Now that summer is officially over (for the kids) I can do sort of a re-cap, So here goes.


Garden is doing fantastic!!! Cucumbers are endless. They're the "skinless" kind. But taste just as good.


Beans are doing the best! Every week I'm getting a bigger bowl full than this one. So I have blanched and frozen till they are all done, and then I'm going to go crazy with making dilly beans. I'm still looking for a good recipie if any of you out there have one.





We've had some unusual rain storms this summer and the gutters have flooded PLENTY. On this particular day, Dylan ventured out to play in the water. The other two quickly followed suit.

You can't tell, but for some reason they only wanted to wear jackets and underwear. Whatever works, I suppose.

Mykael started Junior High! And for Gym class she needed clothes. SO I took her to D.I. (equivalent to a second hand store) to find something that would work. Requirements were white t-shirt with name on it and shorts. We found two white shirts for $2.00, the running skirt for $3.00 and the pants for $2.00. I wanted to do something cute with her name but didn't want to go overboard, but didn't want to go with the traditional magic marker. Walmart had these iron-on letters for $1.00. She didn't know if it had to be first and last name so I put both. First name on the front. Last name on the back butt area. I thought it was cute. And she even went along with the sparkles on the gray set.

Jade and Ash had thier first day yesterday and looked mighty fine I must say.

Pictures that Mykael took. I like what she sees through the lens.

This is my favorite. I like the focus on the yellow flowers in the background. But I doubt thats what she was going for, it just happened.

This is Aspen. And this is how she sleeps at night.

I found this chrysalis a little over two weeks ago. I've researched to find out what it's going to be but I'm still unsure. I thought it was a moth but moths have "cacoons" that look like white wrapped sacs, and this looks a like butterfly "chrysalis". BUT...moths take up to 8 weeks to change where as butterflys only 2. This little guy is still wrapped all up nice and cozy. Or maybe it's dead. I don't know.

An elderly lady in my ward had a birthday recently and it was suggested that a cake be made for her. I of course jumped on that and this is what I came up with. I REALLY wanted to play with the flowers, so I borrowed a friends fondant tools and had a blast. Cute stuff.

A Day at the Lake....

In my mind lies a world of perfection. The memories and the ideas. I know there are some not so perfect thoughts, feelings, or rememberings but they're in the very back, collecting dust and being forgotten, if not forgotten already.

Today, we're going to talk about the perfect ideas caged up in my head. On this particular day, I envisioned a perfect sunny day at the beach. With a perfectly happy family. And perfect activities for the kids.

Seeing that we don't have any ocean's beaches anywhere near us, we decided to go to a perfect lake in the mountains. It was sunny and warm. We found a perfect boat for a perfect price. (It was on sale!) And my perfect idea was forming out nicely. We loaded everything up and found a portion of "beach" that was vacant. Everywhere else was packed! Couldn't get more perfect than that!

We got all set up and headed out to the water. But then my prefect day was put in jepordy, but without a second thought knew it would just blow over without blocking a single sun ray. We were going to be ok.

On second thought, maybe a slight slipup in the perfection of the day. But I was going to be a little lenient. Enough to let the clouds blow over then resume the sunny day in which still shown bright in my perfect little mind.

I was sitting in my chair when I felt something. One small something with no source to come from other than, UP! I waited (and held my breath) for another small something and sure enough, I felt it. I immediately voiced my disgust to my dear husband, but remained optimistic that it would pass quickly.

And quickly it did NOT pass by. My refusal to let go of a perfect day at the beach was not going to budge because DANG IT, we just got here and I just set everything up, and we have our own stinking BEACH!!!

We just did a little rearranging. That's all.

A few more layers to cover my perfect offspring's minds, that were developing on their own.

The rain eventually stopped. And the wind, not so much.

but that's ok. It was perfect! For this picture!

It helped with the momemtum to get that perfect little mouth around the perfectly LARGE bite!

(yes, Mykael. I totally just took that picture. You're welcome!) :o)

Our perfect boat being used for the prefect reason.

There's really nothing perfect about this picture. Other than the perfectly humungus....mountains in the background. What? You looking at something else that's perfectly large??? The water?! Yes, it was.

After awhile, the envisioned day resumed to where it needed to be. The kids had a great time with all the sand castle equipment I brought along. The tupperware drawer had loads of fun bowls and cups to use.

The water even became warm. (I think perhaps because of the perfect 70 degree temperatures we were having.)

The only not-so-perfect incident that occured that day. After this picture I was instantly up to my waist in water pulling this little eager fish out of the water. He found a rather deep hole. Real quick!

Perfect frollicking.

A perfect day. Wouldn't you agree?

Over the River and through the.................

................................................................................

...uhhh.....desert? To Grandmother's house we go.

From riding toys to exploring the open desert

the kids have a blast and are never bored. We love St. George. We miss it! But when we are finally able to make the trip we find ourselves asking why we don't go more often. I hate how life does that to us. We even got to see Uncle Coley. Mr. BigShotHelicopterPilotInVegas! The kids just love him.

We love you grams and gramps. MEOW!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

miss you already

Christmas break was spent playing with the new "goods" that Santa delivered and then right before we had to be back to school we went to visit daddy in "Dino-land".

While he was at work during the day, I took the kids to a dinosaur museum. I think they had a pretty good time! There weren't many people there so I was able to relax a little and just let the kids explore what they could.

They had a lot of interacting activities for the kids.

This is my favorite picture. Looks like Mr. Rex forgot to ask for his 1 1/2 teeth for christmas.

Can't imagine what it would've been like to get ripped apart with those things. Glad I was born when I was and not with the cavemen.

Dylan playing with the not-so-scary dinos.

Ok.... So, I'm a sucker for imprinted fossils and here, they had this HUGE wall of nothing but. During the short "10 minute video" at the beginning, it was explained that where water used to be, ANYTHING that fell into the water and rested on the bottom, the floating sediment would just "rain" down on whatever/leaf layering it in mud and eventually (with enough mud/weight, kept it preserved in that shape for like, EVER! So when the expedition took place, they came upon this "layer" and found all sorts of glorious things. EXCITING!

How much more perfect can you get, from a million years ago?

Mammoth

Raptor

Glow rocks ( For as dark as it was, I had to hold the camera as still as possible while the shutter allowed enough light in to take the picture. And for those who know me, I tend to shake a little. SO,I think it turned out as well as possible....for me. )

He was determined to get down himself.

Butterflies. There's just something about them being aligned so perfectly that I don't mind them being dead. Otherwise,I think they belong on a nice flower...in my garden...alive.

They had some cool American Indian artifacts, but my batteries were dying and the quality of pictures were declining/blurring. (But I do believe that Mykael may have gotten some. I'll have to steal those later.)