Garden Awesomeness update

I'm enjoying being outside a lot more now that we are out of the 90's and I thought I'd update on my yard and garden. Sorry this is picture-heavy, but I have fun taking pictures of plants. They HOLD STILL, if you know what I mean.

I'll start with the funny part, then if you don't care anymore you can quit reading. Okay, so maybe this is normal, but I don't know. I planted yellow squash, and the plant did, indeed, produce yellow squash (it is very good, btw) It also, however, decided to produce an acorn squash. ??!!???

Same plant here above and below.

We've had exactly 1 ripe tomato so far. Had it on tacos the other day. Hopefully more to come.


This is one of the 4 peppers I planted. They all look like this. They have grown a few more leaves since I planted them ..........?

Peanut plant. It's grown and turned sort of yellow. Much speculation (and anticipation) from the kids about what it going on under the ground with those peanuts.

Don't think we're getting any watermelon this year:

Carrots are doing just fine. (so's the kool-aid mustache)

Those darn peas just keep producin'. And I keep trying to turn the pickers into eaters, but no luck so far, the charm has worn off. (Don't you just love those little curly thingies?)

Enough veggies. On to the fruit of the matter.

But first, here's a yummy way to eat veggies: Hawiian haystacks with a pepper from our "other" garden (located at my parent's house!) Isn't it pretty? (but not too pretty to eat, I ate it.)

Nice leafy raspberries. Looking forward to next year!

And nice, sweet strawberries:

We got peaches this year! White peaches, VERY sweet and so good :)

Not all of them get eaten fresh either......

Flowers. Can't eat 'em. (and yes, I did narrow these down, there were more)

There you have it. Now get out there and weed your garden!

Random Summer Fun

We had several outings a week during our summer break, and I got a few pictures of some of them. It's hard to have 3 kids AND try to take pictures, not enough hands! We did some of the usual things, like weekly picnics with friends, dinosaur park, Treehouse museum, and local parks, but also tried a few new things, like the train museum in Ogden, and one trip to the zoo (HOT!) The boys really enjoyed going to Lagoon every week, which was possible because my parents gave us season passes for Christmas. (thanks!) They especially LOVE pioneer village and exploring all the little museums in there. We stayed PLENTY busy this summer, and it was often exhausting. It was fun, but I am happy to get into my routine of actually having time to clean, cook dinner, and exercise. C is doing better being able to nap at home in bed a little more often.

A Camping Birthday

Happy 30th birthday to me, a month ago :) I still feel the same as when I was 29, weird.

Over the weekend of my birthday, we had the annual camp-out with the extended family on my mother's side. It was a good time, especially for M & E, who love to get dirty and all that, and who were in heaven with a ton of second-cousins to play with. Glad we have those, since there are no cousins for them on my side.

My mom surprised me by getting the whole family involved since I said "no gifts" at the campout. She gave out 30 seperate dollars to her mom & siblings and had them each get me gifts that remind them of me, so I had a lot of fun and meaningful things to open up, it was a fun surprise.

The kids all put on a skit, and we decorated t-shirts and bags and of course most of it revolved around meals. We had sweet pork salad for my birthday dinner and my aunt made my favorite carrot cake. DH, myself, and C went home every night to shower/sleep. We just couldn't handle the thought of trying to sleep with C in a tent this year! Luckily, it was only about a 45 minute drive to the campsite from home. E went home with us the second night as well, he was a tired mess, the poor kid!

My dad got the boys their own fishing poles and took them fishing with DH, it was hot and they didn't catch anything, but they have the idea and are excited to try again some time!

It was fun to see people we don't get to see often and reminisce about old times camping and being with our Aunt Colleen, whom we all miss so much.

skit

My cousin is SO talented, she made these butterflies out of chocolate!

Water Fun

Another part of our summer was playing in the water to keep cool. We had a great time whether it was in Grandma's sprinklers, Aunt Whit's pool, Grammy & Pops' pool, Lagoon-A-Beach, or squirting each other!








One day, we went to visit Great-Grandma in Hyrum and we played in the water with the second-cousins. So fun!

C and his second cousin, who is only a week older than him. They had fun sharing toys in the pool!