Got Dirt?

I do! We finally got our dirt and garden all planted. We have tomatoes, strawberries, spinach, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, peas, and swiss chard planted in our garden. It's kind of exciting, although right now it still just looks like a bunch of dirt. We have some tomato starts inside still and the strawberries are up, but we're just waiting for everything else to get started. It's pretty fun. Justin has decided that gardening is his new hobby, so it's been fun to see him out taking care of everything and reading books on square foot gardening. It's a nice family project.

My Garden

I just finished making a big garden box for our family so we can have our first family garden. I'm really excited about it. I got 8 of the red timbers from the self help store here on base for free. They also let me "rent" for free a circular saw to take home and use. I got boards from the wood pile (dump) here on base for the bottom and drilled a bunch of holes in them for drainage. We have to have a bottom on our box because the landscape here is under warranty so we aren't allowed to plant anything directly into the ground for at least a year and after that we have to draw up plans and get approval for anything we want to do. In the end I did end up spending about $66 on extra timbers and screws, so it wasn't free, but I still think we did pretty well. Now all I have to do is convince someone with a pickup to help me load up a bunch of dirt :)

Spring Break!

We had a busy and fun spring break. First, the kids and I went up to my mom and dad's house and celebrated my dad's 72nd birthday. We also went hiking at goose lake and went out to see the sandhill cranes. It's funny how perceptions change when you get older. There are cliffs at goose lake that we used to jump off some times for fun. I remember them being huge, at least 30 feet tall. Well, when we went to them last week they looked really small. I think I was in the right place, but they looked closer to 10 feet tall. I'll just keep telling my self that they were taller so I feel braver.

After we got back, on Saturday, the whole family went out to the Hagerman fossil beds. The visitor's center was neat, but really small. Then we went on a hike that follows the oregon trail where some fossils have been found. It was a 3 mile hike, so Justin ended up taking the boys the whole way, and the little kids and I just went a little ways and then drove the car to the end and met them at the end of the trail.

As you can see the hike was pretty desolate. The weather was perfect for hiking though. Not too hot, not too cold, and not too windy, which is really the amazing thing for out here. If you look very carefully you can see 3 black specs hiking up the hill on across the way. I took this picture from the end of the trail as we were hiking ou to meet them. When we met Justin and the boys Joey came running up to me saying that John had broken his leg. Justin was carrying him to make the story believable, but of course he didn't really, they were just trying to trick me.


What a bunch of fakers! Here's some pictures of the little kids waiting for Joey and John.




They were so funny because every ten feet or so Nathan would plop down in the dirt and start breaking up dirt clots and it took forever to convince him to get back up and start walking. It made me think of all those poor pioneer mothers trying to prod their toddlers on the right trail.

After the hike we went to miracle hot springs and had a picnic and soaked up some warm water. It was GREAT! The water was perfect and of course it didn't matter that it was 50 degrees out side. In fact if anything it may have been just a bit too warm outside to really enjoy the warm water. THey had a little swing in the pool and these really cool domes you could rent for camping. It looked kind of fun so we might have to try that some time. All in all it was a great day.

Happy Birthday Justin!

Yesterday was Justin's 32nd birthday. THe kids made this great hat for him to wear while we sang happy birthday and ate birthday pie. The night before J and I went to the temple and while we were there we ran into some old friends from college. After the temple we all went out to eat at McGrath's which was great! It was a lot of fun. They had the absolute best birthday hat there. I really wish I would have had my camera with me. It was like a huge fish made out of pottery and formed into a hat. It was hilarious! He also got to go fly fishing on Friday, so it was a pretty good weekend for him.

LEGOMANIA!!

Yesterday was Justin's birthday so all of the kids made him a lego sculpture to help celebrate. I just had to post pictures of them because some of them were really cool.




Samantha's cactus girls.



John's Robot



Nathan's baby girafe



Joseph's robot.

Sleepover

Samantha had her first sleep over the other day with her friend Victoria. I have to say that girl sleep overs are soooooo much better than boy ones. The girls were really cute and dyed their hair and put make up on and finger nail polish. It was a lot of fun. Plus those two are so mild mannered it was just a piece of cake to watch them. Victoria's brother Eddie also spent the night. (He is one of Joey's friends) so everyone had a great time. Just the boy room was rowdier than the girl one and none of the boys wanted me to dye their hair. Instead they got out all of their pokemon cards and dueled all night long. Even Nathan had a his friend Emilio over for a while, while his parents celebrated his mom's birthday. It's nice to see all of the kids making good friends.

GQ Joe

The title says it all. I can't believe how good looking and old Joey is starting to be. It is amazing. John too, I just have to convince him that he wants to get dressed up and let me take pictures of him . . . hopefully soon we'll have new pictures of everyone. (Justin's the really hard one to convince.)