::garden update::

I thought I'd do a quick update on our garden.

(mostly for my Dad :) )

It's grown!

A few close-ups of the produce...

Green Peppers...

Radishes...

...and they're HOT!! We pick these pretty often for salads. We give some away too.

Green Beans...

We had to replant a few because the first batch didn't give us many sprouts.

Tomatoes...

They're monsters! They've each got a million tomatoes on 'em (not really a million, but you know, a LOT). The middle bush (cherry tomatoes) grew so big it lifted the wire support off the ground and then tipped over. All the tomatoes are green still, but they'll start turnin' any day now, I'm sure.

Yellow Squash "Crook Neck"...

It's coming along. It had a broken stem on it, so I just cut it off, and ever since then, it's gone nuts! The plant itself is huge. There are a couple of teeeeeeny little squashes on there.

Cucumbers...

We had to replant these because they didn't sprout the first time (same as the green beans). We'll see how they do this time.

Corn...

Our corn's doin' pretty good. No ears yet, and it's not as big as the neighbors', but it'll get there (we hope).

Carrots & Lettuce...

We cut the lettuce pretty often for salad. The carrots are doing well.

Watermelon...

We only have 2 watermelon plants (out of the 9 we planted). I think maybe we washed the seeds away when we watered. The 2 little plants are doing well though.

Peas...

We're FINALLY getting pea-pods! We lost a whole row of peas. A friend told us it was because we had too much compost in our soil, and it burned up the plant. But our other row is doing well.

Onions...

Our onions are lookin' good. The plant part came out of the rough look they had at the beginning, and seem to be doing well.

And that's about it! It's been fun. We go out every day to weed and water and check on things. It's always fun to see new growth or a change in the vegetable itself. The kids get excited too. They've helped a lot with the watering, weeding a little, showing us new stuff, and planting-Coopie always says "oh howp." We can tell the kids helped us plant because we have random carrot plants popping up all over the place-some in the watermelon mounds, in the middle of all the lettuce, along the brick edge, etc.

It's definitely a learning experience! It took us a while (and probably cost us a few plants) to learn to best way to water, and we already know a few things we want to do differently next year.

::"wuhdeeluh"::

Saturday. 7ish pm.

A 4-wheeler ride with Matt :)

and J & Sae-glad she took her camera!

I'm not much of an outdoorsman (I saw lots of campsites and people camping, and I just kept saying "why??? Why would you DO that???"), but I do kind of enjoy riding the 4-wheeler with Matt. He likes to scare me a bit (it doesn't take much), he knows just about every trail and road in the mountains up there, and it's just fun.

PS "wuhdeeluh" is the way Coop says 4-wheeler :)

::limited edition...::

...and I just couldn't resist.

(Cooper 20 months)

How cute are these things?? What a great idea! Sometimes I wish I was more creative.

In other news...

We went out to dinner tonight (Chili's-which I don't think is as good as it used to be), and on the way, I asked Chloe what she was going to have. She kind of sighed and said "I don't know, I'll have to look at the menu." I thought it was funny-so grown up!

AND...

Cooper says the kids' names. He's been saying Porter for a while, but didn't dare attempt "Chloe."

( I don't blame him, it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue of such a little boy. Chloe called herself Gogie, Portie said Giggoo.)

So now he does, and he pronounces it "kiss." And I think that's sweet.

AND...

Porter's swim teacher calls him Buzz, and he loves it. He sticks his wings out when he does backfloats. Chloe's teacher gave him a Buzz bracelet (you know those rubberband type of ones that all the kids are into), and now he thinks she's the nicest person in the whole world. She gave Chloe one too-it was a rocket.

::lvd::

Another Little Valley Days celebration...

The Dam Race

Amberlee & I ran the race in the ugliest dam shirts

(they upped it to an even 5 miles this year).

This is about the grossest picture ever.

This is me handing the lady my ticket from my number.

I was a little tired :)

It took us about 54 minutes to run 5 miles. Not too bad.

The parade...

It rained on us, but we still had fun and got lots of candy
(which is always a bonus).

A cookout @ Grandma & Papa's...

(all the little cousins)

(Amberlee & George)

(the rest of the group)

Sparklers...

The kids did a few sparklers. They LOOOVE sparklers! Coop kind of kept trying to touch the "sparkle" part, but he didn't get burned. He thought they were pretty neat.

Fireworks...

They were pretty awesome. I love how close we get to sit, and it's way fun to hear them echo off the mountians...

::Twin Falls::

We just got back from our annual trip to Twin. Matt's dad and brothers and a few uncles and cousins all go up to play in a golf tournament, and most of the wives and kids like to go too. It's one of those trips that's fun, but we don't really know why. I guess it's the change of scenery (and maybe the swimming every day).

The kids were awesome in the car! They didn't sleep for the whole ride (about 2 1/2 hrs), but they were so good!

Matt didn't golf the first day we got there (the tournament didn't start 'til Friday), so we tried to find something fun to do together.

Go Carts!

buuuuut...

...a few of us are too little to ride 'em.

So we tried their mini golf course. To say it was lame would be a gross understatement. The kids got bored with it after about the second hole.

So then we kinda just played around...skipping holes, picking up the balls, trying to jump the ball over the obstacles (it was kinda ok because we were the only ones in there). Coop thought it was the funnest thing in the world to put the ball in the hole and watch it come out the other side.

Then we all went to the golf course to hit some golfballs...

The next day (Friday), Matt golfed pretty much the whole day. The kids, Sarah, and I went to the park and then to Sonic for some drinks (mmmm!)...

(a few seconds after this picture, he decided

to sit in the puddle-so that was nice)

We saw Despicable Me too. It was pretty cute (what I saw of it). We took Coop, and we all know he's NOT good in movies, so I took him out a few times, and he finally fell asleep. The big kids loved the movie. They keep saying "little tiny toilet." I must've missed that part.

(Dinner @ 5 Guys...Addyson-4, Porter-4,

Chloe-6, Brylee-almost 2, & Cooper 20 mos.)

There was lots of playing in the hotel room. I swear that's the best part for the littles. They LOVE hotels (I remember that when I was little. Billy & I used to jump from one bed to the other)! They thought the couch-bed was the greatest thing in the world!

Then on Saturday we decided to go back to Hop 2 It (we went there last year). It's a lot like Kangaroo Zoo, except smaller and really smelly!

The kids LOVED it!

(Porter, Cooper, & Brylee)

Most of the group went home on Saturday, but we usually stay an extra day. Matt & J like to get in one last round of golf. So Sarah, the kids, and I went out to see the falls. They were beautiful, as always.

(looking from the platform-when we first saw the falls, Coopie said "eee watah!!")

Then we headed home...