it turned out surprisingly good! I’m never sure when it comes to making cake from scratch if the texture will be just right or the flavoring! I jazzed up the cake by adding whipped cream on top. For a touch of holiday color, I used green and red crystals.

The night was a big hit and the girls told me it really felt like Christmas. One girl mentioned that she was going to ask her parent’s for a present since it seemed so real. I’m not sure how well that was received, but I have to agree, I felt in the holiday spirit. The games and the flavors of the holidays made me wish that it was really right around the corner. I’ll just have to patiently wait now until the real holiday! It was fun to get a jump start on celebrating!

 

7 Years and Counting! July 10, 2013

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 12:36 pm
Seven Years Ago

Seven Years Ago

Monday was Jeremy and I’s seven year anniversary! In someways seven years seems like a long time, but really it seems like a blink of an eye. We’ve done a lot in seven years and seen a lot in seven years. I’m amazed at how much I’ve changed in seven years. I got married when I was twenty, so I feel like I’ve grown up a lot in the last seven years. At times I think I’ve mellowed and at other times, I feel just as crazy as I did seven years ago. Jeremy, however, has been a constant! He is my stable rock. I have been blessed with a hubby who is laid back and go with the flow – two things I am not. He’s influence has been greatly appreciated in my life and I have no clue what I would do without him. He makes me laugh and smile and has provided a wonderful life for me.

Since this was our last anniversary without kids, we broke the trend of our normal anniversary plans. The last two years we’ve gone shopping in the Portland area. In years prior, we’ve been so busy with our VBA that we usually do church shopping and then just go to dinner. But this year was different. I wanted to make the most of the last anniversary where our family unit would be just the two of us. We decided to spend the day in Seattle. We often to go Portland because of the no sales tax, but we rarely just hang out in Seattle. The weather was beautiful. It usually is every July 8th! We hung out the waterfront and wondered around Pike’s Place Market. We decided to be touristy and try the new Great Wheel they have at the waterfront. It’s a large ferris wheel with great views of the city and the water. After our ride on the wheel, I took Jeremy to Top Pot Doughnuts where we splurged on a half dozen yummy treats. Our evening plans included dinner at Safeco Field and watching the Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox. Jeremy and I usually make it the ballpark once a year for our annual 5th Grade Graduation with the kids at Bethel. It’s an entirely different experience when just the two of us go. It was fun to take the time to eat at the ballpark. I indulged in a clam chowder bread bowl from Ivar’s! Yum! Normally I have Shishkaberries (chocolate covered strawberries) as my snack of choice, but I was so full from my doughnut earlier that I passed on them this year.  I’ll save them for the next game I’ll watch in a month with the 5th graders.

It was a great day to spend with Jeremy in Seattle. I couldn’t ask for a better day and it was fun to hang out in Seattle since we don’t go there very often. We ate a lot of good food and just enjoyed walking around and being in each others company. It was a great anniversary! I’m so blessed and very grateful to be married to such a wonderful guy! I love you, Jeremy!

Jeremy on the Great Wheel!

Jeremy on the Great Wheel!

Us at the Ballpark!

Us at the Ballpark!

 

Starting the Nursery! July 7, 2013

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 2:36 pm
Bedding & Paint Samples!

Bedding & Paint Samples!

Our nursery has been a blank canvas just waiting for us to add color, furniture and life to it! This weekend we started that process and I’m so excited to have the ball rolling! Friday, we stopped in at Babies’R’Us and picked up our bedding set. We wanted to have the bedding set on hand so we could pick paint samples and compare them to the actually bedding, not just pictures we’ve seen of the bedding. It was fun to make our first official purchase toward the nursery. The bedding was even on sale and we had a coupon, so of course, that made it even better! After all the birthday festivities with my dad, we ran into Home Depot and picked up some samples. After some debate, we have decided to not paint the nursery green like we had originally planned. We decided that we want to go with a lighter color and let the colors in the bedding and the room be focal point, not the walls. We had picked up a couple cream based samples on Friday and then went back to Home Depot on Saturday to get more options now that we have a different direction. The final paint decision is called Cornerstone by Behr (a very Biblical name for a paint if you ask me). I can’t wait to see the room once it is on the wall!

In other baby news, we were given a generous gift to put toward baby stuff this weekend, so the furniture purchasing process has started! It’s hard to know what items to buy first, but Jeremy and I decided to focus on the nursery. With that in mind, we took off for Portland, OR yesterday to do some shopping. We purchased our crib and our crib mattress! How exciting! When you add that to the bedding we purchased on Friday, we have one component of the room ready. By ready, I mean purchased. Actually construction of furniture items will happen after painting so that way Jeremy doesn’t have to paint around large pieces of furniture. Once we got home from crib shopping, I hopped online to find a few other pieces to add the room. We were able to purchase our dresser, changing table and a glider online and stay within budget! Gotta love it when that happens!

So now I wait for the boxes to arrive, for the paint to purchased and put on the walls and the furniture to assembled and put into place. We have plenty of time to get these projects done and I’m not concerned about when it all happens. I’m just excited that it is happening. Our little guy is going to have a great room and I can’t wait for it all come together!

 

Happy Birthday, America & Happy Birthday, Dad! July 6, 2013

Filed under: Family Time — Amy Scott @ 4:57 pm

Happy 4th of July!

The last two days have been full of celebrating! July 4th was Independence Day and July 5th was my dad’s birthday! Both days were wonderful and a lot of fun!

For the 4th of July, we drove back up to Mt. Rainier. Jeremy wanted to make good use of the park pass we purchased last Saturday because it was valid for a week. We drove around the mountain to Sunrise – a place I’ve now only been twice! It’s cool to see the mountain from a different angle and the view is spectacular! Driving through the park, we saw many waterfalls, marmots and even a fox! We enjoyed the scenic drive and I was amazed at how much snow is still on the ground at the beginning of July. Usually when we camp at Mt. Rainier, it’s the middle/end of August. There is a big difference in snow levels! We took Toby on this adventure with us. For the most part he enjoyed himself. Our doggie loves rides and being the car, so it was fun to spend the holiday just the three of us. It’s was kind of quiet, but lovely and fun! We got home in time for dinner. Jeremy grilled us some steaks which were very tasty. For dessert, we made a fire in the backyard and did smores – a summer time classic! Jeremy stayed out to watch the neighbors light off fireworks and I went inside to try to calm the doggie. 4 fans and my music blaring weren’t enough to keep Toby from hearing the booms around us. Poor pup. He spent most of the night huddled in the bathroom or closet – for some reason these are his “safe” places!

Friday, we met up with my family to go see Man of Steel for my dad’s birthday. They had been filming the city scenes when we visited Chicago in September 2011 (read about it here). We even stalked the filming site one day and hoped that we would actually be in the movie. The scene we would have been in is about 3 seconds at the end of the movie and way to zoomed in to see the crowd in the background. I’ll admit, I was disappointed (that I wasn’t in the movie, not with the movie itself). Jeremy says we’ll buy the DVD just to make sure we’re not in any of the behind the scenes. Since our whole family had been a part of the trip, it was fun to go see the movie with them knowing that we had been there! After the movie, we did a classic meal for our family. We had dinner at Chipotle and dessert at Menchie’s (frozen yogurt).  Always a good combo! The weather was great so ate outside at both places and enjoyed the sunshine. Once the meal portion of the evening was over, we went back to my parent’s house so my dad could open his birthday cards. My mom got him this awesome card with a boogie boarding hamster on it. It was kind of an inside joke since my dad attempted boogie boarding a couple times in Hawaii. Of course, he opened her card first so it all down hill from there! No one could compete with that. Overall, it was a great family day!

 

100(ish) Days To Go July 3, 2013

Filed under: Parenthood — Amy Scott @ 1:07 pm

It’s been a while since I posted anything specifically related to Baby Scott on here, so I thought I would give a quick update on our little guy and how things are going. I’m officially 100 days away from my due date today. Obviously, most babies don’t arrive on their due date, so it’s 100 days plus or minus a few! While it seems crazy to be in the 100 day range, I know that 100 days can go quickly and slowly all at the same time. I’m hoping that as my summer and fall days are packed full that the time will fly and our little one will be here soon.

I’m at 25 weeks right now. I’ll be 26 weeks on Saturday. Just two and a half weeks left in my second trimester. Hard to believe! There have been milestones that I’ve been looking forward to along the way. The first milestone would have been making it the second trimester in April. The second milestone was finding the gender out in May. 100 days to due date was a milestone and quickly following that is entering the 3rd trimester!

Our little guy moves around a ton! He is still an active fellow. While most moms-to-be love this sign of a healthy baby, I find all the movement a bit distracting. He moves a lot while I’m trying to work or focus on other things. I don’t want to ignore the little guy, but I guess if I was honest, there is probably no “good” time for him to do his gymnastics where it wouldn’t affect my activity at hand. Oh well. I’m getting used to sharing my space with this little mover and shaker, but it is weird.

As I posted before, I had a giant to-do list that I wanted to get done in the spring before our trip to Hawaii. The list mostly included house projects and consolidating/selling our stuff to make room for baby. It’s been strange having our guestroom be completely cleared and I’m starting to get used to calling it the “baby’s room”. In the closet, I have started a stock pile of baby items. We have a couple of onesies and bibs from family. We have some blankets and even a few toys. I have a pile on the floor in the closet full of samples and coupons we’ve received from registering or from our doctor’s office. I’m trying to keep track of all the goodies.

The next project will be painting the baby’s room which will hopefully happen this month if all goes as planned. I can’t wait to post those photos and share them with you. This is the phase that I’ve been looking forward to the most! In August, we’ll begin to purchase and assemble the furniture we need the room. My hubby is an archer and hunting season begins in September, so I know that Jeremy is motivated to get the room into a good place in the month of August. He wants to be guilt free when he goes out hunting. I know that major home projects would compete with hunting season. The goal is to have the major pieces all purchase and put together before hunting season starts.

Other exciting news would be that I’m now less than a month away from my first baby shower! It’s been fun to chat with friends and family has they plan baby showers. Each shower will have a different crowd and a different theme. It’s fun to these planning ladies in action. At the same time, it’s different for me not to be involved. I’m such a planner myself that it’s strange to have people throwing parties for me and all I have to do is show up. I’m excited to celebrate with these dear friends and family. It will also be exciting to watch our little pile of baby stuff grow as we prepare for this little guy. After registering and seeing all that they tell you is “needed” for a baby, I’m so grateful already for the help and support that a shower will provide. I knew kiddos were expensive, but wow, it’s been eye opening!

I’ll keep you update to date as the month continues on. I’m sure that with painting and showers and furniture assembly in the near future, I’ll have lots to post about! It’s an exciting adventure we’re on and I can’t wait to keep moving forward!

 

Life After Hawaii July 2, 2013

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Cooking Experiments,Family Time — Amy Scott @ 7:16 am
Strawberry season is here!

Strawberry season is here!

Well, all good things come to an end and this will be the first blog after all the Hawaiian updates and stories. I hope you all enjoyed your sneak peek into our vacation. There was just too much good share in one, singular blog. Thanks for following the Maui highlights day by day. I honestly thought the daily posts might annoy you all, but I had some good readership numbers and I heard from many friends and family members about how much loved the stories and wanted to hear more. It always makes my heart happy to know that people are enjoying what they read here. Maybe I should start traveling for a living and writing about my adventures? If only!

Now it’s back to the real world. Seems like Jeremy and I landed in Washington and hit the ground running. The first full day home, Jeremy was back to church and I was at a dance recital for a wonderful student that I mentor. We’ve had our first big strawberry harvest come through and we’re up to our ears in strawberries! I made strawberry shortcake to celebrate and it was delicious! My first night back at my Wednesday night class, I made strawberry ice cream sandwiches from a recipe I saw in Food Network Magazine. You take sugar cookies and put strawberry jam on them and then put a scoop of strawberry ice cream in the middle! Yum! I’ve also used the strawberries to make a smoothie. I think my hubby will soon be canning and making strawberry jam! Good times!

Belle - A very ugly plant that bloomed into a beautiful flower this weekend!

Belle – A very ugly plant that bloomed into a beautiful flower this weekend!

Last week, we had our annual trip the Oregon Zoo with the kiddos at Bethel. It was a fun day, but very warm! It seems that we brought the hot and humid weather back with us from Hawaii. I got a little sunburned, but it was really great to be out and about. I was concerned about walking all over the zoo with being pregnant, but it didn’t bother me at all. I was super tired that night, but for the day, I was able to keep up with the kids and I was happy for that.

Friday night, we had family over for dinner and had a good time with them. Jeremy barbequed up some yummy ribs and we had grilled corn and baked beans. We played a couple of games and ended the night with s’mores by the fire. It was the perfect summer day! I’m loving the summer time food and being able to share it with family.

Saturday, we headed up to Mt. Rainier National Park for my grandma’s 80th birthday party! It was great to head up to the mountain because it was the perfect temperature up there. We’ve been in a heat wave, so it was nice to sit in the shade and enjoy the mountain air! It was great to see family members who I hadn’t seen in many months. The hot topic right now are the babies since both my cousin and I are expecting. We’re due about three weeks apart so it was fun to talk with her about where they are at. The found out while we were in Hawaii that they are having a boy and it seems they don’t have any names either. I can relate to that!

Sunday, we started to decorate for VBA (Vacation Bible Adventure) after church! It’s hard to believe that in just a few weeks our Family VBA will here! I spent the morning making many photocopies in preparation for the big week! The deadline to register is coming up on July 10th and our deadline to register for Kid’s Camp is coming up this weekend. Now that we’re into July it seems like the summer is just flying by! So much good stuff still ahead. I can’t wait to share it with you!

After Hawaii Collage

 

Maui Day By Day: Last Full Day & Good-Bye July 1, 2013

Filed under: Family Time,Hawaiian Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:14 pm
Touring Maui with the top down!

Touring Maui with the top down!

For the last full day in Maui, Jeremy and I decided to breakaway from the group. The plan had been to do the road to Hana, but my tummy hadn’t like all the roads we’d been on, so I didn’t want to get partially there and feel sick and ruin the whole day by having to turn around. Jeremy was okay with the diversion and ended up renting a Mustang convertible for the day! Oh my, was he a happy boy! He asked me if we could keep it! Unfortunately, it didn’t fit on the plane. So sad. It was a neat experience driving around Maui with the top down. Not great for my hair, but who cares for one day!

We called Thursday splurge day because of the car, but also because we did a little souvenir shopping. We decided to even splurge on lunch and went to the number one rated restaurant on the island, Mama’s Fish House. It wasn’t a cheap meal, but it was well worth it! The food was great and the atmosphere was perfect. We sat at a table with an open air covering that looked right out onto a beautiful beach and lovely palm trees. The service was awesome. I could post all the pictures of all we ate there and rave about it, but it would take up a lot of the blog! So anyway, if you’re in Maui, eat at Mama’s!

Our view at Mama's Fish House!

Our view at Mama’s Fish House!

Later that afternoon we reconnected with the group and got to hear their stories of the Hana road and see some pictures. We decided that since it was the last night we would try Maui Tacos which is a local Mexican food chain. My burrito was good and they have a variety of salsas to choose from. It was worth the stop and a nice walk from the condo.

April and Andrew joined us for the last sunset on the beach. It was sad once that sun went down because it meant that things were officially winding down. The next morning we had to return the Mustang to the car rental – that also made the trip ending feel more real. Before we officially checked out of the condo, we went to breakfast at the Kihei Caffe. I had buttermilk pancakes with banana macadamia nut topping that were to die for! Amazing! Simply the best way to end a trip ever… However, they would be a good way to start to a trip and pretty much any day of a trip. So good!

Best pancakes EVER!

Best pancakes EVER!

With full tummies, we went back the condo to clean up and pack up. We walked around the local mall for about an hour to kill some time and then off to the airport we went. The trip gets a lot less glamorous from here on out. Nothing like waiting in long lines and going through security, where I was randomly selected to have an electronic device tested. Yipee. We boarded the plane only to find out that the plane didn’t have enough fuel and they needed three different fuel trucks to come out at various times to try to fill it. An hour behind schedule, we were finally in the air. Lucky for us, they gave us some extra fuel so we could go faster and got in about 10 minutes late. Not bad.

Jeremy’s parents picked us up at the airport and we spent the car ride home filling them in on the trip. I’m glad for the conversation or I would have been passed out. For some reason all my tiredness really caught up with me on the last day. When we arrived home it was almost strange as we entered our house. Things looked foreign to us. You know you’ve been gone a while when you need to re-familiarize yourself with our own home! The oddness quickly wore off as we hopped into bed and promptly crashed!

And that is our Hawaiian vacation in a nutshell – a really big nutshell! Now I will go back to our regularly scheduled programming. While I’ve been blogging about Hawaii, I’ve been saving things to blog about that have happened since Hawaii. Lots to share! These are busy, fun summer days! I can’t wait to share them with you!

 

Maui Day By Day: On Top of the World June 30, 2013

Filed under: Family Time,Hawaiian Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 7:32 am
Chilling at 10,000ft!

Chilling at 10,000ft!

On Wednesday morning, we drove to the top of Haleakala before the clouds officially set in and blocked the view. Many tourist will crowd around the small gazebo at the summit of the mountain to watch the sunrise. It’s supposed to be pretty awesome and pretty cold, but honestly, I didn’t need to see the sunrise with 200 strangers. We opted for the 8:30ish time range and we had the place mostly to ourselves. It was like another world up on top. My grandma mentioned it looked like mars which I can understand because the dirt is kind of red, but Dad made a joke about how would she know what mars looks like. With almost 80 years to her credit, I believe my grandma knows a lot of things! The temperature was the coldest we saw on the trip – it was in the mid 50’s up top. That is right up this northwesterners alley. However, I didn’t really dress for the temp, so I’ll admit I was bit chilly. At the same time it was kind of a nice to be cold.

Once we scaled back down the mountain side, we stopped at a local lavender farm with some beautiful grounds. I tried a sample of lavender fudge sauce. Surprisingly it wasn’t bad, but then again it wasn’t super lavendery (if that’s a word). All the lavender products smelled good. I think I prefer lavender as a fragrance more than a flavor. We had a lavender cookie at the luau and it tasted like eating a flower. I’m not a fan of eating flowers. Just a little too strong. I do understand that it’s a popular food trend right now. Sadly, I’m not on the bandwagon.

Maui sunsets never get old!

Maui sunsets never get old!

After the lavender farm, we took off for the University of Hawaii botanical gardens. They weren’t extremely impressive, but it was free. We ended up eating a picnic lunch under the big banyan tree there and the shade was quite delightful.  Plans were quickly made to head back to the condo so my parents and the boys could prep for hiking the lava flow they discovered the day before. April, Grandma and I stayed home. Since we’d been it the condo for a week, I took the time to give everything a wipe down and vacuum. I even emptied some of the trash cans and shook out the rugs. After a week of not cleaning, it felt good to do something of a tidying nature.  From there I went into my room and took a nap and played on my phone. It was nice to lie down for a bit and not feel bad about resting. The hikers returned with many stories about beach combing and wild goats. Sounds like they had quite the hike!

As you guessed, Jeremy and I spent another sunset down at the beach in our new favorite spot with the lawn chairs. It was always a great time to connect and just talk about what we thought about the day and what we hoped for the next day. When we got back to the condo, we hopped into our mini-van and went to get gelato (a treat that had been on my sister’s wish list for some time). Ono Gelato is supposed to be the best on the island so we trusted the books and went there. I enjoyed a chocolate hazelnut gelato, but not without sharing some with my shirt and pants. I know, I’m smooth! Chocolate was a good way to end the day!