Our New Nephew

My brother Trevor and his wife Jessica just had their second child today. A little baby boy named Waldron Dain Peterson. Wally for short. He weighed in at 8lbs 8 oz and was 20.75 inches long. They did a home birth with a midwife so we got to go visit them at home very shortly after he was born. I had to take a long lunch break cause I was at work. Luckily it was slow today. These pics are from when he was about 3 hours old! You can also see a couple other better pics of him at their birth photographers site. So, here's some first shots of my new little nephew!



Aunt Lisa and Wally. Grandma French(Jessica's mom) in the background.



A little bit closer look at the little guy. I love this picture of him.


Uncle Nick and Wally.


A close up of Wally. For better close ups, follow that link I posted up above.

Just a side tidbit, Jessica is also a birth/baby photographer as well. Check out her site onetreephotography.com

You Asked For It...

Ok, so I have had requests for the recipe for the squash soup. I was going to put this in the original post but I kinda wanted to see how many people read our blog and would respond. Apparently there are at least 3 of you. So I am not much of a cook, so if I can do this so can you. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1 Large onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped
5 Tbl. butter
3 lbs. butternut squash, peeled and cubed
6 cups chicken broth
3 medium zucchini, peeled and sliced
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 cup half and half cream
1/2 cup milk
Grated Parmesan Cheese, optional

Directions: In a dutch oven or soup kettle(i used a stock pot - is that the same thing? oh well it worked.) over medium heat, saute onion and carrots in butter for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add squash, broth, zucchini, salt, thyme, and pepper; bring to a boil. reduce heat; cover and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Cool until lukewarm. In a blender or food processor, puree soup in small batches until smooth; return to kettle.(this is where my awesome immersion blender came in handy. I didn't have to take it out of the pot, and it was pureed in about 30 seconds! amazing!) Add cream and milk; mix well and heat through(do not boil). Garnish with Parmesan cheese, if desired. 12-14 servings. (hence the reason I ate this for 3 days, lunch and dinner.)

This is seriously so good. And I guess good for you. Lots of veggies right? Enjoy!

Gasworks Park Fireworks

After our hike earlier in the day, Nick and I decided to brave gasworks park for the fireworks that night. Neither of us had been before. Lets just say we are glad we went once, but I don't think we'll try it again. There are sooo many people. We paid some guy $15 to park in his yard so we wouldn't have to deal with trying to park somewhere, so we actually got a pretty close parking spot. we walked down to the park and eventually claimed a spot for ourselves on the hill. Then we only had to wait 3 more hours till the show. We people, watched and read, and listened to really, really loud music blasting from the speakers. By the time the fireworks started there were so many people packed in there, there wasn't any room to move. I got stepped on quite a few times. We also almost had a fight break out next to us when a punk kid thought he was cool by smoking pot and then blowing it in people's faces when they asked him to stop. Then the guy next to us threw water at him. Many words were thrown about, that I won't type here. But, luckily it just stayed at words. Here are some pics of our day. The view of the Seattle skyline from Gasworks park is one of my favorites, other than coming in on the Bremerton ferry at night. All in all, probably one of the best fireworks shows I've seen, although I could do without all the people.

From 4th of july fireworks

Here you can see the stage and not too many people here yet. This is just a very small portion of grass that will be filled though.

From 4th of july fireworks

People were flying paper kites they had made. I think all those kites are actually only 2 or three people. They had them tied to each other and kept letting out more line.

From 4th of july fireworks

One of my favorite views of Seattle. mostly i think seeing it when I drive into the city over the I-5 bridge.

From 4th of july fireworks

More people packing onto "Kite Hill".

From 4th of july fireworks

A little bit later, just about dusk.

From 4th of july fireworks

There was also a great sunset going on.

From 4th of july fireworks

And a little bit later - the lights are coming on.

From 4th of july fireworks

Lots more people starting to pack in.

From 4th of july fireworks

cool pictures of whatever these things are that are all over Gasworks Park.

From 4th of july fireworks

From 4th of july fireworks

Night time shot.

From 4th of july fireworks

It's hard to see just how many people were packed in here. Right before the fireworks started people who came later just stopped and stood in front of all the people who had been waiting hours. I was kinda miffed. But, after starting with the Star Spangled Banner everyone stayed standing anyway and we had a great view. We had too many pics of the fireworks so I just put them in a slideshow. You can pretend you were there watching. Enjoy!

Squash Soup

Sorry there are no pictures on this story. I hate not posting a pic when I put a post up. That's one reason why I don't post very often. I hate going through all the trouble of getting the pics on the computer and up on the blog. Something always goes wrong and I get in a big fight with my computer. grrr. Anyway, so I got this recipe for butternut squash soup at church in relief society the other day. I thought I'd try it out. I made it and it was sooo good! Just wanted to toot my own horn that I made butternut squash soup from scratch. And I got to use my new hand held immersion blender which was awesome as well. Funny thing is the recipe makes 12-14 servings. so I've had it for several meals lately. Still good though!

Bridal Veil Falls Hike

For the 4th of July, Nick and I decided to go for a hike during the day. We had no clue where to go and randomly came upon a website that had different hikes to waterfalls, so we started driving and found one! It starts at the Lake Serene trail head but after about 1 3/4 miles you can branch off to go to the falls. It was a beautiful hike. We haven't gotten to do anything like this for a while and we really enjoyed it, although my calves were angry at me for the next couple days. Here are some pictures from our hike. The trail head starts just off of Hwy 2 near index road for those Washingtonians out there.
























There were lots of stairs along the way, hence the reason my calves were so sore the following days.



















I thought this was a fun sign.














Apparently it keeps going down but I didn't want to get to close to the edge to see where. See sign above.














Where did the middle of my bridge go?

Time Flies

June 29th marked the 1 year anniversary of our engagement. I can't believe it's been that long. Not too much longer til our first wedding anniversary. Anyway, we celebrated the day by visiting the spot where Nick proposed...the Woodland Park Zoo Rose Garden. It was gorgeous, just like it was a year ago. Here are some highlights of our visit. For those of you who don't remember, Nick proposed in the little gazebo. Enjoy!









I don't know why the lady that took this pic of us couldn't see that it was crooked.??




See, I cant get it straight.