Family Time with the Anderson's, Wells, Knapp's, and Jacobs

We've been having fun visiting with family we don't see often enough, these past couple weeks.  First, on Friday the 15th, we had the Jacobs and some of the Knapp's family over for a BBQ. Jared had a great night. There were plenty of family members who wanted to play with him. He did a lot of climbing and swinging and always had someone wanting to hold him or play with him and making him smile. What a loved little boy he is! :)

Ryan finally had someone who was better competition than me to play basketball with. I'm not sure who was winning.

We had plenty of desserts at the end of the evening. I made my first pumpkin pie and Roni made her first apple pie. They were both delicious! I also made some homemade Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream to go with our pie and Aunt Maureen made fruity three in one ice cream (I can't remember all that went in it, but it tasted like a fruit smoothy, YUM!). It was all very good!

It was fun to be all  together again and "goof-off," mom's favorite family activity. I guess we just do what we're good at. :)

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On Tuesday the 19th, we got to see the Wells again. Finally!!! It's been too long! The Well's are Ryan's sister, Alisha, her husband, Chris, and their four children: Katie, Elena, Eliza, and Ben. This was the first time Jared got to see his cousins from the Well's family. They all got along very well. Jared loves whenever he can have someone closer to his size to play with. We all had a pizza-picnic dinner in Salt Lake City at the Concert in the Park. It was a great performance. We got to hear Dallyn Vail  Bayles, his wife, and a third singer; I couldn't remember her name, but she was from the cast of Wicked and sang "The Wizard and I" for us. It was amazing to hear such wonderful voices. But, what was even more exciting was being able to see and play with the Well's bunch again! =) We had a great time!

The Well's are starting up a new business called ThrifyPants. It's a hacker-space located out in Michigan, but they'll be doing business online in the future. So, keep them in mind and check them out at:
http://signup.thriftypants.com/?lrRef=O5QQu

Gardening: Week 1

So, this is a little late in posting, but these pictures are to show the garden's progress after one week. It's been fun to watch the plants get bigger and the seedlings slowly sprout up. We've been able to harvest a green bell pepper and some strawberries so far and here are a couple of the sprouts we have now.

We're getting plenty of honey bees.

Spinach sprout.

Radish sprouts.

Mesclun "sweet salad mix" sprouts.

Beet sprouts.

Rafting and Fishing

This Saturday, we went to see Mark and Kris (Ryan's parents) while they were camping at the Timpooneke campgrounds. While at the camper, we had some lunch and did some visiting.

Jared had fun being able to bang on the camper windows while sitting on Grandma's lap.

After a while we drove in Mark and Kris's van to the Deer Creek Reservoir to go rafting and fishing. They already had the "Fish Hunter" blown up, so we just tied it to the dock and climbed in.

Jared was all decked out in sunscreen, sunglasses, hat, and his floaty swim suit. He looked pretty cute!
Mark and Ryan rowed us out in the middle of the reservoir. That was a priceless sight to see. They couldn't decide on where to go, so they both seemed to be trying to row in two different directions. It was pretty hilarious! They were curving back and forth and trying to figure out what was going on on the other side of the raft. It didn't take too long, though, to find a good spot. It was a pretty cozy raft, which made it all the more fun.

Ryan and I brought our fishing poles and tackle box, so we did the fishing and Mark and Kris lounged and relaxed. Kris brought some Salmon eggs to bait the trout. We didn't catch anything, but we had a good time. We noticed as we were fishing that we were drifting to the other side of the reservoir, so we rowed over to a buoy and I tied us to it. It worked out nicely. When we were ready to head back to the dock we had to decide whether we wanted to row all the way back or row to the nearest shore and then walk the rest of the way. After some convincing and going in a couple circles, Ryan and Mark agreed to let me be Sacagawea;D and help row us in. Ryan and I rowed pretty well together. By the time we were back to shore I don't know if Ryan even broke a sweat, but I was pretty tired. We deflated the raft and headed to Heber for dinner at Dairy Keen. :)

Yummy Socks!

Jared is good at always finding something to play with. If nothing else he always has the socks from right off his feet. Whenever he notices his socks, he pulls one off and starts sucking on it. Now he seems to do it all the time. Luckily he has two, so that once he loses the one he has the other. He's a little cutie and he always makes us smile!

Starting Gardening

These past two weeks, Ryan and I have been working on Aunt Maureen and Uncle Jerry's garden. When we got here, two weeks ago, their five square garden beds were filled with a little of oregano, chives, fennel, strawberries, and sage, and a lot of tall grass. Ryan and I both thought it'd be nice to take this opportunity to do some gardening, especially since Maureen and Jerry had some things they were interested in planting, but didn't have the energy for it (at least not as much as Ryan and I had ;D). So I spent last week clearing out the garden beds and getting them ready. I also made a plan for what we wanted to plant and where. Ryan pointed out to me that some plants compliment each other and while others don't grow well together. I had that in mind as I planned out our garden. I wish I had gotten a "before" picture of the garden, because it was a lot of work clearing it out; but, here's the pile of sod we dug up.

 

Once, the boxes were empty, I laid down some card board and then Ryan helped me lay down the ground cover. We then spread out all the bags of garden soil and some compost. My aunt and uncle have a nifty turning compost bin in their backyard; it's kind of neat.

Jared and Aunt Maureen playing and having fun while we garden.

Saturday afternoon, Aunt Maureen and I had gone to Home Depot to get all our plants, seeds, and soil. I picked out some flowers because I'd read that some flowers, like petunias and marigolds compliment certain vegetable plants really well, by attracting some bugs and keeping others away. But, as I was planting, I also realized that they also make the garden so much prettier. Ryan and I worked most of Saturday evening to get the boxes filled with soil. Before going in, we soaked them  really good so the soil could sink down during the night.

On Monday, I spent the day adding a bit more soil and then planting the plants. After being out there all day I got most of the plants in the ground and a good sunburn-tan on my arms. That evening, when Ryan got home, he helped me finish up with the strawberry plants and then the garden plants were done. On Tuesday, I planted the seeds in the garden beds and then planted the herb plants and seeds in some herb boxes by the house. Today, I planted some marigolds and petunias in some hanging baskets and now I'm basically done!! So here's our garden!

Front-left box: zucchini, cucumber, gourd, peas, spinach, laguna flowers, and stellar flowers.

Middle box: green, yellow, and orange bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, pimientos, basil, cilantro, lettuce, mesclun salad blend, strawberry zest petunias, and red petunias.

Front right box: tomatoes, chives, oregano, carrots, and purple and white petunias.

Back right box: strawberries, sage, radishes, beats, and infinity flowers.

Back left box: pumpkins, corn, green beans, watermelon, straight squash, and marigolds.

Spearmint, sage, lavender, dill, and peppermint.

Bee balm, tarragon, lemon balm, rosemary, and thyme.

Marigolds and petunias. :)