Boom Boom Pow

We had a little get together for the 4th of July with our family and a few friends. Branden taught me how to make his famous ribs so we BBQ'd those up and had a good time hanging out and watching fireworks. Thanks Kellen for hanging up the party lights and thanks to everyone who brought food or helped with the food. A big thanks to the neighbors for putting up with our shenanigans yet again. Sorry I didn't get more pictures. Joe crept up behind us while we were getting our picture taken. Lol.

Kellen's Birthday

Well, Kellen is no longer a menace to society but he does need more than one box of candles. He turned the ripe old age of 25 this summer. He celebrated the day by going back to Torrey to fish with Bird. We celebrated together before he left with a steak dinner provided by Chef Lisa (me) and we had a party with the family at Sunday dinner where we all enjoyed Kellen's catch of the day.




Hot birthday boy with his cheesecake on flambe

Torrey

We went to Torrey with Kellen's parents for a weekend of adventure. Kellen and Arlen did a little fishing. We went 4 wheeling and drove around to see some of the sights. I had never really explored that part of Utah before. It was beautiful. We had a good time hanging out with Barb and Arlen. Here are a few pictures. It was freezing!

The Big Green Monster

We decided to start our garden from seed this year. Our little seedlings did so well when they were inside. We got excited as each new little plant poked its head up from under the soil. Unfortunately about half of our little crop got fried when I put them outside to "acclimate" before they got planted. So we supplemented with plants from trusty old Home Depot. There were a few plants that just couldn't make it this year. Our carrots didn't come up after being planted twice and our jalapenos never produced a single pepper but I think the rest of the garden tried to make up for it.


Our garden just after planting. . .

At the end of the summer we affectionately call the garden the big green monster. . .

We planted a few different things this year that worked out really well. In year's past our cantaloupe never really panned out but we got lots of them this year. We also tried broccoli, strawberries, onions, and bok choy. I don't think I really bought bok choy plants. I'm still not sure what those plants were. Ahh the joys of gardening. We had about 20 pumpkins. In fact most of them are still out on the front step. My nephew thinks it is really cool that my Christmas tree is up and my pumpkins are still out. Maybe we'll grow a few less pumpkins next year. : )

Its amazing the life lessons that something as simple as a growing a garden has reaffirmed in my mind. We have to have faith that our seeds will grow. It is easier to weed out the bad things while they are little but the big ones can always be ripped out too, it just takes more work. Sometimes our garden lacks something that someone else has in abundance and vice versa so we share our talents and it doesn't mean either person has a bad garden. Every year when we are up to our ears in Zucchini, pumpkins and tomatoes I think about how God blesses us until there isn't room enough to receive it.

Kellen Graduated!

Kellen graduated with his Bachelor Degree from UVU in April with honors! He still has a long road of school ahead to get to his goal but he his plugging away at it. Congratulations babe!

Sweet Rides

This summer I had the chance to go with Bryce, Amie, Dustin and Tyson to the Miller Motorsports Park thanks to Bryce and T-Mobile. We had a blast. We got to watch some preliminary races (the final race was the next day) see some cool cars and race go carts. Bryce and Dustin and Tyson were all speed demons. I think Amie even spun out a time or two.

We walked around and talked to some of the people working on cars. They were really nice to us and were happy to explain things about the cars. We checked out some of the back stage stuff on the transports that carry the race cars (I kept thinking about the movie Cars while we were there). We all know way more than we ever thought we would about racing tires thanks to a very thorough presentation we went to. Here are a few pictures.

This is the T-Mobile car we were rooting for.

Thanks Amie and Bryce for a cool day!