Things like this make me smile.

Gardens are awesome

It's been so neat to just run out and pick some broccoli or cauliflower or whatever for dinner.  It's getting better all the time, too.  The lettuce is long gone, but now we're getting carrots and we'll have zucchini by tomorrow or so and the tomatoes are on their way and everything is getting all big.  I really can't describe how satisfying I find it to have my fridge (and my freezer) stocked with all this homegrown awesomeness.

(Speaking of homegrown awesomeness- I can't believe that baby ticker is down to 40 days today.  That doesn't feel like long enough to get ready.)

{Pumpkins!  Two kinds, neither for eating.  If you look closely, you can see a bit of the garden hose off on the right for scale.}

{Yellow zucchini- these are what my dad always grew.  I think they taste better than green, and my dad pointed out that they're also a lot easier to see, making it much more likely that they'll be picked before they get huge and gross.}

{The early girls.  There was a stem that had some even bigger, but they were in too much shadow to get a decent picture.}

{Some general garden lushness.  That's watermelon in the front, acorn squash behind it, tomatoes growing up the stakes behind it, and then bits of broccoli and potato are visible, as well.}

 I always took it for granted when I was younger when my mom would tell me to go out to the garden and pick this or that for dinner.  I didn't understand how neat it is to grow your own food.  And can and freeze it, too.  Speaking of canning, I figured out what I'm going to do with all those tomatoes!  I think tomatoes are gross in their unaltered state, but I love all sorts of tomato products, like salsa, tomato sauce, etc.  Thus, I'm going to can spaghetti sauce and maybe salsa!

I think part of my excitement is due to watching several food documentaries and shows in the past year, like Food Inc. and Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (we're currently watching it on Hulu).  It really makes you feel good (and maybe a little bit self-congratulatory) to watch shows like that and be able to say "We don't eat that!" and "I know where my food came from!"  Food Inc. is also one of the reasons Mike began to actually consider my plan for keeping chickens.  He's so on board now.  Now if he could just come around on the goat issue, we'd be set...

Hats

I hate hats; my head is too big for them.  I do want a big floppy straw hat for gardening, though.  Where do you get those?

Mim, on the other hand, loves hats.  She also loves pretending that almost anything is a hat (not all that uncommon, I know, but still cute).  The other day she modeled a few for me and I got some pictures that are too awesome not to share.

{She also picked out her outfit.}

{Pondering}

{This is what she did when I told her to make a pouty face.}

{Cute, huh?}

{"Surprise face"}

 

 

 

 

 What a sweetheart.  

Jessica Paul

 Jessica (Mike's little sister) got married last Wednesday up in Salt Lake.  It was kind of a crazy day.  That, plus our camera running out of batteries at the temple and then me losing the camera for the majority of the reception, means hardly any pictures.  Ahwell.  Someone else will post about it and I'll just borrow those...eventually.

For now, here's what I got (yeah, they're mostly of Mim).

 I was chasing her all around trying to get a picture of her in this dress and I finally managed this one.  All the little nieces wore dresses that Mom J had made for Jessica when she was little. 

{Mim and Becca's boy James.  They were little buddies for the wedding and reception...kind of.}

{Running in circles.}

{Yeah, that's my daughter.}

{The only one on our camera of the gorgeous bride and groom.}

{At the reception- Mim just loves loves loves her little girl cousins, she always wants to follow them everywhere.}

{It was dark and my camera is not equipped for that, but I had to try and get a picture of Papa dancing with his granddaughters.  So sweet.}

Anyway, the temple was lovely, as was the reception (despite a last minute move from everything outside to everything inside- it was pleasantly breezy, then got crazy windy right at 6, when the reception started).  

We're so happy for Jessica and Dan and are going to miss them lots, since they'll be living in Texas.  Congratulations to both of them! 

The garden!

Having a garden is great.  My dad helped us out big time this year, planning and then planting pretty much all of it.  Thanks, dad!  I did manage to learn some stuff in between chasing Mim all around, though. So, here's what we've got growing.  Tomatoes (apparently I cut them out of the picture, they're a little farther to the left), yellow zucchini, acorn squash, green beans, watermelon (in the bottom left corner), lettuce, cucumbers that just sprouted will grow up that big wire cage anchored to the pvc pipe you can see, crenshaw melon, cauliflower and broccoli (all the big blue-gray plants), potatoes (the next rows to the right), peppers, radishes, carrots, and onions.  Oh, and pumpkins!  They're not exactly in the garden- they're where that darker spot is back in the field, behind the cucumber cage.  I'm excited because one of the pumpkin varieties that we're growing is the kind that can be giant if we prune it down to one plant per vine, which we might do. 

Anyway, it's so cool to go grab stuff from the garden.  I love having one and hopefully everything grows as well as the stuff that's already come up- so far we've enjoyed radishes, green onion, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce. 

There's one of the tomato plants.  It's totally being a champ. 

The non-vegetable gardening has been good this year, too.  Peonies are my very favorite flower, so I couldn't just not post this picture.