Just had to throw in this selfie we took on Sunday. (had to do a little cropping ha ha)  So lucky and blessed to have these guys in my life

So the day of our combined activity hike arrived and wouldn't you know it, we had record breaking cold storm come through the day before leaving the mountain tops covered in snow and dropping the temperatures to the  40s.  We were scrambling to come up with a plan b and decided to watch 17 Miracles on a big screen at the church.  Well Wednesday dawned clear and cool and I got a text from Bonnie saying her daughter thought the trail we had planned on taking should be fine.  I was still kind of worried about it but Bonnie is a experienced hiker, so I trusted her judgement.

So we met at the church and had a pretty good turn out.  I followed Bonnie with my car load cause I didn't know where we were going.  The trail started up above the University of Utah.  It was a fairly easy path but had some pretty steep parts and just some long inclines where I thought I was going to die.  It was cool when we started, but about half way up, I was taking off my jacket cause I was sweating!  I was glad to see I wasn't the only one breathing hard.  I think when Bonnie said this was an easy short hike, we should have taken into consideration the kind of hiking she does. It felt plenty long and  a bit scary in some areas where it dropped off right next to the trail.

We finally made it to the top though and  it was the most beautiful view!  The hike is called "The Living Room" because when you get to the top, there are rocks all situated like couches in a living room.  We sat and rested a bit and had a granola bar.  The kids wanted to go farther and explore the area but it was getting windy and starting to rain so we headed back down.  It was a lot more fun coming down! 

I wish we would have been up on top looking over the great salt lake when this was happening... (caught this one as we were getting in our cars)  seriousy one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen.

 I love coming home to our pretty pink roses blooming like crazy.  They always remind me of mum.  She loved those simplicity roses.

 Candice came over to visit on her lunch hour.  She is such a sweetheart and brought me these beautiful lilies to welcome me home...oh and also this awesome chicken plate!  How cool is that!

 We had a nice Sunday afternoon outside on the patio. The fuchsias are all blooming so pretty now. I'm so glad I got a bunch of them when they were  small and cheap!

 Kelley and KC had been working on finishing up the garden wall and getting the garden ready to plant.  Kelley and I went and picked out a bunch of vegetable plants over to Lambert floral after I got home.  We were looking for some grape plants and found some nice ones at western garden out on 90th south.  I guess with Aunt Sherry gone now, we won't be getting grapes from her anymore. Dan said they are cleaning out the house and getting it ready to sell.   That makes me sad to think about it.  We have been getting them from her every fall for as long as I can remember.  She was the last one left from mum's side of the family and will be missed for much more than her grapes.  Anyway, we thought we ought to start growing our own grapes so I'm excited to see how they work out.

 

We went over to the Western Garden in West Valley to see if they had any strawberry plants.  I was so happy to run into Charlotte Bachelor there.  She has worked there for about 20 years and is about running the place.  It was really good to talk to her and catch up on her life. She showed us some good strawberry plants, then picked out a few strawberry plants that were a different variety.  They were so cute and had little pink flowers.  She asked if we would just take them and try them, then let her know how we liked them cause they were a new variety.  Super nice!

So the next day, we planted the garden.  When we were at Cal Ranch, we saw this wire stuff we thought would make a nice trellis for the beans to grow up so we bought one.  Then we decided we could use more of that type of thing for the squash and cucumbers to grow up.  Kelley had taken the wire off the back fence that we had used in the years before so he had that to work with.  So he decided to make his own version of the arched trellis.

I don't think there is anything that guy can't do!  He got some PVC pipe, then heated it with his blow torch till it would bend.  Then they formed it into the right arch and let it cool.  Then they screwed the wire that we had onto boards for support, then to the pipe  and  there you have it!  Even better trellis than the one we bought at Cal-Ranch! 

 Lizzy did not like the blow torch at all!  She wanted to go in the house really bad till they were all finished.

 I love to watch these two working together

 Those are some sad raspberries we tried to transplant there in the back ground.  They had really taken over that whole end of the garden and we wanted to thin them out so we dug some up and moved them against the wall.  Stacey gave me some she had thinned out of her garden too and I'm excited about those because she had such a nice crop last year.  We still had a lot that we wanted to take out, but didn't want to just junk them so I put on face book that any one could come and get them if they wanted some.  Colleen Poole and Colleen Gittins both came and got some so I was glad they could use them.

Our rock garden is starting to bloom now too.  I love this clematis we got last year. 

 I had a good time digging in the dirt.  I got a flat of cosmos and got them planted.  It's a real hot area there up against the house, but these dainty little flowers are tougher than they look.  They have thrived here the past few years.

 Then I went out in the front yard and got busy weeding and moving ferns.  They had really taken over that whole front flower bed.  The Hostas were buried somewhere under there.  So I started moving the ferns.  They will seriously grow anywhere, so it was not hard on them to move them around. They looked just as perky after they were transplanted.

 Found the Hostas and planted a flat of Salvia in front of them.  I think it's going to be real nice when they all start blooming.

 The lily's in the pond have started blooming too.  They are so pretty!  I do love summertime!

I had taken some poppers and little fireworks down there for the kids and Camille had some sparklers so it turned into quite a little show!  The kids loved it!

 Sam is going through a rough phase.  He has figured out that it's OK to pee in the toilet, but he absolutely refuses to go # 2.     He is the most stubborn kid I've met. Camille has tried everything under the sun to get him potty trained. She has been infinitely patient, tried bribes, rewards, taking away the ipad, running around for days with nothing but a t shirt on, but he still won't go on the potty.  When I got there I tried to talk to him about it.  I mean he is a smart kid and is old enough to be able to communicate what he's feeling.  Camille had gone to the doctor so I was watching them and Sam says "I have to go poop!"  I was like "Hooray!  lets go!"  But he says NOOOOOOO  I'm scared!  I say "What are you afraid of Sam?"    He says "The Grinch!"  I tried really hard to not laugh!  I tried to get out of him what the Grinch had to do with going to the bathroom, but he wouldn't  talk about it. 

Well at this point ( he hadn't had a bm for about 10 days!) Camille took him to the doctor,  She said there is nothing wrong with Sam, that it is totally a mental problem.  He is afraid to go so he held it in and now he is super constipated.  She told Camille to give him some stool softeners.  So Camille tried that and it didn't do anything, so the doctor told them to give him an enema.  Oh boy that was not cool.  Kellen is really patient with him and got him to be calm enough to have it.  Even after that, things did not move along very well.  They told him to just go in his diaper...just to go! But he still was fighting it.  He was not feeling good at all, but then things finally started moving.  He said his tummy felt better.  I hope he will soon get over this fear or he will end up in the same boat again. Also, this whole experience has pushed Camille to the edge of insanity...seriously I don't blame her...you can only change so many diapers before you go over.  Stubborn little guy.  I love him to death and can't stand to see him hurting like that.

 Emily's got a thing for Roses food and can get out there and into it in 3.2 seconds.

 We made the yummiest ice cream one night.  It's not an easy ice cream to make..involves some cooking,  separating, and tempering.  It's worth it though!  We were about ready to give up on Camille's ice cream maker...it is tired and the way we had packed the ice around it was just too much for it.  Kellen came to the rescue and added the ice and salt after it was already turning.  Then it ran just fine.  We put raspberries in this batch and it was perfect.

One day we went to the Natural History museum there in Mesa.  It was really interesting and the kids loved it!

 They had some really cool dinosaur bones and lots of other things to learn about the earth.

 There was so much to see and do!  They had a room where the kids could do a bunch of activities that taught them more about dinosaurs.

 Then we went outside and panned for gold.  That was really neat cause the kids could actually find gold!  We scooped up some sand in these dishes and swished the sand around in the water and you could pick out little flecks of gold!  The gave us little baggies to put our gold in so we could take it home.  That was pretty cool. 

 "I found some grandma!"

Such a fun week with these kiddos!  I love being with them  Can't wait for their visit to Utah next week!