beginner's luck

Well, I wouldn't say that we are all green thumbs around here. It doesn't help that we haven't had two hot days to rub together for nearly six weeks. But we've had some success so far with our deck garden.


Here are some of our carrots against a backdrop of the mighty basil that is making a valiant post-beetle comeback. None of the other herbs have done much. The cilantro and parsley popped up, but it just hasn't been hot enough.

The bell pepper plants are getting busy. 

Back at the beginning of June there was a stretch of hot weather during which the tomatoes and pumpkin plants grew in great strides. The tomato bushes are laden with green fruit. We need some sunny days already. We have one brave tomato that is starting to rosy up.  

We've learned a few things about growing pumpkins. Did you know that each pumpkin plant sends up 'male' and 'female' flowers that have to cross pollinate in order to get a squash? It is true. 
This is the female flower. It has the little bulb at its base that will become the pumpkin if it is successfully pollinated. You can see the male flowers in the background. They are a lot larger and stand straight up on long stems. 
Below is a picture of what happens when the female flower is not cross pollinated. The fruit starts to grow, but then shrivels and falls off the vine. We've had a lot of this happening. We suspect it has to do with the mass extermination of insects happening in our general area of late. (Those darn japanese beetles!) No bees= no cross pollination. So we attentively watch for the female flowers to open and will pollinate them ourselves. Who knew?

Gracidotes

"But I want you to obey my command."

"You know what? You're the best."

"Mom. I really need some rock and roll music."

"Uh-oh, you're busted!" (What she says to anyone caught speaking with his/her mouth full)

"Uh-oh, I'm busted!" (She is not a hypocrite)

computer time

Grace is very, very excited to start preschool next month. I am having mixed feelings about it. It is everyday AND there is a bus which, naturally, she is determined to take. She can write her own name (most of the time) and practices her letters everyday. Meanwhile, I freak out a little bit more everyday. Have I taught her enough about strangers? She doesn't know our phone number! What if she needs a little quiet time/snack/hug? This is all normal, right?

Some favorite things these days:

• playing on the Starfall computer site
• interpreting for Grant: "He says he wants some milk, Mom. Right now!"
• explaining to anyone who will sit still how everything works
• sneaking into our room to sleep on our couch in the middle of the night- sometimes she is not so sneaky about it
• making up stories
• going to Primary
• her cousins- she misses them terribly
• being busy: books, art projects, games, puzzles, running around with the boys outside- this girl is always on the move
• the blowing and catching of kisses

Grace is very confident. It is a bit of a paradoxical situation for me. I want her to feel strong, inside and out. But at times her confidence leads to disreputable behavior. Normal for a 3 year old, I guess. Really though, I'm happy that she is happy being our Gracie bug.

Example- our conversation just now:

G: Mom, will you take a picture of me with all of my animals?

Me: I don't have the camera out just now, but I'll get it in a minute. I'm writing about you on the computer.

G: Because I'm so cute?

Me: trying not to laugh Yep.

summer knees

a few highlights

Nauvoo was just as great the second time around. I couldn't believe the weather. We were anticipating hot, humid and muggy. We got rainy, cool and then, towards the end of the week, paradisiacal. I had a splendid birthday. We got to see the Nauvoo Pageant. It wasn't very crowded. And it was just fun to be there with my parents.

Dad 'whipping' a rope

I can't tell you why Gracie's eyes are so dilated in this picture. She is easily excited.

At the Land and Records office you can take in family names and find out if they lived in Nauvoo, and if so where their land was/is located. Dad had a few names and came away with a disc full of information, journal entries he hadn't ever seen and map coordinates.

Almost all that greenery behind us is growing out of the river. 

Cori and I went to the Temple on my birthday.

Cori was quite the pioneer at the Pageant preshow activities. First he pulled his family in a handcart- through the mud, mind you. Then he sawed at a log with Dad.

Cori chastising the congregation (us) from the pulpit of the Seventies Hall.

The house we stayed in was really interesting. It sits right on the river and is designed inside and out to resemble a modern day castle. We saw a particularly glorious sunset.

Our last morning in that area, we went out to Carthage Jail. 

We then headed north to Galena where Mom and Dad toured the Ulysses S. Grant Home historic site. Then we wandered the shops downtown for a while. We got to our hotel just in time to miss an incredible deluge. We were later asked to evacuate the inside pool (?!) due to tornado warnings. So we sat in the lobby, in our swimsuits, with other hotel guests and watched the weather channel for an hour or so until the warning was lifted. Then we went back into the pool until they evacuated us a second time and we decided to call it a night. 

The next day we went back out to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. We love museums. Notice the turtles in this picture with the kids.

In the pilot house of the dredging boat listening to Papa Jeff who was taking orders down in the engine room.

We had the most relaxing Sunday. Church then grilled pizzas and afternoon naps. That evening we went to the park as we read on a city calendar that the Sunday night concerts were still going. The performance shell was empty. We would not be detered from our amusement and went for a walk. Gracie kept Papa Jeff busy and Grammie Marla taught her how to catch fireflies. It was a perfect end to our week together.

farewell

This morning, we bade adieu not only to my parents but to our summer travels. We had a wonderful trip. I'll get around to posting about it soon I hope. Thanks again for letting us crash in on your Nauvoo trip, Mom and Dad! And for extending it a bit to hang out with us up north.

Blessings

Japanese beetle traps I spent the first part of the week scheduling yard maintenance people to come take care of the beetles. I then spent the middle part of the week waiting for them to show up whilst the beetles continued consuming select bushes, trees and herbs from our yard. We then began buying up sprays and traps to keep the pests at bay. I then cancelled the professional extermination as we had spent nearly as much in waiting for them. We think we've got things under control. The trees are doing well. The basil is making a great comeback (huzzah!) I think the rose bushes really took the brunt of the damage. I'm glad we found some other solutions. It helps that our neighbors have been taking action as well.

Time with family I'm just so grateful for the trip we just had. I got to spend time with all my siblings. We hung out with Jared a couple of times. I spent a day shopping with Thea. Sara joined us a couple of times in Utah. And once in Utah, we got to spend some time with all of Cori's brothers and sisters and their spouses and children as well. This is quite the feat and we are very grateful to have been with everyone.

More vacation I know, enough already, right? My parents are meeting us in Nauvoo tomorrow. We are excited to go back.

Our time in Michigan I've had it on my brain a lot lately and have felt very homesick for our friends and the country side up there. It was a special experience for us to be there- a gift really. We are working on getting back up for a visit sometime in the Fall (fingers crossed!). 

a room with a view

Santaquin Peak rises high in the mountain skyline behind Sandy and Ray's house. It is the pinnacle of the hills of Cori's childhood. He spent months of his young life climbing up and running down the valleys that stream from its shale summit. There is a well travelled trail that starts a 45 minute drive away, near Payson Lakes. The trail winds steep and steady up the backside of the peak. Cori has always wanted to hike the face to the top. There is a crescent of cliffs that skirts the upper passage to the peak which had always made the trip impossible. 

We decided to make an overnight adventure of climbing the trail and then blazing our own path down the face. Cori is familiar with the terrain up there, and Ray printed us some maps. Plus, we had Cori's house in view nearly the whole way down- our chances of getting lost were very slim. So I didn't worry too much about blatantly neglecting the cardinal rule of hiking: stay on the trail.

The hike up was beautiful. June was a remarkably wet month for Utah and the proof was in the terrain. The landscape was soft and colorful. 

As we neared the top we had to traverse a few snowy patches. Rampant wild flowers were poking through the slush. 

This is me just before the final ascent to the peak right above my head. We made good time and mounted the summit with plenty of daylight left. We phoned down to Sandy's house and they got out binoculars to see us waving from the top. We were able to get a pretty decent picture of the house- considering it was about 5,000 ft below us. It is centrally located in this photo below.

It really feels like being on top of the world up there. The view stretches for 360* and has the effect of looking down on everything.

With the uphill part of our journey completed, we had a decision to make regarding where we would set up camp. We had seen a few places along the way, but that would have meant backtracking a mile or so and then retracing our steps back to the face the next day to hike down. We were both pretty pooped, but decided to begin our descent down the face so as to find a camping spot along our way back home.

Fortunately we didn't have to go too far. We picked our way around the right side of the cliffs just below the peak (pictured above) and came down into a big grassy bowl. It was a perfect spot for the night. We had Santaquin Peak behind us and all of Utah Valley in front. We set up camp. Cori started a fire. We drank 6 packets worth of hot chocolate and spent the rest of the evening boiling snow to use as drinking water the next day.

We sat on that log behind the fire and watched the sun go down and the lights in the valley come up. 



I have only two pictures of our hike down. It was steep. It was absurdly full of brush, bush, felled trees, bumble bees, and all manner of impaling objects. We traversed the ridges using deer and elk trails and then we were on our own heading straight down. I spent most of the time thinking of gospel object lessons about the peace and security of staying on the trail. Then, I very nearly cried tears of relief when we intersected the trail to lead us out into Woodland Hills- my legs were so shaky and tired. But we did it. Something for Cori to cross off his list and I was glad I got to do it with him. Our room with a view the night before made the hike out well worth the trouble.