Summer Fun

I'd first like to start you off with a little taste of something we've enjoyed in our garden this year.  YUM!  Too bad their season is over.  Now we are enjoying lots of raspberries, beans, and lettuce (and herbs).  Our spinach is done, and so are the peas, which Emma thoroughly enjoyed.

For Memorial Day (I know, I'm a bit behind) we went to an arts festival.  The highlight of going was that we rode our bikes there.  Despite the heat, I LOVED this family activity.

Here are some pictures of that weekend.  I just love these little faces, and had to share our sweet little girls with you.

We made ice cream in a bag for a family home evening treat one Monday.  We all loved it.  Of course, it has been so hot, and the ice cream was mostly soup by the time we finished eating it.  It was still delicious.

We've been taking advantage of the heat and swimming a lot.  The girls have some pretty impressive tan lines, even with all of the sunscreen I put on them.  I, on the other hand, don't look any different.  I wasn't blessed with nice tanning skin. 

San Diego and Cowboys

Randy got to go on a 5 day trip to San Diego for a "school" trip.  He was so pampered.  Gourmet food, sleeping in, etc.  I guess he did go to conferences every day, but he also went to the San Diego zoo, some island, the beach, a big navy ship, I am not quite sure all that he did.  I should have him write about it.  Anyways, I missed him like crazy.  The girls did too.  They asked about him every day.

When he got home it was really late so they didn't see him until the morning, and they were so happy to see him.  They hugged him, and laid on him forever.  It was precious.

The weekend that he got home was WONDERFUL! He had Friday through Monday off, and we did so many fun things.  The National Cowboy Museum had their annual chuck wagon event, and we got to go, finally.  I have wanted to go every year since we've been here.  It was great.  So fun, but so hot.  The girls got to ride on a pony, and the whole time I thought about how my mom and grandma would cringe if they saw me doing that.  They's say, "We don't need to ride on ponies.  We've got horses at home!"  Sorry, Mom and Grandma.  I don't have them here.

It was Emma's first experience in a while.  The first one that she knew what was going on.  She was a little concerned looking.  I don't think she took her eye off the pony once.

Next, Kenadi had to sit on "Oreo" the longhorn.  It seemed like a nice bull, but they still had it cross-tied to the rail by the bull's ring.  It reminded me of when I was a little girl in Montana.  My cousins and I loved to play in this one field of theirs because it had a swamp with cat-tails that we would collect and color.  However, the quickest way to the field was through the bull's pen.  My uncle had mean bulls too. My mom always told me to not go through there, but we would send my older cousin Teresa(she was maybe 7-9 at the time, and Dez and I were in-between 5 and7) in to distract the bull while Dez and I would run to the other side. Sometimes the bull would chase us and step on it's chain. I wonder if my mom actually knew that we did that.  I didn't see the harm too much then, but now I can't believe we did that.  Ok, that was just a little trip down memory lane.  I had lots of memories while at the chuck wagon thing.  It was fun reminiscing.

The girls got to make these cute bandanas.  We also got tons of free chuck-wagon/dutch oven food, lots of kids activities and art projects, and a tractor ride.

Kenadi had a blacksmith make her a nail ring.

Emma had fun watching the stagecoach pulled by horses go by.  We never rode in it because we ran out of time.

It was a good, fun day.  Notice my huge sunglasses?  I can never buy sunglasses because my face is too narrow, so I decided that I'd just go with HUGE and then it wouldn't matter.  Besides, I can fit my other glasses behind them pretty well.  Funny, but I don't mind looking like a fly.

Last Week in Pictures

I taught the girls how to make "dirt pudding" one day so we could have it for family home evening dessert later.  This is them before we even added the dirt.  Worms went in the pudding, came out, and into their mouths. 

Emma has decided that she wants to be just like Kenadi.  Shoes, backpack, princess coloring book, and all.  She is obsessed with Kenadi's shoes.

I took a little photography class from a lady at church.  Basically, she inspired me to start figuring out my camera.  So, after the class, I went around and took tons of pictures.  I think I came up with a few good ones.

I just love Kenadi's freckles and hair in this one.

Emma's sweet profile.  I really want to make silhouettes of the girls to hang in their room or something.

These are a few random shots of the family in action.

You might recognize that puppy on Kenadi's arm.  She still carries that thing everywhere.  She's such a good mommy to that puppy.  I have no worries about her mothering skills.  Not that I should even have them, but, you know.

And last but not least, I rode to the park in style.  I still LOVE this beauty.  One day I will have a cute picture of me on it. 

Tulsa

Sorry folks, I was sick most of last week, and we've been crazy busy.  So now I'm playing catch-up with my posts. I am starting this post with a picture of Emma smiling.  It is so hard to get one of her smiling because she moves so fast.

I finally got to run in my half marathon last weekend.  I've been waiting for a while for one to come in our area that wasn't on a Sunday.  This one was in Tulsa, it was the Aquarium Run, and I LOVED it!  I finished the race wanting to sign up for another one.  (to run on a different day)  It gave me the desire to run as many as possible.  I was so happy to do this.  

The great thing about the Aquarium run was that they gave me a free pass to the aquarium for the day.  We only had to pay for Kenadi and Randy.  I thought it was a neat place, but not as neat as it should have been considering the price.

Wow, this is like an overload of pictures with me in them.  I am always behind the camera, so I gave Randy the camera more often this weekend.  Anyways, we had a great time in Tulsa.  I loved that city!  It was more hilly, and so beautiful.  We stayed the night before in a hotel so that we could get some sleep the night before my race.  (it didn't work that way)  We also got to enjoy eating out a couple of times.  We planned on this being a mini vacation since we don't think we will make it home to Washington this year.  Those airplane tickets are sooo expensive!

This is a big shrimp under Randy's hand, cleaning it.  Those things just come right up to you and start cleaning away.  I thought that was neat.  Not neat enough to stick my hand in though.

Kenadi had no issues.  She was trying to catch shrimp and everything.  I was glad that she doesn't have my shrimp fears.  She loved it.

After we got done with the aquarium, Kenadi wanted to run across this foot bridge like I did in my race.  Of course she wanted me to run with her.  I felt a bit stiff, but she wanted to run so bad.  When I ran by the girls and Randy during my run, both girls ran out after me, and Kenadi cried so hard when she was stopped by Randy.  She just wanted to run.

The picture below is a rare thing.  Randy has been more cooperative in pictures lately.  I hope it lasts.

Happy Birthday Handy!

I mean Randy. He IS Handy. Anyways, he's a big 2-9 now, and lucky him, he doesn't worry about aging like I do. I love this guy. He is the best husband. So good to me and the girls. He's gentle and kind, and so manly all in one. =) I could go on and on, but you all know how I love and appreciate him. So, I am going to do a little questionnaire and let him answer them so you can get to know him a bit better.

1. What is your best feature? My ability to not take things too seriously
2. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? Copenhagen (I hear people ride cool bikes there)
3. What is your worst feature? Same as #1
4. What do you want to be when you grow up? Good question, I'm still a student so I don't have to answer this, but I'm thinking patent attorney for biotech stuff.
5. What is your favorite household chore? I don't have one, this is an oxymoron, chores aren't something I enjoy.
6. Who is your hero? Probably both my Mom and Dad. My mom because she's kept a positive attitude through huge challenges (being diagnosed with both multiple sclerosis and breast cancer, which she conquered). My dad because he has always stuck by me and been supportive of all I've done. I'm realizing that I am the way I am because of the way my dad taught me. I just wished I paid more attention to him when I was a punk teenager (sorry Dad). I could go on and on, but hopefully you get the idea. I love you Mom and Dad!
7. What is your biggest pet peeve? Leaving something for tomorrow that I could have done today.
8. What was the best day of your life? Umm, i think some of these are loaded. But I would definitely say the day I married my beautiful eternal companion and soul mate :)
9. Are you excited about life? Yip.
10. Do you snore or talk in your sleep and keep your wife awake at night? Of course not!
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Once, it was suppose to be blonde but came out orange.
12. Would you ever have plastic surgery? If so, on what? No. Weird question.
13. Who has the cutest feet in the world? I hate feet, they're nasty. But I would have to say Tara's for obvious reasons.
14. What is your favorite food? Probably lasagna.
15. Favorite color? Either blue or green.
16. Favorite hobby? Cycling.
17. How are you so talented at fixing things? I get it from my Dad. I love to know how things work and so I like to tinker. But I don't think I'm really talented, just curious and a bit obsessive compulsive.

Ok, there it is, folks. Hope you enjoy your Randy fix for the day.

Love you honey! Oh, and Happy Mothers Day to all of our Moms and any Moms who read this. I'll do a tribute another day.

Gardening

We've been doing a lot of gardening lately. It's something I love about spring. The girls like to help too.... most of the time it's not very helpful. Our local library has the greatest children's librarian who did a story time about plants and then let the kids plant the flowers in the beds. Kenadi and Emma loved digging in the library dirt.

The librarian put Popsicle sticks into the ground where he wanted the kids to plant. Each stick had an "O" or a "Y" on it for the color of flower that goes there. I thought that was a good idea. Today Kenadi gave me a flower for mothers day that she planted in Joy school. I asked her if she knew what kind of flower it was, and she said, "a "Y"!" It was a yellow marigold.

This was our garden a couple of weeks ago. It has grown since then. We almost have ripe strawberries! We planted corn, green beans, peas, cilantro, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and spinach.

What we DIDN'T plant is these:

Some mystery plant that has sprouted up all over the garden. I know it could be one or all of these things: Crookneck squash, zucchini, pumpkin, watermelon, cantaloupe, or cucumber. I know this because we have grown these in past years and probably have seeds in the compost pile or in the garden dirt. If I remember right, all of those VERY LARGE plants start out looking the same. About like this. We also have voluntary tomatoes from last year too. Since I've taken this picture, Randy has dug up most of the mystery plants. It was a sad day for me, because this was my chance at getting more pumpkins this year. (I had reluctantly agreed with Randy to not plant any squash or melon plants this year, just because they take up so much room) Luckily Randy has agreed to keep a few of these plants. It's kinda fun having a mystery garden!