Summer Randomness

This summer there has been a lot of indoor play and some outdoor artwork. 

Our garden is struggling. My tomatoes got snowed on after they were planted and this Roma just hasn't been happy since. I only have 1/4 of my peas and beans up. None of my squash is more than two inches tall. The corn looks the best and I have no clue how to grow corn! 

It's been fun having flowers bloom in the front yard. I was thrilled with my pink Iris and I found out I have Columbine's. I love Columbine's!

Emma has been working hard doing her part for the flag fundraiser. She has four houses that she is responsible for. I love driving through the neighborhoods when all the flags are waving. 

It has become a family affair. The flags and the poles they go on get pretty heavy!

I have a patriotic quilt top 90% done. It's close enough to being finished that I can use it as a backdrop on my ladder. I will then have it quilted later. 

There have not been enough donuts this summer. We've only gotten one dozen. We totally need more. 

We've had gorgeous weather. It has just started getting hot. We (as in Paul) replaced the pump on the swamp cooler so even though it was warm today, it was nice in the house.

The Laker's won and it's a very good think. Paul would have been tough to live with if they hadn't. 

Who knew Ephraim had good Mexican food with such large portions? 

Andrew wanted a picture next to the Welcome bear

The boys found a baby bird that had fallen out of a nest. The neighbor put it back in the tree. We're not sure what happened but it sure was fun getting closer than you normally can. 

I decided to move around our living room furniture, after almost seven years of having the same arrangement. I even moved the piano. By myself. All on my own. We love the new look of the room and because this table isn't right at the top of the stairs anymore it is no longer the landing pad for a ton of  crap. Wahoo!

Marius got hurt. It happened the week of Strawberry Days. It didn't look like much so we didn't do anything. On Friday night it was looking pretty bad so we got him a cone so he would leave it alone and it could heal. Well, it just got worse. First thing Monday I called the vet. 

He was pretty freaked out in the exam room.

After a week of antibiotics he is almost 100% healed. The vet said it was a bite from another cat. They had to flush the wound, inject it with meds and clip off the skin that was dying leaving large gaping holes. Barf! We are glad that he is going to be okay though.

Testing, Testing, 123

I want to see if I can get double wide layouts on here now.

Summer!

Today I took the boys to Greg's pool. It was so nice and I finally got some color. (Hey, red's a color. Har har har.) The boys had a really good time.

I need to figure out how to change to a new, wider, format so I can get these side by side. With the new designs I can't even figure out how to get rid of my old background. Sad but true.

Funny Girl

Saturday night Maggie and I continued our summer tradition of going to the Scera Shell outdoor theater. We think this is our third summer to attend shows. Obviously we saw Funny Girl. I knew nothing about this musical because I try to avoid Barbara Streisand at all costs. It was great! I liked having nothing to compare it to. (It was a little hard to watch Beauty and the Beast after seeing the Broadway version) Now I even want to see the movie.

One of the reasons I love going to the Shell is the toxic junk food that I allow myself to eat while I am there. (Remember, concessions help the productions. I'm a giver.) I had a slice of cheese pizza, nacho's, Red Vines, a mini butterfinger, pina colada Icee and a cherry Coke. Fun times!

Emma's First...

Check out this group! They are going to have a great time. (I have to keep telling myself that.)
See, I hated girl's camp. A lot. I only went once and that was one too many times for me. Emma has heard all of my horror stories over the years. (Oops. Note to self, don't talk crap about something you want your child to be excited about trying) She was pretty nervous today. Plus she isn't even in YW's yet so she doesn't have the same relationships with the other girls. But we sent her anyway. She has to try it once.

She was anxious to get her stuff loaded. I hope she can find it all. Some went here and some went there.

Then it was time to wait some more. (Which left more time to get even more nervous)
Rees to the rescue! She came and started getting Emma a little excited.
The Beth came. She is the sweetest, most wonderful, loving, kind person ever. I am sure these hugs helped her feel better. Both Rees and Beth promised to hug her whenever needed. (Yes I am tearing up right now!)
It was time to load up and and say goodbye.
I think it's a good sign that at this point she was like "Mooooom!" She was ready to go.
She squeezed in with her friends. I guarantee there will be no shortage of chit chat on the drive with this group!
I know Rees and all the ladies will take wonderful care of my baby.
I came home and asked Andrew if he was ready for lunch. He said no, all he wanted was Emma. Then he started to cry. Then I started to cry. I told him to think about how important she is to him, maybe even write her a letter telling her, then he needs to treat her like she is that important when she gets home. I think that might last about 5 minutes before he starts teasing her or hugging her too much. Then she will yell and scream at him and then I will say something insensitive like "do you want me to take you back to the mountains?" I can't wait. Our home will seem very empty this week.

Happy Father's Day

I am so grateful that my kids have such a wonderful father. We had fun honoring him today.

This is before church. Andrew was dying to give Paul his gift. He wouldn't even let me wrap it. I was lucky to get it into a shoe box.

It's a Sock Monkey! Andrew got one for Christmas and Paul is always trying to play with it to tease Andrew. Andrew thought he should have his own.

After church we gave daddy some more treats. I had bought some Pop Rocks and let the kids use some stickers to make cards. They said "My Pop Rocks" and had some other messages on/in them. The kids loved making the cards. It actually got them to stop fighting for a few minutes. Paul seemed to enjoy the thought that went into them.

Emma made Paul a batch of cookie dough and then we had one more gift. It's an apron that says "My Grill is Hotter than yours" LOL!
Paul's dad joined us for dinner. It was really nice sharing the day with him. I'm sad that I didn't get to spend time with my dad. Hopefully I will get to see him sometime this week. I'm grateful to the Father's that have touched my life. I love you. Happy Father's Day.

The Mormon Miracle Pageant

I had wanted to go to New York this summer for our family vacation and attend the Hill Cumorah pageant but the flights were outrageous so we weren't able to pull it off. (We are going to Chicago instead and I am crossing my fingers we will get to Nauvoo one of the days.)

Yesterday we headed down to Manti for the pageant. It's the next best thing right? I hadn't been since the mid 90's so we weren't sure what to expect. We arrived early so we got some Mexican in Ephraim. It wasn't bad.

The gates opened at 6:00 p.m. and we there shortly after. We claimed our seats (there weren't chairs in the 90's but there are chairs now. Thousands of them) and headed to a park, where there was shade.

We hung out there for hours.
and hours,


and hours.
Finally the sun started to drop and the actors came out to meet the crowd.





Then it was almost time for it to begin.

I love this temple. It is so imposing in such a small town.



Overall we had a good time. It was a little long and the kids got a little bored at times. At least there was a sky full of constellations and airplanes to keep the occupied. We got home about 1:30 a.m. went to bed around 2:00 and slept in until 11:00 a.m.

I just got up from a nap and now I've got to go. I'm getting ready to see Funny Girl at the Scera Shell. It's that time of year again!