Stone Mountain

Here we go again....  :)

Greenville Zoo.

Spring Break was quickly approaching, Scott had taken that week off, but we had no plans to go anywhere.  When I was checking my email about a week prior, I had an email from LDS Living which announced the Open House of the newly renovated Atlanta, Georgia temple.  I immediately knew where we were going for Spring Break!  What an opportunity to have a temple so close to be able to take my children to.  What a wonderful chance to teach them, show them the beauty inside, and give them a goal to look forward to when they are able to return.

I called Scott to tell him of my plans and went onto Priceline to see if I could snag a nice hotel on the cheap....and I did!  We got 2 rooms at the Marriott for $40 each per night. A steal of a deal! 

We knew we'd have to stop on the down for Linlee to nurse and let the kids run out their pent up energy.  Greenville, South Carolina was the perfect halfway point and we had a zoo pass that got us into the Downtown zoo there.  It was so perfect! 

The kids loved the zoo!  Dallin had been asking for months if we could go to the zoo soon and this satisfied his zoo-hunger.  Compared to our zoo here, the zoo was really small, but it was neat to be able to zip through and see the animals up close.

Scott is such a good sport and a wonderful help on trips like this!  He'll often hold  the two babies, push the stroller, take the kids to the dreaded public restroom, or whatever needs to be done!

Day 06: Something I bought recently

Straight Arrow and I debated back and forth over what we should get each other for Christmas this year.  I really didn't need anything or even want anything big.  But what we really needed to do was build up our food storage and work on self-reliance.  So, our big Christmas purchase this year: A Solar Oven!  It is so awesome that even on 30-degree day, without any electricity or fuel of any kind, and as long as the sun is shining, we can cook!

I christened our Sun Oven with a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread.  Take note that while it baked at 350 degrees, there was snow on the ground!

A little boy's piece of paradise.

While we are in love with our house and the amount of land that we have, our yard has left some to be desired.  There's no flat area to kick a ball around, our "grass" is weeds, and we had this as our side yard...the forest.

Through a series of amazingly unprofessional and unreliable landscapers, it has now taken us nearly a year and a half to find someone reliable enough to clear our forest so that we could start on our yard!  But, it finally happened and over the course of two days, my two boys were in little boy heaven!  We set up shop on our deck with our camping chairs and just watched as our new yard was created.  It was so cool to watch!

When the workers were finished, they left their equipment at our house overnight and gave the kids permission to climb up and sit inside (just no turning it on!)

our "new" yard....soon to have real grass on it!

Fruits!

While our garden did produce this year, we didn't get quite the yield to can what we would have liked.  But....the previous owners of our house planted Asian Pear trees and we got to enjoy their yield this year!  I made batches and batches of pear sauce to freeze!  So delicious!

Firepit!

We've talked about getting a firepit for our backyard since we moved into our house.  But before we had our yard cleared, there just wasn't an ideal place for it.  But...now there is!  We broke it in with giant-marshmallow ooey-gooey S'mores, of course!  So much fun and we can't wait to use it more!

As you can see, it looks like more marshmallow may have ended up on hands than in tummies.

Turkeys?

How often do YOU see wild turkeys roam across your backyard?  Or have your own family of deer sleep in your newly planted grass every night?  

I LOVE where we live!

Giving me a heart attack.

Aunt Tiffany really wanted to hike up to Timpanogos cave, but since we had some little ones along we decided to picnic along Bridal Veil falls instead.  Such a beautiful place in a beautiful canyon!  Bridal Veil falls was one of the places where the doctor and I had engagement pictures taken.  It's so gorgeous and being there made me nostalgic for Utah again.

We picnicked and then strolled along with the kids to the bottom of the falls.  The kids took off their shoes and were wading in the water when Grandpa came over and offered to take one child up the falls.  Of course, you can't just take one when there's five who really want to go!  Before I knew it, there I was watching two of my children climb up a mountain through these slippery rocks in freezing, flowing water.  It was exciting at first because I knew how excited they were to go up with Grandpa.  Straight Arrow joined them in his flip flops to help herd the children up the way.

Within a few minutes, the trail and bridge below the falls were lined with strangers watching intently at these crazy people climbing straight up the middle of the falls.  The tension mounted more and more as they climbed and slipped and climbed and slipped. 

After what seemed like forever of watching my two little ones in peril, I called Straight Arrow up on the mountain and begged for them to come back down!  The kids took a vote and every kid wanted to come down except Green Light.  Luckily, Aunt Tiffany ran up the mountain and helped bring the kids down one by one. 

A boy with no mercy.

On a slightly chilly day, we headed over to a little spray pad.  (Oh, how I wish we had spray pads near us!)  The older kids stayed clear of the cool water, but little Curvy Road kept going back for more, even with a red nose.  He took hold of the bazooka sprayer and no mercy!  Fun times!

Thanksgiving Point!

I love that place!  I remember going for the first time nearly 10 years ago and walking through the gardens as a newlywed and I was very excited to take my kids back there this year this time.  It was as beautiful as I remembered.  The favorite for the kids were the fish and frogs. 

Silly statue boy!

looking at the fish

It's so beautiful!

see the frog in the center?

Reap what you sow.

A month ago when I planted my raised beds, they had a long way to grow.  I can't believe the explosion they've gone through lately!  We've already got plenty of sugar snap peas and radishes.  Within the next week or two, we'll have ripe cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes!  I ♥ my garden!

squash, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, and my favorite cucumbers climbing the trellis!

the tomato jungle

And speaking of gardens...

Presenting the 2010 crop. 

Using every bit of 160 square feet.

9 broccoli

18 cauliflower

9 spinach

9 swiss chard

27 sugar snap peas

6 better boy tomatoes

4 cherry tomatoes

16 basil

20 romas

12 cucumbers

64 radish

7 bell pepper

6 eggplant

4 yellow squash

4 zucchini

5 cantaloupe

3 butternut squash

92 corn

4 pumpkin

4 watermelon

189 bean

64 carrots

How's THAT for a garden?

In the ground.

The garden's fully in.  Planted.  Grow, baby grow!

Almost a rose.

It almost looks like a rose until you look close and see that really it's not.  No thorns either.  And a very prolific bloomer, which makes it all the better.  Welcome to our home, Camilia.

Feeling like Homeowners.

Everyone always says that once you own a house, everything falls apart.  Every little (and big!) expense just seem to keep piling in one after another.  And while we feel so grateful that we have an income to support our home, things do just keep breaking. 

Like I wrote about a few weeks ago, we paid a hefty sum to have some trees taken down.  Mind you, those were the most important trees that were making threats to our home.  There were others that will come down at a later time.  Not a week after we had those trees cut, I noticed that a huge pine tree out in the forest had been totally uprooted and fallen over during a rain storm.  It hadn't fallen all the way to the ground and was resting on another pine close to our home.  If the big pine pushed the little pine over, it would indeed fall on our house.  So!  Straight Arrow decided to go on a little chainsawing adventure with my dad. 

Out they went to buy a new chainsaw and tromped up the snowy hill with their new, orange baby (happy Valentines Day, baby!).  

After a few minutes, I didn't hear the buzz of the saw anymore and looked out the window to see what was going on.  I saw this stuck underneath that large pine.  (Note the 120○ angle on the blade there....yeahhh, it's not supposed to look like that.)

Ode of Lowes Home Improvement who did a straight out exchange for this chainsaw despite 100%-fault-on-us.  We only had to buy one chainsaw that day: thankfully a $250 homeowner project instead of double. 

A little personality.

Add a little personality to that sparkly white snow and then you can really tell  a story.

1.  Green Light and Curvy Road sledding along

2.  2-minutes into the snow fiasco, we find Curvy Road kicked back in his camping chair in the garage just content to watch everyone else.

3.  The only real snow-playing-parent here.

4.  Yeeah.  Straight Arrow thought that the snow would be powdery enough to take the leaf blower and blow snow off of the roof onto the kids for a little snow shower.  Yeah....didn't quite work like he hoped.

5.  My little snow angel.

6.  This little girl could stay out all day in it.  She loved it!

7.  A snow tower.  It's what you resort to when you can't build a snowman.

8.  Foot pajamas and rain boots.  :)

9.  An inside view of dad digging the van out after a failed attempt to leave.  We're snowed in...literally.

10.  The Grampy and the tractor that plowed us out.  Freedom to get up the hill!

11.  Cold and crying.

12.  Warmed up rice packs warming the ice cold toes of a 6 year old girly girl.

Basically. The storm of the decade.

Hello North Carolina!  Yes, we live in North Carolina, a southern state in the US.  Note: Southern!  It does NOT snow here often.  Read: North Carolina does not have the plows nor the tax money set aside to deal with snow.


Therefore.  When it snows 8+ inches in North Carolina, the entire economy shuts down totally.  Clear the shelves of milk, bread, and eggs because the stores will not be restocking for several days, if not a week.  This is life in North Carolina.  Don't look forward to it changing anytime soon with global warming looming over us....that global warming that has caused 2.  YES, brace yourselves, 2 SNOWS this year.so.far.

(Left to Right, Top to Bottom): 

1.  Snow-crystallized spider web

2.  Icy tracks a.k.a. Snowed IN

3.  Tree-scape

4.  Tractor wheels never looked so good

5.  Precious angel

6.  Heaven-made sparkles

7.  Creating tracks

8.  another.fallen.tree.dang.it

9.  Busy coatrack

The calm before the storm.

There's always a calm before the storm.  

The day was awesomely teasing of soon-to-be Spring days.

I watched the birds hurriedly search for food outside of my window.

We enjoyed a day at the park.

 

  

  

  

...and then the storm hit.  

More to come....

And PS...aren't my boys absolutely gorgeous?