Hunter's 1st Birthday Early Party

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Today the 31st is Hunters actual birthday, these pictures are from an early party we had last sunday. I made a lego block cake which was a hit and was sooo fun to make. He got to eat it with his hands and get all messy. But he was a lot more delicate than his sister Autumn for her first birthday while eating cake. Tonight he gets to have more cake and open another present so I will add more pictures later. Anyways, the party was fun and he got some cool gifts. Thanks to all who came and made it special for our little boy.

Sprinkler

I know I post a lot. But its mostly for my mom and family cuz I know they like to see the kids and whats happening in our lives. Anyways, we played in the sprinkler today because it was soo hot. The kids loved it so I think we will be doing this a lot more often.

Late Anniversary Trip

Yesterday Jonathan and I had the opportunity to go salmon fishing at blue mesa as a late anniversary trip. It was so much fun! Jonathan's friend Ryan took us out on one of his boats and it was the best day ever! We each got to catch and take home ten fish. I never got motion sick, which was awesome cuz we were out on the boat for  5 hours. I smiled so much, the old guys on the other boats around us were like  watching me and kept saying "The lady caught another fish, look at her just smiling so much!" It was kind of embarrassing cuz I couldn't help it. And by the end of the day my smile was kind of sore :)

Family Vacation

A couple days ago we went on a mini family vacation. We wanted to go to the Mesa Verde to see the cave dwellings. But something happened. So here is our story.
First we went to Lake San Crystabol, we stopped to fish for a couple minutes. It was very pretty but no bites. Then Jonathan saw a "shortcut" to Silverton. He didn't want to go through Montrose so we took his "shortcut" which turned out to be Cinnamon Pass. It turned out to be a 4 wheel drive must road. We are lucky we brought our truck. It took us a couple hours or more to get over. The road was very narrow and bumpy. There were HUGE cliffs that we were driving on the edge of and I am VERY scared of heights. Plus we had to pass quite a few jeeps and 4 wheelers. We made it to the summit of 12,640 feet above the timber line. We saw some beautiful rugged country. Jonathan said it was the most intense road he has ever been on and the scariest. My stomach was so knotted up from being scared that I felt sick for hours after we were off that road. Let me tell you it is not for the faint hearted that road. There were switch backs on the mountains that we had to back up 3 or 4 times with our truck to get around because it was such a sharp and steep turn. I had to get out and walk to calm down cuz I was freaking out. The kids loved it though and Jonathan was a picture taking freak. I would only go back on that road again if I didn't have the kids and I was on a four wheeler and I was the one driving. There were some crazy old people driving fast and by the edge. I told Jonathan, "If I were that old, I guess I wouldn't care about dying either." ANYWAYS.......we made it off that pass and got onto the MILLION DOLLAR highway, ugh.....the turns made me carsick and the road is still so narrow they can't put guard rails on the side so we were STIll driving on a cliff (thus my knotted stomach for hours).  We FINALLY made it to Telluride where we wanted to go to the original True Grits restaurant. It was okay but we like our one in Alamosa better.
We talked about it and decided that we were not going to the Cave Dwelling on this trip because we would have to go back on the crazy Million Dollar highway. It was an interesting day, I am glad to say that I got to go see those roads but it will be a while before Jonathan can drag me back there and I will be fighting and screaming the whole way :)

We spent the night in Montrose at a holiday inn and got up the next morning all refreshed. We headed to Gunnison and met Jonathan's friend Ryan at Blue Mesa Resivour.  He took us out on his boat which was really cool. Hunter screamed the whole time because he had to wear a life jacket. But Autumn loved it! After that we went and got some lunch, then we walked around Gunnison and visited some cool shops with some awesome stuff. We got some "souvenirs" to remember our "mini vacation". Then we got some icecream because we were all very hot by then.

We started for the alligator farm and the kids and I took a nap. Then we woke up and had made it to the alligator farm. Autumn got to hold the baby alligator and she got a certificate of bravery for holding it and the alligator "signed" it by chomping the paper with its teeth. We saw snakes, toads, turtles and lots of gators!! I was nervous the whole time because they are sooo ugly and scary and I watch the discovery channel about people getting eatin by them lol, but it was fun and towards the end, the gators where "roaring" which sounded so cool. By then we were hungry, so we left and went to our True Grits in Alamosa and ate dinner. It was a fun vacation and we loved everything we got to do and see. We can't wait to do it all again :) minus the crazy roads.....

Garden

We finally weeded today and got some help too! It goes a lot faster when there is more than one :) Everything is growing nicely. If it looks sparse on the left side besides the pumpkins, its cuz it is mostly carrots and bell peppers which are hard to see. Anyways we are pleased with how it is looking. Autumn's garden has lots of beans in it and if we can keep the ants away from them they should give us some beans to can this year.

4th of July

For breakfast on the 4th we made red and blue pancakes with whipped cream in the middle for the red white and blue effect. Then we went to del nort and saw some reindeer and elk. Autumn loved that. She called the 15 year old bull elk they had there "Autumn's Elk"Then we went to lunch with Matt and Jennifer and their family. After that we came home and bucked bales with the missionaries, Papa Bush and Uncle Ethan. Then I cut into our flag cake. It took a lot of cake and 3 days to make this cake. It turned out really cool and was very patriotic. I am pleased with how it turned out. The red part was especially good because I put strawberries in it. And there were blueberries in the blue part. The kids loved it. It started to rain so we figured we weren't going to go watch the fireworks at the fair grounds. So we put them to bed. Then we saw the fireworks starting anyways. So Jonathan and I watched the show out the windows. It was a good fourth of July.

Plants and Such

My morning glories are starting their third and fourth leaves (finally). It seriously took about a month or more to get them to this stage. And my rose bushes are alive. I have spent a lot of time trying to make our place look respectable and it isn't easy being so busy and having constant wars with weeds. I didn't even know my rose bushes were alive. What a pleasant surprise to find a lovely pink rose showing off this morning. I have spent hours weeding our lawn and trying to get our zoysia grass plugs to thrive. Most are a live but are extremely slow to spread. I went ahead and over seeded everything so I hope in a week or two it will all look a little greener. Our garden looks good too. I would put a picture up but I weeded it 5 days ago and it already needs it again. Our corn, peas, pumpkins and beans all look really good and so do our carrots. Over all I am pleased with how things are looking. In a couple more months things should really look good I hope. I am craving a lush green lawn but I can wait til next year I guess. It is fun to worry over growing things :)