Gardening and Hunting how we combine them

If you would have asked me 10 years ago that I would ever enjoy gardening or that I would ever have a garden of this size I would have died laughing. This was not something I grew up with in Ogden. But through a mother-in-law who loves it and lots and questions and practice I am really loving it. My favorite part of gardening is when my seeds start to poke through the hard ground. They are so strong, even with a rock on top they fight for that sunshine. I usually get down and pull the big pieces of dirt off. Well after a long winter, no spring and finally summer at the end of May we got the garden all planted. My dad was my helper this year, much better than just the kids and I. He did an awesome job of creating my furrows while I planted. 

Straight rows I just love! Freshly water and hoping to grow. This year my goal is to weed consistently once a week. So far, so good. Its the end of summer and vacations that kill my goal every year!

 To mix our hunting/gardening we finally finished the wall in our backyard. So now Jeff can practice his bow hunting with our cute little deer while I water the garden and weed. All the while the kids switch between shooting arrows, jumping on the tramp or digging in the dirt. It just seems to relax me every night I get to watch this.

 Jake has a plastic bow and arrow but for pictures sake he wanted to use Jaxon's new bow.

Both kids have their dad wrapped, they walked into Sportsmans just to get one thing and walked out with a new one for Jax and a plastic one for Jake. He is always a sucker for the things he wants them to be good at. And though I do mind it, as long as it is bringing us together as a family I can handle it. Jeff bought Jaxon's bow thinking he wouldn't be able to pull it back for quite a while. That kid practiced pulling it back all day for 2-3 days and by the third day he could do it! He is even a pretty good shot. As the summer goes on I hope we keep up our nightly tradition to grow a garden and grow together as a family.

Memorial Day Lake Trip

After two weeks of being homebound with a sick baby holding me day and night we finally got to have a break. We went to Lake Powell with friends for some fun. The day we got there was so windy you couldn't see 5 feet hardly and you were eating sand the whole time. Jeff called the friends of his parents because it was their turn for the houseboat and they said they weren't using it. So instead of camping as we had planned we stayed on the houseboat and who can complain. It was fun especially when the wind wasn't blowing and we could play and relax on the beach. The water was freezing but somehow we all still made it in the water so it could take our breath away. The highlight for my boys was fishing for stripers up by the dam and they pulled out some whoppers! All in all it was a much needed break from the house.

 This is all of us loading up to get out of the wind and find some refuge.

This could be my new favorite picture! This was when the sand wasn't blowing and everyone was smiling!

Preschool Graduation

Jaxon is now an official graduate of preschool. His teacher did such an amazing job, it turned out so cute. They sang songs from each month they had learned and gave a little performance and then got to give their teachers a hug and got their bag with their portfolio in it. He was such a great singer and got a little goofy when their was down time but what can you expect. What a fun year. He has learned so much and is more than ready for Kindergarten in the fall. 

 This is Mat Man, I never could figure out what he was for until that day. He helps them learn how to draw people and there is a song that goes with it. You should see his self portrait the first day compared to last day of preschool. WoW!

These are the butterflies they did the last week or so of class, Jax was so excited to let it go.

Easter 2011

One of the reasons I just love Easter weekend is that it starts off our summer season of camping, which isn't a lot sometimes but it mean warm weather. Jeff's family on the Hawkins side has the tradition of going to the Whitney Pockets in the desert by Mesquite. The Whitney side of the family has a ranch there and some cool stories to go with the landscape. It was so fun to be with family! We played catch in the warm weather, a little golf, hiking, eating junk and just talking. The easter egg hunt is always fun for the kids and Jax decided this year he was one of the big kids and proved himself worthy with a sack full of eggs and treats. Jake did great and was determined to find every last bit of candy hidden in those rocks!

 The Burgess family compliments our camping trip nicely with a soak in the pool, don't worry we do shower at the hotel in St. George before invading Mark and Kathy's! So lucky to have such wonderful family to be with.

 We made our traditional resurrection rolls and dyed easter eggs as well. One tradition we started this year was a week of easter. We had a basket full of 12 numbered eggs and inside each one was a something that represented a different part of the week before the resurrection and I tried to get a picture and scripture for each one. It really made Easter what it should be. 

What cute kids!

NYC still...

We got on our favorite red bus on Friday for our last day and took the uptown tour of the city. We stopped at the Lincoln center because we had the worst tour guide ever. She seriously was insane and kept yelling at people for everything! We had to leave and just happened to find a store called lululemon that we love! Then we saw the Lincoln Center and are just waiting to cross the street and BAM there it is! The Temple is just right there with apartments on one side and a cafe on the bottom. Awesome, I wish we would have had time to go in! They are only open certain days at certain times.

 I think I decided that cathedrals creep me out, especially contrasting it from the temple. Super dark, names of dead people everywhere, just creepy. But the windows and who knows how they built it with all that detail so long ago. Another fun thing we happened to find was the restaurant that you always see on Seinfeld. 

 We drove past the museums hoping to be able to go in them on another trip if possible, but you could have stayed in them all day long! So we headed to Central Park, I wish I could have seen it in the spring or fall. We had our hotdog from the stand and I love the candied almonds they sell! Then we headed to Trump Towers and 5th Ave. 

 We were walking past Trump's bldg. and I saw this guy with a TMZ hat on and I thought ghetto and sure enough up pulls the escalade with Wynonna Judd. Nasty is all I have to say! Orange hair, orange face and caked on makeup. Someone even called her Naomi, so funny! 5th Avenue had just about every kind of shopping you could imagine. I was chicken though and didn't go into Tiffany's.

 If your in NYC and need a place to park for the day this is how they do it! They must rotate them around or something when you want your car down. I wish we could have seen it in action!

 We went to the Broadway play Wicked and I sneaked a pic. Amazing was all I could utter, just amazing. Gotta see it no matter what!

 We ate at all different kinds of restaurants: pizza by the slice in corner cafes, italian, a really good thai restaurant, and two different Brazilian restaurants. But our favorite was Crave! We had breakfast there, and dessert and just looking at the pizza made you drool! This was our night of indulgence; a black and white cookie, reeses cupcake, caramel brownie and pizza!

NYC continued...

This was the first cathedral we went and the gravestones were so so old. One from the war of 1812! That's crazy. This day was are 10 mile walking day. We walked to NYSE, Jeff watches this every morning, super high security!!! We went down to see the subway but never did end up taking a ride on it, maybe another time. I didn't want to get lost and end up spending all our precious time underground. 

We hoped back on the red bus and our guide was awesome to say the least, so good we could somewhat  stop thinking about freezing to death. He even took us a back way so we could get a closer look at the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

We walked to Canal Street and it wasn't as awesome as described, I think I would have liked Soho better. We walked to the Rockefeller Center and saw the skating rink and got our first view of Manhattan! Wow!

That night we decided to go to the Empire State Building and if there is one thing you have to do is go up top at night! We did this cheesy ride thing to save us waiting in line, I called Jeff a sucker for those guys on the street but after we left we found out how much time we really did save. Sometimes it pays to be a sucker I guess.

I love NYC

Wow, it was all I ever thought it would be in New York. We left Tuesday night and stayed in Vegas, we had just enough time to go see the Bodies exhibit. I have always wanted to see it and it was fascinating and I have a greater appreciation for my body. The part with the babies though and the size of the fetus was creepy but so interesting to actually see how big the baby is! We got up at 4am for the airport and it went by so fast. As soon as we got there we unpacked, ate, and headed to see Spiderman on Broadway. The special effects were awesome, but other than that for me it was cheesy and they actors didn't have the best voices. There was one song called "Rise Above" that I liked. Its a comic book story so I guess cheesy is what it was originally though. Still fun to see. Spiderman was flying through the air and Jeff was mostly asleep beside me when he landed right behind us and just about on top of Jeff. Lets just say it was the best wake up call he's ever had! One thing I was amazed by as we drove from the airport was the cemeteries! Millions of gravestones just inches apart.

The next day we hoped on the double decker red bus at 9am to see the Statue of Liberty. I don't know what we were thinking but we did not pack for 40 degree weather at all. Light spring jackets and you couldn't even give Jeff's black pullover that! We stood in line to get on the ferry for about 3 1/2 hours! I was freezing to death, only a small $3 bag of roasted almonds made me happy. I was seriously contemplating just leaving! We finally made it on the ferry and got to the statue, we only had passes to go on the island not inside the statue so in our hypothermic state we decided to stay on the ferry. I was amazed at how small it was. Only 150 ft. tall when it was built by the French and then we added the base. I was thinking Empire State Bldg. tall. Still cool. This day we saw just about everything! We had the best and the worst two tour guides that day too. We saw Wall St., U. N., Ground Zero and the new Freedom Tower, Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Empire State Bldg., Rockefeller Center, and some cool old churches, Canal Street I even did my first bargaining but was too chicken to ask for more the $5 off the price. Our guide told us purses are usually only worth $25. I am pretty sure we walked 10 miles. Everything is just right there.