Sunday, July 19, 2009

Summer Happenings

We have been having a great summer so far, although I am not very happy about how fast it seems to be going by. It seems like just yesterday when we were waiting for it too quit snowing and warm up so we could finally get outside. The winter was so long and I was more than ready to see the warm weather. I can't believe we are nearing the end of July already. Where does the time go? Before we know it, the kids will be back in school. I guess we just need to try and enjoy the rest. We have kept busy this summer. We had our trip to Lagoon. The kids are still talking about it. My mom came to our house on June 30th and spent a couple of days with us, then she took the kids home with her for a few days. They had a great time(the kids anyway)...you'll have to ask my mom and dad how it was for them. My kids love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa. We had bounce-back tickets from Lagoon for only $9 which we hadn't planned on using but decided to go again with just the 2 of us. It was a lot of fun. We were able to jump from ride to ride pretty fast so we did all we wanted to do in about 4 hours. We did some others errands while we were in Salt Lake, made a Costco run and then we went to Cafe Rio for dinner. We had a fun day. It's amazing to me how fast I can do things when I'm not toting a handful of kids. I spent the other couple of days getting caught up on a lot of things. I spent one entire day outside in the yard and garden. There is always something that needs to be done in the yard. One night we took our bikes up the mountain about 9 miles and then we rode them home. We missed the kids, but enjoyed the peace and quiet. Thanks mom and dad. It was a nice break. We went to Blanding to pick up the kids and spend the 4th of July. I don't think I had spent the 4th in Blanding in over 10 years. It was fun.
Our yard and garden are now what I'm spending a lot of time on. Our garden has done pretty good. We are now starting to get a lot of stuff from it. We have cucumbers coming out our ears. We have picked a lot of Zuchinni. I have started picking tomatoes, and it doesn't look like it will be long before I have a lot that are ready. All of the peppers have grown really nice. I saw a few ears of corn starting to come out from the stalks so that is exciting. We can't wait to have fresh corn on the cob. The kids ask all the time when it will be ready. The onions, green beans, and melons are growing good too. We picked a bunch of green beans and bottled our first batch the other day. I haven't tried them yet. Hopefully they will be good.
The kids love to go into the garden when its time to pick the vegetables. The boys drive their big dump trucks out there and they think they need to "haul" the stuff back to the house. It's really cute. Railey loves seeing things grow, and she is constantly out there "checking" the garden for me. Ranger asks me almost daily if those "matoes" are for his "mato juice". He loves tomato juice and is intrigued with the idea of me making it for him.
Last friday night we went to Salt Lake to attend the wedding reception of Rob's cousin Jordan Jacobs. It was a quick drive up and back that evening but it was great to be able to visit with a lot of Rob's family. We don't get to see them very often.

For family home evening this week we spent time in the garden
The kids with some of the things we picked
Its always been my dream to have a family picture in front of a corn patch
(yes, I'm joking)

LET THE CANNING BEGIN!!!
The first bottled green beans of the year

This is what I picked tonight but it was getting dark
so I didn't get to a lot of the garden to check everthing.
I'm sure I'll have a lot more tomorrow.