Family Pictures

It seems the question I've gotten the most in the last month is "What are you going to do when Kate moves?!"  I would always answer "I DON'T KNOW!"  She has been my sidekick and go to person for everything for the last 4 years and suddenly I'm left to my own devices!  

 Well the good news is that there are plenty of amazing women around here to hang out with, and while we've been doing a lot less since Kate's departure, things are good and calm and happy.

You might notice the oreo in Alex's hand.  I think in the last 3 years of family pictures our bribes have been visible in the picture.

Tyler has started teaching at Salt Lake Community College.  He is in charge of 7 Physiology labs and 2 Anatomy labs and loves it!  The only downside is that his classes start at 7am, and so the poor guy wakes up at 5:30 so he can get to class on time!  

obviously our bribes don't produce smiles, they just prevent wiggles.

The good side of this schedule is that he is always home by 5 and sometimes earlier, plus he has no classes on Monday!  Unfortunately that leaves me and the girls carless the rest of the week.  If it weren't for our 'carriage' (the good old bike trailer) we would be stranded at home all the time.

Alex is starting Preschool next week!  Her teacher is actually the same lady who taught Tyler's Kindergarten class 23ish years ago! She just retired from teaching Kindergarten and started a Preschool in her basement.  We got to go check it out last week and WOW, even Heidi wants to go!  She will be going twice a week for a few hours and the "school" is just 4 houses away!  Plus the cute neighbor girl across the street is going as well so they can walk to school together!

Now that the garden has slowed down I'm trying to figure out what to do.  De-cluttering is first on the list but such an impossible task!  I'm also day dreaming about what to sew for Halloween costumes, The girls still fit in their princess costumes from last year, but I wan't to try something new and challenging.  Even though Alex is dead set on being a princess again. gag.

We've been enjoying the nice weather with bike rides all over town and the kids have rediscovered their toys after our long absence.   We have enjoyed the summer and are clinging to the last bits of it, but have started gearing up for all the changes that come with the Fall weather, and looking forward to a season of holidays and good food!

The Garden- End of August- kind of boring

So back to the garden series. (For my own memories, since this is pretty much my journal).  Tyler and I picked up and left for vacation just as the garden was starting to produce!  It killed me to leave knowing our tomatoes were going to ripen while I was 500 miles away.

Just before I left we decided to starve the tomatoes of water,  the plants were growing really well but no fruit.  I also took a paintbrush to the cucumber blossoms hoping that it would pollenate them and we could get some cucumbers!  About this same time we discovered the potatoes plants had some kind of bug.

 You might recognize this half of the garden as previously being the potato plot.  "Where are all the potato plants?" you might ask, well.......... they are all dead.  I have reason to believe there are good potatoes under all those weeds and dirt and someday when I get the energy and motivation all at once, I will dig them up and find out.  But for now I'm enjoying not having to water and weed that cursed plot of land.

I really need to get a picture with a person in there for size comparison.  To the left are the giant sunflowers, the ones that survived the wind storm and didn't tip over.  The kids like sneaking scissors outside and cutting up the big leaves at the bottom.  There is also the Kale plants that we never harvested and haven't watered in a month. They seem to be doing well.
   That huge jungle mess in the middle are the tomatoes.  They are over 6 feet tall and there are 3 rows of them.  BIG mistake.  When you plant anything and it's 3 inches tall and they are all a foot apart it's hard to imagine anything will ever grow.  Now it's impossible to harvest to the tomatoes in the middle row because the plants are so thick you can't even see in there to get anything.  The tomato jungle has eaten the broccoli plants, the jalapenos, and part of the green beans.  Our Jalapenos are coming on nicely and Kathleen was able to harvest some broccoli while I was gone.  The Bell Peppers don't seem to be ripening very quickly and when we pick them green they taste terrible and bitter.  The green beans are growing and yummy but hard to find because I don't like to squat and the zucchini plants are growing almost as wildly as the tomatoes and producing just as well.  grrrrrrr.
  Finally on the right is the corn and some purple beans that wound themselves up the corn.  The corn is starting to grow fast and the deer haven't gotten to them! HA.  We've gotten a few handfuls of cucumbers as well and my favorite thing to do is sit and munch on one while the garden is being watered and Alex is chowing down on tomatoes like they are apples.
    I'v also discovered that I have some kind of tomato or weed allergy and my arms always itch for a week after working in the garden, regardless of wearing long sleeves.  It's obnoxious.
    The garden doesn't really need to be weeded anymore and so I only go down once a week to work and once more to harvest.  We got back from vacation and suddenly there was nothing to do!  Our whole summer had been spent weeding and watering and running from one place to another every day. Now with the weeds under control, the garden producing and Kate gone, I've found myself with DAYS of free time and nothing urgent at all to do.  It's bitter sweet and might have made me a bit lazy.

Cheyenne family vacation

The last stop on our whirlwind vacation was Cheyenne.  We had hoped to spend a few days, but by the time we got there we only had 1 day.

Grandma fed us like kings and took us to all our favorite parks where we got to explore and find new fun places.

We fed the geese and splashed in the water, read books, played and talked.  It was a lot of fun and so sad to leave!

This is a terrible copy, but we also finished up a 4 generation project that I'm pretty excited about.

Alex made us dinner and since Heidi doesn't like grapes I was force fed her share.

And then there were books of course, because Grandma is and excellent book reader!

On the drive home Tyler once again got to use his supercool Paramedic skills when we showed up a few minutes after a rollover occurred.  We were so far out from anywhere that it took awhile for the Ambulance to show up.  I snuck a picture just before we left.  The firetruck shut traffic down so they could fly in a helicopter and we got the Freeway to ourselves for an hour.

We arrived home in good time and without incident and are utterly vacationed out.  The girls and I have made the trip to Montana 3 times this summer and I think we have figured out the best way to do it.  The first 5 hours they get nothing but their hands and the window, after that they are so eager for outside stimulation that there is no way there are going to throw their toys or rip up a coloring book.  In these situations, less is so much more!

Mount Rushmore and Flintstone Village

We had intended to spend the morning at Flintstone Village, since we were right there, but we woke up at 6 and it didn't open until 9.  So we headed over to Mount Rushmore instead.

On the way we got sidetracked by a tourist trap, a giant Rock Shop.  There were boxes of rocks all over and mining cars the kids could climb in and out of.  It was fantastic because I only had to worry about them breaking themselves.

I'm pretty sure the amazingness of the faces carved onto a mountain was lost on the girls.

But I LOVE Mount Rushmore so it was still worth the trip.

The girls are great at boycotting special pictures.

We walked the 1/2 mile loop next to the mountain and Heidi insisted on being independent and walking down each flight of stairs (there are a lot).

And then we tricked the girls into getting a picture with the faces.

Tyler and I love perusing gift shops together, but we found that with Heidi it was like taking a Bull into a China shop so I volunteered to take her outside.  She was VERY upset and threw a fit next to the doors.  Every time someone would walk out they would do a double take, look around for the parents and then tell me "I though she was a doll!"  She was not amused by this.

But when she found a South Dakota travel guide all she wanted to do was read it while walking topsy-turvy through crowds of tourists.

She must have been very interested in what she was learning, it was like this the entire way to the car.

We took the scenic loop back to Flintstone village, which ended up taking a lot longer than expected.

So we were all excited to make it here!

This is a remake of a photo from 6 or 7 years ago when I made the same trip with Gwen.  Unfortunately I can't find those pictures!

There was a little train that we got to ride a few times around the park.

This is Heidi's "YES we ARE on a TRAIN ride Mom! And I'm THRILLED"

South Dakota does statues and themed houses really well.

I remember coming here as a child, so I was super excited to bring my own kids.

So was Tyler.

Alex ran over, climbed up, and declared this her new Momma.

Heidi was having some trouble backing the car up.

I think you can tell what my favorite piece of playground equipment was as a child.

Once again the kids could have stayed here all day, but we had to be on our way.

But we give this place 1.5 thumbs up!

Reptile Gardens and camping

Reptile Gardens was Awsome!

We got to pet and walk around with this giant 100 year old turtle from the Galapagos Islands.  What started off as excitement and running turned into trepidation once the girls were next to the giant.

By the time the shutter clicked Heidi was 100 feet away.

There were lizards and gators, snakes and a bird show (which Alex LOVED and still talks about).

But the best part of the whole thing was the gator show.

Our "teacher" was hilarious and the whole thing was so entertaining.  Alex was in awe the entire time.

Heidi even got up her courage and touched the baby croc.

We stayed a lot longer than we had planned at Reptile Gardens and so we ended up pulling into Flintstone Campgrounds when it was already dark and the kids were asleep.  Tyler and I set up camp and deposited them in their bags only to have Alex wake up super excited at the prospect of camping.  So we pulled out the laptop and found a few episodes of The Flintstones and giggled and cuddled and slept.  In the morning the girls watched 'Signing time' while eating chocolate muffins in the car, while Mommy and Daddy packed up!

Our campsite midway through the reload.

After climbing into the front seat and blaring the horn to wake up the rest of the campground, Heidi ran around like a madwoman with her airplane until it was time to head out!

Story Book Island

We left Billings and headed straight for South Dakota!  We had perviously planned on stopping by Devils tower, but found ourselves in a time crunch to get back to Provo on Monday and had to cram things at the end.  

After what seemed like an eternity of driving we finally made it to Storybook Village!

I decided that Storybook Village is better than Disney world for small kids.

It is a giants 8 acre park with a million different play grounds, full of statues and houses from just about every fairytale  there is!

It's basically a giant photo opp with swings to entertain the kids.

If Heidi would only have stayed put for 2 seconds we would have had a LOT of cute cutout pictures.

So we spent a couple of hours running from place to place,

spending about 2 seconds at every little house and statue.

I would also like to recognize South Dakota for excellence in "dangerous" playground equipment preservation.

Heidi was only dragged alongside the Merry-go-round twice.

I included this picture is less to show my dorkyness, and more to show the awesome drawbridge entrance int he background.  So cool!

We could have stayed all evening but we had a date at Reptile Gardens and needed to be on our way.  Neither of the girls were happy to leave and therefore boycotted the group picture at the end.