One small step for one small man

I think Grant is finally walking. Yeah! He has been able to take steps for a couple of weeks, but has preferred the mode of crawling. Today I think he has transitioned to be a walking man. Of course he will prove me wrong tomorrow. Here is a little video clip.

Brown Thumb

We are nearing the end of August. It is harvest season. My garden has done horrible this year. I planted 7 tomato plants, one zucchini, carrots, 2 bell peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, lettuce, peas, radishes. I also have raspberries, strawberries, apple tree, peach tree, pear tree.

Here is what we have harvested:

• About a dozen less than one inch tomatoes. Most of them are small marble sized. (The label said 2" tomatoes - wrong! more like 2 millimeters) My plants are huge, I keep cutting back the greens because they are overtaking our garden but no fruit.
• Lettuce, Radishes and peas did really well in the spring.
• Raspberries had a good crop early on, but nothing now.
• Strawberries, pathetic
• Peach - we'll probably get two dozen peaches, he is still young.
• Apple tree - not a single apple. He is excused though because we moved him and peach this year.
• Zucchini - plant is growing, but no fruit
• Peppers - plant is growing, but no fruit
• Pear - died
• Watermelon - died
• Cantaloupe - died, but suddenly there is new growth - strange. I don't think there is time to get any fruit out of it.
  I am trying to figure out what went wrong this year. Our garden has done really well in the past. Is it over watering? Is it under watering? There is some over spray from the lawn in a few places, but not everywhere. Is it a lack of bees? I hear that is an issue these days. Is it the heat? Am I just not good at gardening? I'm very disappointed. Nothing beats fresh produce from the garden.

11 years

Today we celebrate our 11 year anniversary. For our ten year we had great plans, we were going to go to Hawaii, or maybe a cruise. But Grant was just three months old and still nursing, so we said, "For sure we will go on a cruise or somewhere for our 11 year." Instead of a cruise, we are celebrating our anniversary by taking our kids to Lagoon. Doesn't get more romantic than that! Lagoon Day at Aaron's work just happened to fall on our anniversary. We haven't been there for years and since we are too cheap to pay for Lagoon ourselves - this is what we get to do. It will actually be fun because we get to spend the day together. Next weekend we get to go out on a real date by ourselves.I am very blessed to be married to my best friend who is such a wonderful, loving husband. I am grateful that we get to spend eternity together.

The Eternal Summer

I am now beginning to see the beauty of year round school. This summer is never going to end! I think a two month summer would be just perfect.
We accomplished a lot of things the first two months. We kept with my plan to go to a new library each week. Draper Library wins for best library. South Jordan comes in a close second because of the water fountain outside. We went to Thanksgiving Point several times. We went to the splash park a few times. We went on the two vacations with our extended families. I think we had a great summer. Only problem is, it isn't over. We are all burned out of summer. We are pretty much bored of my master plan now. We still have a few fun things coming up - Lagoon, the Zoo.

Whitney still has three weeks until school starts. THREE WEEKS! You know how they say that kids forget most of the stuff they learn at school during the summer. It is true. Whit has an assessment test for school next week. I thought it would be good to refresh a little on her math facts (4+3, 5+6, 7+8 etc.) She has flashcards that she got in school last year that we had to practice all the time. It is a stack of about 75-100 cards, goes from plus or minus two to plus or minus ten. We used to be able to fly through it in 3 or 4 minutes. She couldn't remember a single card. It took us over 20 minutes to get through the stack. Needless to say she has a new job on her chart to practice everyday.

Luckily Cassidy started her preschool last week! She is loving going to school. It doesn't seem that long ago that we took Whitney. Kids are definitely different. With Whitney, we would get a detailed report of everything that happened at school that day. Cassidy - I barely get any info and that usually comes from questions asked about her artwork that she brought home. I do know that she loves it. She has her friend Abbi in there with her. I think it always helps to have a buddy when starting something new like that.

Payson Lake

We went with Aaron's family camping to Payson Lake this past weekend. We have never taken our kids camping before so this was definitely a first. When we planned this trip back in February I thought Grant would be walking by now. It made it more interesting having him crawling everywhere. He didn't have a very good time.
Payson Lake is a better lake to play in, so the kids actually got to get their swimming suits on and play in the water. Which is nice when you are camping to wash some of the dirt off. The campground didn't have the flushing toilets like I was led to believe. My girls handled it really well though.

We went up Thursday after work and came home Saturday morning, so we were really only there one day. After swimming in the lake my family headed back to Payson so Aaron could try to find a Internet connection somewhere to check on something for work. We got a few supplies at the grocery store and headed back. While we were down there we saw smoke coming off of the mountain and several firetrucks headed that way. In the 30 minutes we were in Payson it was obvious this was a large wildfire. We wondered if we were going to be able to get back, but it was far enough from the road that we were able to keep going.

On the way back up to the lake we pass Aaron's brothers heading down to get a shake. We tell one of them about the fire and then keep going. We get back to the camp where Aaron's parents and my 4 year old niece had stayed behind to get dinner started. We get a call a few minutes later from his brother saying that they had closed the road and they couldn't get back up. A few minutes later they call again and say that a police officer told them that they were going to evacuate the entire canyon, including Payson Lake. Those of us at the campground create a quick evacuation plan. We start deflating everything, we take the dutch ovens off of the fire, we are rolling up sleeping bags. We have to get as much as we can - including my niece into our van and the truck. We were all packed tight getting there, so we weren't going to be able to take everything. My children are freaking out, Whitney was crying she was so scared. We had to stop and have a prayer to help her calm down and know that everything was going to be OK. About 10 minutes later we get another call saying that they were letting his brothers through and that they were not going to evacuate more than the scout camp closer to the fire. So then the question was - do we still leave or do we stay there for the night? We decide to finish making dinner and then pack up and leave.

After everyone was back together we decided that we would stick to the original plan and stay the night and leave the next morning. We really were not that close to the fire, and weren't in a lot of danger there. In crisis situations like that information changes every minute. No one really knows what is going on or what is going to happen. It was probably just one police officer that thought they would evacuate the canyon when in fact they probably never intended to. The next morning the road was still closed so we had to drive out through Nephi. An extra hour and half of driving, but it was a very scenic route home.

Despite a few crazy moments in our vacations we had a great time with both families. My children loved being with their cousins. It would have been nice to not have the trips so close together, but then again, once you have the stuff out, you just as well get it all over with. I literally washed clothes from the first trip and put them back into the suitcases. I left most of the stuff in my living room and repacked everything for the next one. Now I have the fun time of doing laundry all day tomorrow to try and get the camp fire smell off of everything. The fun continues. :)

Panguitch Lake

I'm trying to figure out how to not make a travel log insanely boring. I can't figure it out. The advent of digital pictures sure makes it a lot more fun to go and be able to just take as many pictures as you want and not have to worry about the cost of film and processing them. We took approximately 250 pictures between our two trips, I shared a few of the highlights in the slide show.
The first trip was to Panguitch Lake a week ago. We went with my side of the family. I have been pondering this thought - At what point in your life does it change from a vacation with my family to a family reunion? We still call it a family vacation - I think reunions are boring and for old people.

We did a random search on the Internet back in February and found a cabin at Panguitch Lake. We are not a boater family, so the lake wasn't a big deal to us, just a nice view. The location of Panguitch was what drew us there. In fact we had to stop by the lake the last night so that I could actually go down and touch the water. Aaron went fishing with Cassidy and Whitney so those three had been down there but the rest of us hadn't.

We went over to Bryce Canyon one day and went on a short hike - it is a lot harder to hike with little kids. Scares me to death. We didn't make it down to the bottom of this hike, if I didn't have my kids with me it would have been fun to keep going. The black dots in this picture are my brother, and brother-in-law with two of his kids.
The next day we went over to Navajo Lake and to Cascade Falls. We went on an "EASY" hike to the falls. I emphasis easy because that is what my sister said it was before we started. I would really hate to think of what a hard hike would be. (She has been fired of any and all planning of hikes in the future) Now, I am very afraid of heights, always have been. I have very vivid memories of going up into the mountains with my family and sitting on the floor of the truck so I didn't have to look out the window. Obviously this was a long time ago before seat belts were the cool thing to do. I also remember my mom (also terrified of heights) screaming at my dad (Not scared of heights) because he liked to drive his truck on these hills that pretty much put the truck vertical in my opinion. I remember clinging to the side of a mountain when we were hiking once because of a cliff on the other side.

Anyway - you can get the idea. I don't like heights (or maybe it is just gravity I am afraid of!) We get a little way in and there is a sign that says "Trail Closed." Now isn't it funny how peer pressure works even as an adult. My first thought is - turn back. But hey everyone else is going on. There are a lot of people there, no one else is turning back, everyone is simply ignoring this sign. We talk to several people, and say was it hard? How long is it? Is it safe for little children to go on it? Now I would like to say that all of these random strangers are liers. Not only am I terrified of heights, but I am holding my 3 year old daughter's hand and trying to pretend like it is all fine and keeping her from walking off the side of the mountain. To summarize a little here, the path went along the top of the mountain with approximately 10,000 foot drop on the one side. Most of the trail was washed out - hence the trail closed sign - so there was only space enough for one person to walk at a time, so it is holding your child's hand in front of you while you walk. We finally get to the point where we can see the waterfall and my mom and I agree that this is far enough for us. Aaron, my dad, Cassidy (who didn't have her glasses yet and can't see) and Whitney decide to go on. My mom and I stay with Lindsey and Grant and some stranger lady who also chickened out at the same point and waited. Well the area we were waiting in was about three feet from the cliff and Grant was not liking sitting in his Grant pack waiting. There is no way I will take him out, so I strap Grant onto my back and my mom and I head back with Lindsey. I made my poor mom hold Lindsey's hand and try to walk back through the hike. (Thanks mom for not letting my daughter die) I seriously am still having nightmares about this experience. To almost everyone else on this hike it wasn't a big deal - like the 20 year old girls who said "I did it in my flip flops" - but when it is suddenly not just your own life, but four small children, it changes your perspective - and also the scared of heights thing played into it a little.

Summer Vacations