Who's got the thyme?: Way Out West

It's been three weeks since I've been here rambling about what I like to eat and what I think you should try! We just returned from a lovely vacation visiting our family out west. The week before vacation is always nutty so no blogging going on then. Trying to tie up loose ends, pack, shop because you don't have anything to pack, and then not know what to buy because it's April and the weather is all over the place. I have to say I scaled down my packing quite a bit and still only used half of what I brought. I did bring lemons and cayenne with me...used all of those. Anyway, I don't have a recipe to share today (but I do have some stockpiled, so stay tuned), but I thought I'd share some fun pictures from the trip. A little tiny taste of the Pacific Northwest for you to enjoy.

I was really happy to see how green everything was when we arrived. I knew it would be but it was such a nice change from our dead grass at home that had just revealed itself days before we left.

These pictures are from the driveway at my Mother-in-law's house. My favorite dog Rufus and I walked and ran many laps up and down the quarter mile stretch while we were there. I had to do something to cancel out all the eating out and tasty Oregon beers we were sampling. It's all about balance.

And it did the trick, no added vacation pounds here. Maybe that cayenne lemon water I've been drinking didn't hurt either? Not sure but I'm sticking with it. I just love these crazy mossy trees.

The weather was not great but not completely terrible either. Almost every day had periods of sunshine in between total downpours. There were blue skies...

and stormy ones too. Even hail a couple of times.

And much like back at home, even when it's sunny, it's raining.

The kids didn't mind a bit. They just throw on some giant rubber boots and head on down to the pond to catch (all kinds of disgusting) critters.

Supposedly this is a "baby" slug. If you're gagging right now, I don't blame you. So am I.

One day we headed out on a hike along the old railroad tracks that run through the property. They haven't been used since '06 so they were pretty overgrown. Here we get to see the front and back of Rufus at the same time, how about that.

We walked across three trestles, each one scarier than the next. Although, Hayden didn't seem to mind. I will say I was even more scared when I walked these things many years ago because the train was still running twice a day and I was very (even more) freaked out.

I tried my best to capture just how high up this thing was. See that stream way down there? It can be tricky taking pictures when your knees are knocking.

I almost lost my lunch trying to take this one.

There's something just so cool about it though, it was worth it.

You can see how they left me in the dust...Phoebe was a little scared too.

It's not a trip to the country without a couple of barn shots. This is Grandma's barn, our kids love to hang out in Grandma's barn. I would have too at their age.