Gladiolus!

Our front lawn has a flower bed where we put in a bunch of bulbs. One of my favorite are gladiolus. We planted these in our San Diego garden, and has loved them ever since. Besides being beautiful out in front of the house, we love having fresh flowers inside on the table.

Peaches

Earlier this spring, we bought a peach tree as one of our early yard expenditures.  Living in the Northwest, we have a great climate for fruit trees.  Across the street from our house is a large orchard with apples and pears.  So we were really excited to get some fruit trees of our own.  We found a nice local nursery, The Flower Farm, which had many beautiful varieties.  After some consultation with the owner, we found out that apple trees and cherry trees need constant spraying for worms and whatnot.  We settled on a peach tree.

Growing up, my dad was always planting fruit trees in our yards. I remember Kansas and Texas, but I presume that he planted in Iowa, North Dakota and Missouri.  The only problem was that they took forever to bear fruit.  We only lived in these houses for about 5 years, and I just remember that we rarely got a good crop out of any of them.  The lone exception being the mulberry tree in Kansas, but that was planted before we owned the house.

The tree that we bought was significantly more mature than the average twig that you buy at walmart, but I was surprised when the nursery owner told me that it would bear fruit this year. This last week, we got ~20 beautiful and delicious peaches. They were so good that we may end up buying another tree next year. I could personally eat peaches all summer long.  They are amazing! And if we have so many that we can't eat them all, canned peaches are also good.  But I don't think I'd ever let it get to that point.

Cherry Picking

This past Saturday, Mollie and I and the kids went to a local U-pick orchard.  It was their last weekend for the cherry harvest. At work a lot of people have been talking up a local variety of cherry called the "rainier cherry" presumably named after Mount Rainier. So when Mollie said she found a farm with this variety, I was really excited.  Cherries fit well with the U-pick philosophy. They are pretty expensive at the store, and most of that is probably because they are difficult to harvest and bruise easily.  Wikipedia (which cannot tell a lie) says these prize cherries go for $5 per pound.  Our U-pick price was a modest $1.50.  And they were worth every penny.  So amazing.  I am extra appreciative of the flavor and quality because a week ago I purchased some cherries at Walmart.  Half the bag was past ripe and rotting.  The other half just did not taste very good.  So after struggling to find half a dozen good ones, I just threw the rest of the bag away.  I was totally sour on cherries.

The rainier variety does not get the deep red color that bing cherries do when they are ripe. They are more like a Fuji apple color. So I was not sure how to judge what was ripe, but given that it was the last weekend of the harvest, I guessed that everything would be ripe, and well... I was right.  Out in the orchard, we found plentiful supply of delicious ripe cherries.  We picked a 5 gallon container in about 15 minutes.

 Since it was the end of the season, many of the trees were picked clean up to about 6 feet high.  So I put the kids on my shoulders to reach up and get the rest.

It was a great, fun quick summer outing.

 I plan to do a lot of U-pick this summer, we had great luck today, and in the past with both blackberries and peaches.  On a related note, I hope that they have good side-of-the-road corn stands; those are awesome.

4th of July

After we got back from the trip up to Bear Lake, we started making preparations for the 4th of July.  Harmon's Lagoon day was the next day, and so we tried to lay a little low on the 4th to save our energy for Lagoon.  We attended Farmington's parade, which the kids loved. 

All the cousins at the parade, except for Clara.  It's fun to have everyone together, as it doesn't seem to happen very often. 

Many of the floats threw out candy, so the kids all got a kick out of that.



  The rest of the day we had yummy food, and just played around with Family.  I think everyone was there except for Aaron, Amanda's husband.  The boys had fun shooting hoops with uncle Nathan's at the neighbors house, and the kids all enjoyed the pool at my parents house.

We watched several different fireworks shows from the comfort of my parents driveway, and then headed off to bed to get rest for the big day at Lagoon. 

The next day we headed off to Lagoon.  Every year, my dad's employer has a Lagoon day.  They offer discounted tickets to extended family, and my parents have been very generous in hosting all the grand kids (and us, their parents) every year. Beyond just discount tickets, the amazing part about Harmon's lagoon day is the amenities.  They have 2 huge pavilions set up just for them (you wear a wristband all day to get in) where they have all you can eat ice cream, cookies, cotton candy, watermelon, popcicles, chips, etc. and hot dogs and hamburgers for sale for just a dollar or two. We missed last year, as we lived in MD, and we didn't have another trip to Utah planned, especially since it was looking like we were going to move out west soon.  So we were excited to go again this year.  The kids all had a great time, and the adults enjoyed themselves quite a bit as well.  Some of us went to Lagoon-a-beach this year, and I think I'd skip that next time.  I guess I'm not a huge water park person, and it seems like a waste of time to be changing (and helping all the kids change) when you could just be spending time riding rides.  We did have a bit of scare with Harrison.  We had come up with a meeting place if anyone got lost, and what do you know, Harrison disappeared at one point.  He had us in a panic for a good 10 minutes or so.  I guess he got turned around, and couldn't find the front of the park where we were suppose to meet up.  But my dad found him somehow, and all was well again.

Here's some pictures to enjoy

Sam and Livie on the Carousel.

Bear Lake - Boat rides

Over the 4th of July weekend, Mollie's family held a reunion at Bear Lake.  Her uncle Richard and his family also came along and brought their boat! We got there on Friday mid morning and it was a beautiful day, and not very crowded.  Richard suggested that the extra cold water was keeping the people away.  Utah has had a very wet year.  Winter snowfall was enough to keep the resorts open till July 4th.  Melting snow and big spring rains brought the lake depth to10 feet above average.  In addition to making the water super cold, it made a great beach.  We could walk out into the water for maybe 50 yards and still not be waist deep.  I put a stake out in the water near where it was waist deep for my boys and told them to not go beyond the stick.  I was not worried that they were in any trouble with the water being so shallow, but just that if anything happened, it would take me forever to get out there running through knee-deep water.

The kids loved playing in the water, and everyone got a turn or two on Richard's boat. The boat had water skis, a wake board, and a big tube that fits three people. I went out on the first excursion of people who wanted to water ski.  Apparently it's best to do this in the morning when the waves are calmest.  When it was my turn, I was able to get up but not stay up long term.  I did better than my last time, which was as a teenager on the Glaser's boat.  But I still did not quite get the hang of it.  Getting out of the water was not too hard, but I didn't figure out how to balance my stance.

On trip number 2, Mollie and I took the kids on the boat so they could ride the tube. Everybody loved it, but their individual personalities were definitely on display.  Harrison, who is naturally cautious would have been happy if the boat had been going much slower.  As we went around the lake and over wakes, he kept saying, "It's okay.  But no faster.  No turning either."  Noah on the other hand was constantly screaming exited shrieks.  Olivia went on with me and her cousin Emma.  They were both good sports.  After loving it for about 5 minutes, Olivia abruptly said "I'm done."  She was happy and willing to explore, but only for so long. Both Noah and Olivia went on several times.  They also loved playing on the tube in the shallow beach during lunch and whenever the boat was not out on the lake.