Crazy Kids!

I was just reading my sisters blog, and I saw this picture that she had posted. Just looking at it makes me laugh, and it makes me very homesick. I had such a wonderful time in Utah, and it is very hard to live so far from family. I miss them more than they will ever know. I love our friends here and I know I couldn't live here without them, but I still miss my family. This picture was taken on the 3rd of July, when I went to the North Salt Lake fireworks with my family. We were spending the week with Jon's family and all of his siblings were at his parent's house that day, but I really wanted to see the fireworks and spend the evening with my family, so I went up by myself. Nicole had her camera with her, so Scott (Nicole's husband) took several pictures of the three of us siblings. For some reason, our family tends to have a difficult time getting a good picture and Nicole said this was probably the best one. Let's just say, it's pretty typical of the three of us. Nick loves to squish us and we've just gotten used to it over time. He's also very good at being silly. I guess it kind of rubbed off on Nicole and I. I just want to let Nick and Nicole know how much I love them and miss them. I had so much fun with you while I was there. I can't wait to see you again in four months. I have the best siblings in the world, and I think that's what makes living so far away from them so hard. We sure have fun when we get together. I love you guys!!

Vegetable Garden

A family in our ward has been kind enough to let us use their garden this year to plant our own vegetables. When we left for Utah, the plants were all quite small and when we came home, it was a jungle. We couldn't believe how big everything had gotten. The above picture shows our tomato plants. They have gotten so big, they look like one big plant. We had to tie some of them up last Saturday, because they have gotten too big for the small tomato cages.
This is a picture of our huge zucchini plant. It may not look that big in the picture, but it's huge. It has been producing quite a few zucchinis too. We have grated quite a bit and put it in the freezer, so we can make zucchini muffins throughout the year. We are planning to freeze more for zucchini casserole too.

We are sharing the garden with another family in the ward, and we decided to share the same garden bed for corn. They went ahead and planted their corn and left half the bed for us. We couldn't tell which half they had planted in, so we went ahead and planted our corn too. It just happened, that both of us planted on the same half. We planted more corn on the other half, which by the time I left for Utah, had barely started poking through the dirt. Needless to say, we didn't get the chance to thin our corn, so we have quite a few stalks and as of Saturday, most of them have two husks of corn. I'm excited, but we don't need quite that much corn.

We've had lots of green beans too. We got quite a few beans on our first picking, but not enough to can, so we ate them fresh. It turns out, that with all of the beans we've picked, we could have canned most of the beans. We are still getting quite a few beans, so we've been more than willing to share. I love fresh green beans, but by the time summers over, I think we'll be glad to eat other vegetables.

Jon's picking zucchini. We haven't given zucchini away yet, but I'm sure we will before the summer is over. We have given away quite a few cucumbers though. I wish I knew how to make pickles. It's been so much fun to have a vegetable garden. We owe a lot to the Shanafelts for keeping it watered for us while we were gone for six weeks. This fall we'll have a few pumpkins to harvest. I'm excited, because I like carving pumpkins and I hate to pay the prices they charge for pumpkins. I'm sure I'll be posting pictures of our pumpkins later this year.

Jon's New Baby!!!

We are so excited to announce, that we have a new baby. Jon of course is the most excited, because he got to pick it out. We are now the proud owners of a, I'm almost embarrassed to say, 50 inch plasma TV. Jon has wanted a new TV for quite some time, and he has patiently waited until the right time to buy. He has done a lot of research, so he knew exactly what he wanted, which wasn't a 50 inch TV. After being in Utah and seeing his mom's TV, Jon decided he was ready to go find his TV. We went shopping last Thursday and Jon was focused on the 42 inch TVs and since I know nothing about TVs, I was wandering around watching movies. As I was watching someone came over and asked if I had any questions, so I started asking about what makes one picture better than another. Jon came over and sat with me while I was watching TV and he happened to notice that one of the TVs was on sale and it was the exact same TV he was thinking of buying, except that this one was 50 inches and it was only $100 more than the 42 inch he wanted to buy. It made much more sense to spend the extra $100 for 8 more inches and get the larger TV. I was feeling generous and I told Jon I was okay with it. Now that it is in my living room, I don't know what I was thinking. It is huge, but it is fun to watch. Jon is in heaven with his new toy. We broke in the new TV last night, with our friends the Andersons and we watched Fast and Furious. Not really the movie we ladies would have picked, but the guys sure enjoyed it.

Sibley Park

Flower gardens along the Rock Path.


Two of the water fountains along the Rock Path.

For our Family Home Evening activity last night, I thought it would be fun to walk around one of the parks here in Mankato. I went once last summer, but they were still doing quite a bit of work on the park, and I'd heard that they had finished, so I thought it would be fun to take Jon and see what had been done. The park has all kinds of beautiful flower gardens and it has a small petting zoo with cows, ponies, pigs, goats, llamas, ducks, chickens and peacocks. It was the perfect evening to go to the park. The weather has been wonderful since we've been back. It hasn't been too hot or humid. The park was beautiful! I loved being with my sweetheart enjoying the beauties around us. The Lord truly created all things.

We're Home!!!

We are finally home. We arrived at our house last Tuesday July 28th. We had such a wonderful time in Utah. It was a lot of fun spending so much time with our family and friends. The reunions were wonderful, we ate so much food that both of us gained a little bit of weight. We loved the movies, swimming, visiting, playing games, eating, and more eating. It's always hard for me to come home after being in Utah. I get pretty homesick for the first couple of days. We love living here in Mankato, but it is hard to live so far from family. We feel so blessed that our jobs allow us to go to Utah for several weeks at a time to visit. I was gone for six weeks, and that was just about right for me. By the last week, I was ready to be in my own house again. Traveling is wonderful, but it gets old living out of a suitcase. I am getting back in to the swing of things and I am glad to be home. I am looking forward to the next several months, and before I know it, we will be traveling back to Utah for the holidays. Time is just flying by, and I'm trying to enjoy every minute of it.

Go Carts

Scott and Nick

Jon was pulling them behind Nicole's car in these two pictures.

It really wasn't too dangerous.

Scott and Nick having a great time.

Scott, Nick and Jon

It's a little hard to see in this picture, but you can kind of see Jon's skinned up knee. It was his right knee and it skinned up his foot too. It looks worse than it really is. He is healing now, but he might have a few scars.

A year or so ago, my brother and brother-in-law built their own go carts out of wood. They used to take the go carts up on the hill and then ride them down the hill. Not too smart and very dangerous. Now that my parents don't live up on the hill, they've discovered a new way of riding the go carts, being pulled behind a car. In my parent's neighborhood going 10 mph in the car, it really isn't too dangerous. The morning of the 24th Nick and Scott thought it would be fun to get the go carts out and go for a ride. They invited Jon to play with them, so two could ride and the third person would drive. Jon was one of the first two to ride. Nick and Scott forgot to explain some of the features to Jon, most importantly where the break is and how to use it. Taking the second turn, Jon was going a little too fast and he tried to slow himself down by putting his foot down (he didn't know where the break was) and the toe of his flip-flop got caught and pulled his leg under the go cart. Jon was wearing shorts, so it skinned up his leg pretty good. Needless to say, that was Jon's first and last ride for the day. He did say that it was fun and he'll give it a try again another time, but he'll be sure to wear shoes and use the break, now that he knows where it is. I ended up driving Nick and Scott around the neighborhood a couple of times, so they could have a bit of excitement. What crazy guys they are. They act like they are five years old sometimes, but we still love them.