I took the kids to the elementary playground this evening. They were basically begging. So anyhow, we were there and we saw a tree that had signs on it. It was in a neigboring yard with tons of huge branches hanging over the fence (someone really needs to prune that tree). We decided we needed to find out what the signs said. Brigham thought right away that they would say "something bad". So we got to the signs and they were basically encouraging people to pick the fruit. They clearly had WAY more than they could handle. We were so excited and ran across the school yard to scrounge bags out of the car. The limbs hung so low that Brigham and Laci could easily reached and as you can see we got quite a few and there were still a TON left on the tree! Once we dumped out our bags at home I realized that I didn't know what to do with them all. So I called grandma and she told me how to make apricot jam and we talked about fruit leather. I have so many memories of grandma and her jam so it was fun to call and get her advice. Man, I love grandma. So I think on Monday I'll work on that. I just don't know what containers I'll put it in....
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Anybody want an apricot?
Our annual (well at least 2 years running) Lagoon weekend
It was so fun to host a bbq in my back yard. It's not very often I have so much family visiting!
Going for a walk. On our walk it started downpouring (we WERE NOT very close to home) and we had to run all the way home. Everyone including the kids were laughing so hard and running that we all agreed it was the funnest "walk" ever. Even the littlest baby Brooke was really wet! She was too surprised by the commotion to even cry!
What a cutie!
Getting ready for pictures.
Laci loves taking pictures now. I'm holding Brianna. My brothers daughter.
Grandma with ALL of the grandkids!
Snowbird
We all went to Snowbird last weekend. Nephi ran the Speed goat 50k. I was going to go with him and leave the kids with Nephi's parents but when we thought about it, it just made more sense to take them with us. Geez, they love hotels. They'd move into one if they could, why not take them. I've never seen a hotel like the ones at Snowbird. It's like they've built them to survive an avalanche. Concrete everywhere. But actually really beautiful. Everything is on a grand scale. The kids loved the pools and here we are exploring in the morning while Nephi's out running. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of Nephi's race. It was a long hot day and I had my camera in the car by the time he finished. There wasn't much to see at the finish. But Nephi did great. I was really proud of him.
I was determined that we were going to ride the tram with kids panicking or no kids panciking. We went while Nephi ran. The kids really did fine and it was an amazing view at the top. Quite a long way up the mountain.
The view of the hotel upon reapproach. How magnificent! Right?
What a view. This is at the top. Poor Laci couldn't find her sunglasses. (They were in the car) Nephi's race actually came through this spot. You can see why it's considered possibly the hardest 50k in the world. They started and ended back at the bottom folks. shudder...
Happy Birthday Kids!
The kids really wanted to go to Chucky Cheese for their birthday. Laci turned 5 and Brigham turned 7. Once again he couldn't handle the idea of Laci having a birthday before him so they celebrated on the same day, which was Laci's actual birthday.And boy did they have a good time. Brigham brought Hayden Johnson and Laci brought Gracie Hassell. Yes, they rhyme. People even coincidentally asked if they were twins. I couldn't get pictures of the boys there because I had to spend every minute with the girls or they'd get nervous. But they all had a FUN time. The kids thought the pizza was the best they'd ever had (It was actually worse than frozen pizza) and remember it with nothing but the fondest feelings.
Opening presents at home. Thank you everyone who gave them presents! Boy did they have a good birthday! Can you see Laci's excitement as she opens her unicorn?! She even picked it out the week before and yet her joy was still full. Brigham is opening up a wolverine. Of course he loved it. Actually, he picked it the week before also...
I thought that I would surprise them this year with some decorated cakes but they insisted on decorating them themselves. Hey, why not. So here they are with their respective cakes. Laci has a princess cake with crown candles and tons of sprinkles and Brigham has a whole fleet of pirates including boat, treasure chest, and swords! They had so much fun. Maybe this will be our tradition for awhile.
