Zoo

Stacie text me yesterday and said she had an extra pass to the zoo and wondered if we would want to go with her and Cali. Well sure! I haven't been to the zoo for years and wow it is really different!

They have built a lot of different areas up real nice and have a whole building dedicated just to dinosaurs. There are big dinosaurs all over the place and they move and make scary noises and one even spits on you like the one from Jurassic park! Liv and Cali loved it!

Sam was a good boy.

This was kind of sad....the one turtle had fallen on his side and couldn't roll over.

The other bigger turtle was doing everything it could to push him over. He was trying to get ahold of it with it's mouth, then it pushed it's head right into the other turtle trying to move it, then it tried to push it with its leg. It was getting worked up into quite a tizzy. A lady standing by us was calling someone to come help, so I hope he got turned over!
It was kind of cool to see how hard the other turtle would try to help him.

I was glad Stacie brought her wagon. That made it a lot easier for the kids so they didn't get worn out walking so far.

This was the spitter. It actually felt pretty good...and people were lining up to get spit on! It was a nice hot day!

Thanks for sharing your pass with us Stacie...we had a lot of fun!

We do stuff

Yesterday we went to the zoo with Stacie (I'll do another post for that...so fun!)

and she asked us what we had been doing for fun since Camille's family has been here.

Couldn't think of anything spectacular...just enjoying being together, doing the everyday things that we do.
When I looked back through my pictures though, it jogged my memory a bit.

Liv helped me pick raspberries and pull weeds.
She found a potato bug and loved him to death. Literally.

We went shopping for a new sewing machine...found a nice Singer at Costco that has all the bells and whistles. It's quite a step up from what I've had.
I have been wanting a new one for quite some time, but figured as long as my old one was still going, I would keep using it. The other day, I was working on my trek apron, and it started skipping stitches. I tried all the tricks I knew to fix it, but to no avail. So then I asked Kelley if he would oil it and tune it up a bit.
He took it apart and found all kinds of big dust bunnies in it. Got it all cleaned out, then when he tried to put it back together...that didn't go so well. There was a little spring that he couldn't fit back in. So then I was going to take it to a repair shop to have them put it back together... We got talking about it and decided it would probably cost a bit to get it repaired, and maybe it was time to let it go and put that money towards a new one.
This is my old one...looks kind of sad sitting there on the rack at the DI. Mum and daddy gave it to me for my wedding present! It holds many memories of the countless things I have sewn over the years. It got me through many years of sewing for the girls when they were small. We didn't have money, but I did have a lot of fabric I had accumulated from working in the budget fabric department at ZCMI, so that was how I dressed them. It was a necessity, but also something I loved to do. It has been a great sewing machine and has served me well for the past 32 years! ( I could still see the letters M O M that KC put on the front of it with clay when he was a little boy....made it hard to drive away from!)

Kelley jr.

Kelley trying to "man" Sam up while he's in charge babysitting...

We made ice cream the other night...couldn't figure why it was taking so long....hmmmmmm, forgot to put the paddle in. Ha! It was still good!

Liv and I went exploring up in the top of the hut. Played dress up and had a picnic.

Camille making her own baby food. She's learned to be quite thrifty!

Can't even express how wonderful it is to have Camille's family here.

Haven't stopped smiling.

It's like that song that Janice Kapp Perry wrote called "Surround yourself with joy"

One of the verses says to surround yourself with children....cause in them you'll feel the joy!

So very true!

Just had to have this documented...I went to the gym. Really.

It was way funner with these two and I had a pretty good workout, but nope, I still don't like to go. The end.

Happy 24th!

We had such a nice Sunday. Brenda had called a a few days before and invited us out to their place for dinner Sunday evening. She had made a lovely dinner and we all brought little extra's to add to it.

Kelley made a killer batch of salsa. Doesn't he look cute in grandmas apron?

After dinner we all just sat around and talked...something we don't get to do very often, so that was nice to catch up on each other's lives.

Then Dan said he had some old video we might want to see. He had had all their family videos from way back when the kids were little put onto this cool new computer thing, so you could just go to a menu and pick out what you want to see, then watch it on tv! I had never seen anything like it before. I would like to do that with all of our old video. We have a lot, but never get it out and watch it because it's such a pain to hook up all the cords and wires!

Anywho...the video he had taken was awesome! He had some from Newport where Kelley, Dan, Rick and Terry were getting their heads shaved by Stacie. They all looked so young.

He had some from the Halloween parade over at Taylorsville...it looked like it must have been early 90's cause KC was only about 2 ( in his little dinosaur costume...still have it, and Candice was in her blue princess dress...so cute!)

The hairdo's on all us girls were pretty wild! Mine and Brenda's were big poofy bangs then long and permy. Stacie and Carla both had cute short hair cuts. We saw several people from the neighborhood in the video. Sure brought back the memories!

What a fun night...many thanks to Dan and Brenda for having us all over!

I was glad Kellen stayed till Monday...he was thinking of flying home Sunday night. He had gotten a call from a place he had applied to work for that said they wanted to meet him in person, so he flew home for an interview Monday morning.

Farmers Market

I've been wanting to go to the farmers market ever since it opened, but there has been something every Saturday that has kept me from going.

Last Saturday, all the stars aligned, and it was the perfect day to go. ( It looked like everyone else in the Salt Lake Valley had the same idea...sooooooooo many people! )

But it was still very fun!

Candice rode her bike over and met us. We just had a lovely morning walking around, looking at every one's goods for sale and enjoying the random entertainment and people watching.

This sweet lady was making balloon animals for the kids. She was blind and had her seeing eye dog laying right next to her. She would ask what they wanted...(Liv: A flower please), then hold out her bag of balloons and let them pick the color. ( Pink, of course)

She had them put together in no time, but kept apologizing for how long it took her.

She would talk softly with the kids as they waited for their balloon and soon, the one's that seemed a little afraid of her at first, were right up next to her telling her why they liked the animal they had picked for her to make.

After we had seen all there was to be seen, and eaten our yummy tacos and samosas, we sat in the shade and relaxed a bit.
Aunt Chewey and Liv played hide and seek, then pretend bunny and kitty.

Pretty much the perfect day.

pond update...

From what started as a pump replacement, we now have a pond twice the size with nuclear capacity water pump fountain, bridge and cascading waterfalls...well they are not cascading yet, but hopefully will be soon.

I will compare this project to the way Kelley makes salsa.

He usually buys all the ingredients because I never buy enough for his liking.( When there are tomatoes and peppers in the garden, there is no end to the madness) I will say, just make a small batch...you know how it always gets to be so much! ok. ok.

Then he starts chopping. ( I found an amazing chopper at Ross...whooda thought? that works even better than the chop chop guys at the swap meet!) Anyway, by the time he has added all the different peppers and onions and mangos and such, we have the bread making Tupperware size bowl full of salsa. I'm not complaining... I'm just saying...it gets to be a lot! (we don't seem to have any problem eating and enjoying it all though!)

Anyhow, that's kind of like the way this pond idea has grown...started out a small project...kept adding more and more features till now it's kind of a big deal.

It's been a ton of work for Kelley, but I know he loves doing it. He's got a good eye for laying up the stone...he knows how to make them flow together real natural looking. He asks for my input and ideas, but I know he could do it just fine on his own.
Fish are all alive and doing well in the back of daddy's truck.

Camille and Kellen have helped a lot this past week.

(Oh yeah, had to re-route the sprinkler system in the back yard to accommodate the pond...no biggie!)

I wasn't much help that night...sit there and watch them work cause my feet were still pretty swollen from trek. ( a couple more days and they were fine though...)

Camille was He-Woman moving a wheel-barrow full of big rocks! She really is so strong! She lifts Sam in that carrier like it's nothing. It feels like it weighs 100 pounds to me! (once again...gotta get in shape!)

Sam was having fun eating cake and dirt off the patio...we couldn't tell which that was on his face and hoped it was cake.

He got the big piece of rubber all measured and cut and glued to fit just right in the pond hole.

Then we all grabbed a corner of it and drug it over to the pond...that stuff is heavy!

Started laying rocks around the edge....hmmmm where's my hammer? Camille bet Kelley it was under the rubber stuff. She wins.

The sister missionaries came over that night. Sister Gould is being transferred to the Murray area, so she came to say goodbye. She has been with our stake for nine months! She is a very special gal ...I'm going to miss her!

They thought the back of the truck fish pond was pretty interesting.

Liv likes to help too! Pounding in the rebar.... Kelley hits it, Liv hits it, Kelley hits it, Liv hits it. Kelley found a hammer that was just right for her.

Here we are building up the waterfall area! Its going to be awesome!

Camille and I went out to help him move this huge load of dirt he had delivered this morning.

I seriously don't know how he does so much. We were about pooped after shoveling for an hour...he does it all day!...then he goes and lifts these gigantic rocks. Seriously so strong! I love how he talks himself into lifting the rocks. He willl look at it and figure just how many turns and rolls it will take to get it into the right spot. Then he says...ready, set.. and he goes!

I think I'll have a few more pictures after today...almost there!