Reunion Time

After leaving Ft. Collins we drove up to Laramie for the annual Nicholls reunion. I had made it to every single one since meeting my husband, until 2 years ago. We had a two year absence, but made it back this year! The crowd is changing. We were missing a lot of people who are growing up and moving away, but there is a whole new generation of kids replacing them.

After the reunion was over we drove over to Cheyenne and spent a couple days. We had dinner at Nicole and Doo Sung's Sunday night and just hung out. We were a bit worn out, and called it a night fairly early. Then Monday morning the girls got to swim in the hotel pool -- well, we all did -- for quite a while. We had no plans until noon, so we just had fun. At noon we met everyone for lunch at Quiznos and then went over to Grandma & Grandpa's afterwards. Sophie had brought her brand new slip 'n slide that she'd just got right before we left, so we whipped that out and the kids had a ball. My girls got cold before the Kang's and kind of gave up. Then they moved on to badminton and croquet. Grandma had to take her cat to a vet appointment, but as soon as she got back we went to visit the Cheyenne library. They built a new one shortly after we left, and let me just say that I was impressed! I love our little Centerville library, but it just doesn't hold a candle to Cheyenne's. Brandon's mom took me to check out the genealogy section and we kind of got caught in a tour rather than getting to look at anything, but that's ok. There probably wasn't enough time for me to really do any research anyway. Then it was time to go to dinner. We met Doo Sung after work at Olive Garden. We had a bit of a wait, so Grandma took Chloe over to the mall and they picked out necklaces for all the girls (with their initial) and James got a mummy toy. After dinner we met back at Nicole and Doo Sung's for dessert, and then it was time to go.

We spent one last round in the pool Tuesday morning before we had to check out, and then went and found my dad who was in town for some meetings. We caught him during a break and gave him his birthday present. He wasn't too surprised since he'd put out the request for it, and had already received two calls/texts wondering if I'd delivered it yet. Then it was time to hit the road. We were exhausted by the time we got home, but we had to stop and pick up Sophie's watermelon before even getting to our house. We had some nice neighbors pick it up at the fair for her. Then we ate it for dinner -- along with our bread!

Fort Collins

It feels like we've been very active this summer, and this weekend was no exception. I had the amazing opportunity to go visit an even more amazing friend. I met Kristin when we were living in Cheyenne. We only knew each other for a little over a year before we moved, but I made a friendship that will last a lifetime. The Salanoa family just knows how to click with people. Two months after we left Cheyenne they also moved, to California, and have recently moved back to Ft. Collins, Colorado. I knew the next time we made it to Cheyenne we would have to meet up, and we were able to make it happen!

We left on Friday and got to Ft. Collins in time to have dinner and let the girls swim in the hotel pool. Saturday morning we went over to the Salanoa's and had breakfast. Kristin made some awesome banana pancakes with strawberries on top (YUM!), but was so kind to make a batch for Brandon without bananas since he has an allergy. After discussing our options, the kids all voted to go swim in the pool. I knew that would be Chloe's first choice, but I was a little surprised that everyone else wanted to do it too. I tried to take pictures, but my indoor pool pictures just never turn out. After a couple near death experiences we decided it was time to leave the pool, and went back to the Salanoa's for lunch.

After lunch we decided to go visit a raptor refuge that Tyler & Kyle are crazy about. They were the best tour guides I could imagine! These boys are so knowledgeable about everything to do with birds, and even have their own blog where they post about different birds. There were eagles, hawks, an owl (that I somehow missed!), and a vulture that have been harmed in various ways, but can't be sent back into the wild or they wouldn't survive.

Then we went to a huge park to play. Even though there was so much to do, the swings appeared to be everyone's favorite. Go figure! Brandon made a little buddy. He's the one who pulled Trey out of the pool when he lost hold of the edge, and he found Trey when he'd gotten lost at the park. Yes, he really is Superman! We played at the park until Monty got off work, and then we all went out to dinner -- Panera! We don't have one around here, so I was excited to get to go to one. Then we all said good-bye, but not for the last time. Kristin came back to our hotel Sunday morning to bring us a bag of goodies. Her husband works for WonderBread, and he hooked us up with some bread, Twinkies and Zingers!! Oh, the death of me! But the bread came in very handy when we got back from our trip and didn't have any food in the house.

I'm so thankful we had this opportunity to get together! I hope it's not another 6 years, but we've got a trip to Hawaii planned together (or anywhere else she'd like to go, I'm flexible). I don't know when it will happen, but it will happen!

Cousins * County Fair * Erin

This should probably be about 3 different posts, but I'm playing catch-up today so for the sake of time we'll cram them together.

We got to play with/babysit some cousins a little over a week ago. I believe Jason and Shalee are coming to expect pictures of their kids whenever they come over, so here are a couple for you.




Topic #2: We had cucumbers coming out of our ears. Chloe wanted to make pickles, but that project was overwhelming me. We had several cucumbers go bad just waiting for me to figure out how to pickle them. In the meantime I decided relish would be more useful. We actually use that -- we don't usually eat pickles. So, I finally got to work and made some relish! It took all day, and I didn't really have the right tools (I wanted to make sure canning is really something I want to do before making the investment), but it worked out. I actually haven't tried any of it yet, but Brandon has and said it's pretty good.


The next day I was busy baking. I had a bunch of raspberries I'd gotten at the farmer's market that I was trying to use up. Since I'd finally figured out the whole canning thing, I thought I could try some freezer jam. Holy cow was that easy! Now I just feel dumb for not doing it sooner. When our peaches are ready I'm excited to try peach jam.

Topic #3: The Davis County Fair
This year we really didn't have time to spend at the fair, but we still managed to fit a few activities in (very rushed!) To start with: Sophie had grown a watermelon that she had planned to enter in the fair. When she first got her seed we were a little skeptical that it would be ready in time for the fair, but she got a pretty decent sized melon. When we turned her entry in, the judges or whoever that is taking the entries were so great with her. They made her feel so special. We had to go back the next day to see what ribbon she got -- not only did she get a blue ribbon (first place), but she also won Best of Division! This girl has been on cloud 9 ever since. She's pretty proud of her watermelon. Now both girls are planning what they're going to enter next year. I think the prize money has got them fired up.


We had to go back to the fair again the following day. I would have preferred to just do it all in one trip, but Sophie was too excited to go see what she had won with her melon the day before, and the pie eating contest wasn't until Thursday. So we made two trips. They only choose 8 participants per age group (under 7, 8-12, and over 13), and their are a lot more people who'd like to participate so they pull names from a box. This just seemed to be our year. Chloe got chosen! But then she got scared and didn't want to go, so Sophie took her place. She didn't win, but she got to bring home her chocolate cream pie and got a certificate for a free meal at Marie Calendars for participating.



After that we had to head over to the Davis Reads booth to turn in our list of books they'd read this summer to get a free ride. They also were handing out free books! And not just crappy books, really good classics! Sophie chose "Pollyanna" and Chloe got "Little Men." Then we went and rode the rides. Sophie ended up getting to go twice on her ride, just to add to her stroke of luck she seemed to have.

When we were there on Wednesday to check on the melon we stopped by the kids tent and got balloon animals. That's a tradition. Chloe got a mouse (yes, I know it looks more like a dog), and you have no doubt that Sophie asked for a bear, right?


Topic#4: Erin

I found on on Wednesday that my cousin who lives in North Carolina was going to be in town. Even though I felt like I had a hundred things going on I was able to squeeze in a visit. She was here for a "Dress Your Truth" convention, and invited me to come to a girl's night out event. Even though it was pretty short, I'm glad I got to go visit with her for a bit, and I got to meet the newest addition to their family.

So Great a Cause

We had a wonderful stake activity on Saturday. You may have heard me complain a time or two about the lack of activities around here, but after this one I think I'm willing to forgive. Our stake went all out. It was just amazing. This activity was the culmination of a year long goal to work on service. I think I read something in the Ensign that gave me the impression this was a church-wide goal, but I'm not sure about that. We were asked as individuals, families and wards to set goals to find different ways to serve -- specifically outside of our area. They really stressed that this isn't supposed to end after this activity, but that we'll continue to find ways to serve (as should always be the case!)

As for Saturday's event, there was so much to see and do! We sure didn't have time to fit it all in, and we were there for the entire 5 hours.

• There was a talent section -- 3 1/2 hours of various stake members performing musical numbers, recitations, and theatrical pieces.
  
• The games and activities consisted of face painting, a petting zoo, fishing pond, bounce house and obstacle course, human foosball, relay games, Minute-to-Win-it games, and watermelon eating contests. I was really impressed with the way they tied all these fun activities into gospel principles. It really strengthened the point of why we were there, but also made it enjoyable.
  
• The different displays consisted of a world map where people could place pins of where they had served, a trail of testimonies (kind of like in Nauvoo, but with testimonies from recent converts in our stake), Book of Mormon testimonies (for people to fill out their personal testimonies to share with missionaries to hand out), arts and crafts display (Chloe entered a drawing she had done and Sophie made a clay sculpture), and they had "I'm a Mormon" video clips made from some of the youth in the stake.
  
• There was a "giving tree" filled with different acts of service that you could pull off. We took one to help get supplies for a school in Ghana. They also collected canned food for the food bank.
  
• Dinner was served, as well as various concession stands: cotton candy, popcorn, and ice cream! And let's not forget, they didn't overlook the need to have water stations! Brilliant :)
  
• Then it was all topped off with a celebration program. They put together a time capsule that will be opened in 20 years, at our stakes 50th anniversary. We all had little parts to play. I was only aware of the primary's part they would do. Sophie was a wee bit disappointed that they didn't get to go up on the stage, but they just had them stand where they were seated and wave flags they had made and sing a song we had practiced. I thought the whole thing was very moving, but I especially loved the end when everyone with mini flashlights (handed out before the program began) started waving them and then they set off some glow-in-the-dark balloons.
  

Some friends had asked Brandon to take their family photo, and I thought it looked so cute I asked them if they would do the same for us. The part we're covering says "CENTERVILLE NORTH STAKE, ESTABLISHED APRIL 11, 1982."

Fair Week

Several months ago my mom asked if we would come dance with her group in the fair. They had one song they needed some "extras" for. My understanding of the whole thing changed several times over this time period, so I'll just stick to what really happened. Chloe chose not to participate, but Sophie was a good sport. We went up to Afton on Wednesday and that night we met a couple people who showed her the dance steps. They were pretty difficult, especially without much time to practice. The performance was on Thursday -- they did it twice. It was supposed to be kind of like a flash mob style, but there were two different spots in the song where random people just started dancing along. I was sitting too close to Sophie, so I couldn't capture it on video or camera, but she participated. I was able to get to the sidelines during the other songs and got lots of pictures of Grandma dancing.


Wednesday night after Sophie's practice we went to the pulling matches. The kids didn't stay long, but Brandon and I hung out for the whole show with my dad. Brandon got all his questions answered, so now he could ace a pulling match test.

Thursday between performances we walked around and saw all the exhibits. But the highlight of the trip was probably jumping on the trampoline. Our trampoline died about a year after we got it, and Sophie has really been wanting a new one lately. Going to grandma's just solidified that.



We had to leave Friday morning. We went to Montpelier to replenish our food storage. We're trying to diversify our grains, so we didn't get any wheat this time and just filled all our buckets with other things (oats, Kamut, rice, and corn). Then we stopped by to visit my grandma and took her to lunch. Then it was on to Logan where we had a bike to drop off at Ross's, and then we checked into our motel. We'd had such a late lunch so we just hung out at the motel for a bit before we drove up to Clarkston for the Martin Harris pageant. We took jackets (all except Brandon) and lots of blankets, so I thought we were well prepared, but it was still pretty chilly. Aside from the cold, the show was well worth it. I guess they just redid it and got a new set, so if you've seen it before you should go see the new one.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This summer has been my favorite in Utah. I love the warmer weather here, but the summers tend to be so dry which only makes the heat unbearable. This year we've had plenty of rain, which not only cools things off a bit but it also makes it pretty! Yesterday we got a great storm, and I loved that the girls wanted to run out and play in it. Chloe didn't want to be in my picture -- she said the umbrella kept poking her standing next to Sophie, so here's Sophie enjoying some rain:


I also wanted to get some pictures of our garden.


We've already harvested all our spinach for the year. We also tried two different kinds of lettuce this year, but unfortunately we don't remember what they were called! We liked one of them, but the other was a little bitter. We also have some garlic hanging in the garage to dry. They look really nice. Brandon accidentally pulled a green onion out yesterday, so we had him with dinner tonight along with a small onion he had pulled up and they were yummy. Chloe cannot wait for the corn to be ready, but in the meantime she is loving the stuff we get at the farmer's market. Our carrots are coming along great -- although the rain kind of gave them a part down the middle yesterday! We'll probably dig some up next week to see how they're doing. We have some bell peppers and (hopefully!) and eggplant that still haven't produced anything yet. Our broccoli just started popping a little broccoli out.


Sophie planted a watermelon seed this year. She's really excited about it. There's a couple really nice sized melons growing, and several smaller ones working on it.


We've already eaten a few cucumbers and zucchini. Chloe wants to make some pickles with the cucumbers, so we're going to try that soon. While I was out taking pictures last night I found this monster of a zucchini hiding in the garden. I had Chloe hold it up so you could see the size. We shredded it to freeze and got 7 cups out of him!


We've also had a good crop of blackberries. They've done by far better this year than last -- may have even paid themselves off (for the cost of the plants). Our boysenberries have been a lot slower, but one bush has a lot that might be ready to eat shortly. I forgot to take pictures of the berries. And the peach tree has a few little peaches. We always get way more grapes than we know what to do with, but Brandon bought a steamer last year that made the juice making process much easier. It's really just a matter of time that determines how much juice we can make. My neighbor is going to bring me a recipe for some grape syrup, so we'll see how that turns out.