Adventures on the mountain

Well, I wanted to be able to get in all the details, so figured I would hop on here instead of doing just a regular facebook post. Most good stories start with "it was a dark and stormy night....". This story doesn't start this way, but pretty much ended up that way. We have been planning and waiting for our first trip out in our new trailer since the day we bought it. The whole family has been so excited. We planned our first trip out to go to Leavenworth,WA. For those of you not from here, it's a small Bavarian village located in the mountains. It's beautiful! Every weekend during December they have a tree lighting festival where the whole village lights up with Christmas lights. We've never been for it and were really excited to go. We found a cute little RV park right in town, made our reservations and made our plans. The first part of this adventure is that Bekah started not feeling well on Wednesday night. All of a sudden she was complaining of her head hurting and throat hurting. Thursday morning wasn't much better, so we both stayed home from school and pre-school. Since we were heading out of town the next day I decided to take her to the doctor. So glad I did because she was diagnosed with strep throat. She continued to get worse throughout the day but we started her on the antibiotics and alternating Tylenol and Advil. By Friday morning she was feeling quite a bit better. Thank goodness! So Doug and I continued to pack everything into the trailer and make our preparations. Bethany got home from school at 2 and we picked up JD early and left Yelm around 3:30. We headed north on I-5, hit highway 18 and headed towards I-90 to go over Snoqualmie pass. Snoqualmie pass was no problem, clear and dry! Doug and I had been checking the pass reports most of the week so we figured we would have no problems! After Snoqualmie we headed towards 97 north to Blewett pass. As we start heading up Blewett the snow really started coming down. This was very unexpected. I called Jeff and Angela to see how the pass was a couple hours earlier when they had gone over it and they said it was fine! Definitely not the experience we were having. We were skidding, losing traction, seeing cars spun out everywhere. We pulled over to the scene of an accident where there were a few firetrucks and police cars. Doug got out to ask what they thought about us making it up. The policeman told us to keep going up, just go carefully and slowly. So we did. We made it up a couple more miles.All of a sudden our truck wouldn't go forward anymore. We were completely losing traction. Doug again pulled over and we realized that we were stuck. Doug hopped out into the 2 degree snowy windy weather, turned the heat on in the trailer and told the kids and I to get in there. We were just in there and trying to start coming up with a plan when there was a knock on the door. A very nice man named Bill had stopped to see if we needed help. Bill and Doug had found that we blew a tire on the trailer and that was probably why we lost traction. For the next hour Doug and Bill tried to change the tire, but had no luck. Apparently the tire jack used on a trailer is a different size than a car, which we know now:-) Bill said good luck and was on his way. While they were trying to fix the tire I was in the trailer trying to call 911 with spotty cell coverage. They transferred me to state patrol and the guy I spoke with on the phone didn't seem like there was anything they were going to be able to do. So, we decided to unhook the trailer, leave it, and head over the pass with just the truck. The plan at this point was to get the kids and I somewhere safe, Doug was going to get what he needed to fix the tire and chains for the truck tires and go back and get it. We got about 3 miles up the road and our phone rang. It was state patrol. They were at the trailer and said they could help change the tire, so we turned back around and went back to the trailer. The kids and I stayed in the truck while Doug and the very nice state patrol officer changed the tire. After the tire was changed,and the trailer was hooked back to the truck we tried to get moving. At this point it had probably snowed more than 6 inches in an hour and no matter how hard Doug pushed on the gas the truck/trailer combo wasn't moving. It wasn't looking very good. It was by the total Grace of God that at that exact moment a guy named Chris was driving over the pass. He immediately pulled over and offered to tow us to the top of the summit. He had straps and strapped our rig up to his truck and pulled us out of the snow and up to the top of Blewett pass. When we reached the top of the summit we disconnected the straps and offered to follow us all the way down the mountain to Leavenworth. We rolled into the RV park around 11pm, about 4 hours later than we had anticipated, tired, hungry and cold. This story has taught us many lessons. Our first lesson is that if we are going to do winter camping it will be on our own side of the mountains! The biggest lesson is how we can serve and sacrifice for those around us. Bill and Chris didn't need to stop and help us, but they did. They didn't need to spend time out in the snowy stormy weather, but they did.They didn't do this for reward, but they did it to help a family in need. Such an amazing example. Overall, we are very happy with how the kids handled this whole ordeal. They behaved and didn't get whiny. We ended up having a great time in Leavenworth and took the LONG way home. We went south east to completely avoid Blewett pass. We can't wait for our next camping adventure as long as it's a warm fun one:-)

It's time for some pie.

So our last post was all about picking strawberries.  Well those berries turned into A LOT of jam, lots of snacks, strawberry cinnamon rolls, strawberry shortcake, and (my favorite) strawberry topping for some banana pancakes. But at church on Sunday, somebody left this on counter in the kitchen!

Rhubarb! I asked to whom it belonged and the kitchen manager said it was just left by somebody so if I wanted it - go for it!

My grandma passed away 15 months ago.  We all miss her dearly and it was the joy of her life to make and bake food for people. It was always the joy of my life to eat that food.  Her strawberry rhubarb pie was my favorite - it wasn't even close. She used to make these large flat pies that were the size of a large pizza and cooked on a pizza pan.  Very thin, but there was plenty of the best part - the crust!

Here's where we started:

Pie Crust

2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Cold water as needed to make doughy (used about 1/3 cup)

Mix everything but the water til it's crumbly.  Add water till it was like play dough.

Wrap dough in plastic and stash in the fridge for an hour until its solid enough to work with.

After chilling, cut dough in half and roll out for the pie pan.

Okay, so my wife made the filling.  It's 2 cups of strawberries, 2 cups of rhubarb, 2 cups of sugars, and some flour/cinnamon/nutmeg/love/deliciousness.

Now a little lattice work, egg wash, and sprinkle sugar.  Ready for the oven at 400 for 50 mintes.

Looks good.  I'll give you the verdict tomorrow.

Doug



Berry Picking!

Our Summer is off to a great start. The kids have only been out of school for 2 weeks and we've already completed our first trip of the season. We went out to New Jersey to visit my family and celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. It was awesome! As we enter a week with not much going on, we decided to do some strawberry picking. We are so lucky to have Spooner Berry Farms so close to us. They have the most delicious strawberries! Having a lot of local, fresh produce is crucial to living a real-food lifestyle, so we are excited to stock up on frozen berries, homemade jam and even some treats like pie filling. The girls were very excited to go berry picking. JD wasn't too sure. If we do anything that doesn't involve some sort of game or competition, he usually doesn't want to do it. So...the whole morning he's begging me to go bowling. Once we got to the farm and started picking he exclaimed..."This is the best place ever" :-) It was a great morning getting out of the house and picking some yummy berries. Next on the list is blueberries. Doug found a great place that we hope to hit up this week. Talk to you all soon!

Where Does The Time Go?

Wow! I really can't believe it's June and I really can't believe the kids are almost out of school. Time sure does fly when you're having fun, or just super busy like us! Here are some updates on what's going on in the Enfield household and some things we are looking forward to this summer. The kids have all done really well in school this year. Bethany of course continues to be at the top of her class. She has been an Eagle leader (student leader) at school this year as well as the only girl in the highly capable program this year. Rebekah has had an amazing year of kindergarten. It's so awesome to listen to her read and to watch her do addition and subtraction. The end of her kindergarten year is so bittersweet. We are excited that she is moving on, but yet again it's hard to watch the youngest become so independent. We are also sad that this is our last year with Ms. McDaniel! She has been the best kindergarten teacher for all 3 of our kids. We have been so blessed to have her involved with each of our kids lives. JD had a wonderful year this year in 3rd grade. He was definitely blessed with his fabulous teacher, Mrs. Walters. It takes a special personality to deal with JD sometimes and she definitely gets "him". Sports of course has continued to be a huge part of our everyday life, as we try to find lots of ways to keep the kiddos active and healthy. Bethany and JD both did basketball this winter. JD is now in baseball and he is doing a fabulous job pitching. He is still working on hitting in the kid pitch league, but continues to improve. Rebekah loves soccer and we are doing that right now. One of the biggest changes around here is that we are trying to follow a whole foods/real food lifestyle here at home. We cleaned out the pantry, fridge and freezer of all processed foods, including anything with white flours and white sugars. I wish I had taken a picture to show you what we ended up donating to the food bank. It was a lot! It has been a very exciting change and now that we are over a month into it I think it will be a permanant way of life around here. Of course there will be the occasional treats here at home and outside of home, but overall this is a change for the better for all of us! I'm still working on how this will work with my couponing and freezer cooking, but I'm just trying to take it one step at a time:-) Lots of big things going on for the summer that I will be sure to write about. First off, we are headed to New Jersey in 2 weeks to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. So excited to see my family that we haven't seen in several years. After that the kids will all go to camp, JD has baseball camp and then we head back out to North Carolina to visit with my mom and then the big trip to Disney World. 18 months in planning and saving and we are going! So excited! I hope to get back on here more often as so many great things happen every day! Love to you all!

Night out with Bekah

Anybody reading that knows me in real life would probably be pretty assured that I was firmly planted on my couch watching my Seahawks on Monday Night football. If you didn’t think I was watching the game, you probably assumed I was there at the game. Not tonight though.

So I try to do daddy-daughter dates with my girls for Christmas time for the last couple of years. This is the week we decided to do it. I want to say this is the week we had time to do it, but really I don’t. Sometimes you just have to forfeit the things you want to do or even those things you’re obligated to do for those rare, special times that you have the privilege of being dad. Daddy-daughter dates are a privilege and I will take them out on dates for as long as they’ll let me.

Tonight was Rebekah. I learned so much about my six-year-old kindergartner and how she sees the world. She told me that the third president was Thomas Jefferson and he lived in a house named Monticello and our president now named his house “The White House”. Bekah told me, “Presidents’ get to name houses. I want to be president so I can name a house.”

Then she asked if I was driving the speed limit. I told her we were going less than the speed limit because I was behind someone going slow. A second later, I sped up a bit.

“Are we going the speed limit now?”

“Yes,” I said, “Right on the speed limit.”

Bekah sighed, “Ahhh, the speed limit is sooo comfortable.”

We went to place in Lacey called Charlie’s Safari. It is a huge indoor play land with a dozen inflatables, a three-story jungle gym with slides, and an enormous arcade. Basically, it is heaven on earth for a six-year-old. We jumped and slid and climbed and did it again and again. I chased that girl all over the place as she constantly beckoned me, “C’mon!”, “Watch me!”, “Follow me!”. It was awesome. I nearly couldn’t stand by the end of it all.

As we were there, I noticed another couple that was chasing around their 2-year old daughter. Her dad was still in his Army uniform. That soldier was being very cuddly with his wife as well, not inappropriately, but noticeably. I asked him if he was going to be taking some leave for the holidays. He told me he just started his leave. He just got home. Literally just got home – they had just come from the airport and he was here until Dec 26, then back to Afganistan. He never stopped holding his wife’s hand the hold time. It was amazing. I did something I don’t normally do to people in tpublic; I asked if I could pray for their family. Sgt & Mrs Royal looked at each and said they would love that. There was not a dry eye in the place.

Bekah and I left and got dessert and chatted more about the important matters of the day like how much she loves kindergarten and how her school is the best school because they have a play toy, monkey bars, AND a music teacher.

Everything about tonight reminded me how blessed I am to be in the family that God gave me. I would miss 100 Seahawks games for another night like tonight.

Bekah and I before we left in front of the tree.

Climbing to the slide.

The Slide!

She loved this long orange slide from the top of the structure.

I can't believe she's nearly 4 feet tall

Bekah and Daddy at the top!

Zipline

Dad is pretty tuckered out.

What kinda date would it be without dessert?

Big Cooking Day Again

So, as I continue to do this once a month cooking thing I promise not to write a blog every single time, but I was so excited to complete another big cooking day today! I really can't wait to try out all the yummy recipes I made today. What's on the menu this month? Lots of good stuff. Gingerbread Waffles, Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes and Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls for breakfast; sweet potato chili, french dips, and turkey burgers for lunch; And stuffed pork roast, apple-cranberry pork chops, mandarin chicken, turkey stroganoff, spicy honey chicken, turkey shephards pie, chicken broccoli casserole and chicken with cumin and lime for dinners. I think I spent more time on this cooking day with the more detailed recipes, but I also think I spent LESS money, which definitely makes me happy. So, in the pictures you will see that I set out everything I needed out of my pantry the night before. It was definitely a huge help! You will also see the sweet potato chili cooking, the lemon poppyseed pancakes and the full freezer:-)

It was so nice to go throughout the month not having to wonder and worry about what to cook. We didn't love every recipe, but it was all good stuff and definitely worth the long day of work. Check out www.onceamonthmom.com. I am so glad I found it!

Another Enfield Outing

So last week as Doug and I were talking, we were discussing one of our favorite parts about the trip to Texas. While we were down there, we were able to go and explore so many different local treasures. This is such a great way to spend some family time while not spending a lot of money and learning more about the area around you. Well, since we have been back, life has gotten just as busy, if not busier than it was when we left. So, we haven't gotten very much family time, let alone time to explore. Well, this past Saturday we actually had a day off. *GASP* We hardly knew what to do with ourselves! So we decided to find something in Western Washington that was not too expensive yet fun at the same time. Doug found information on the Ballard Locks and fish ladder. So, we called up Aunt Angela, had her meet us in Seattle and we all went to explore this amazing engineering marvel. I don't know if I've seen locks since I was a kid in Germany. Our school would take us on a field trip down the Rhine river and the boat would have to go through locks. It is so interesting how they thought up a way to transfer boats from one body of water into another. The kids really enjoyed seeing the boat "locked" up and then released. The fish ladder was a little disappointing as there were no fish in there, but still interesting for Bethany who is studying the life cycle of Salmon right now in school. After that we headed out for a walk in the botanical gardens and then walked around Pike place market. All in all, it was a great family outing. I can't wait for another day off and another adventure!