El Cabin

We went to the good ol' cabin in Star Valley.

My camera is currently broken so these are the only pics I have (so far?) from my sister.

Our first annual water fight.

There are four coolers full of water balloons surrounding a sprinkler.

You had to run into/under the sprinkler to get your ammo.

Emma and I chasing Dave

A couple of grandkids going after Granda

Notice Anika throwing a balloon at Emily (on the left) in the next two pictures.

Good form, Anika

Anika is throwing a balloon at Emily again.  You can see me getting my dad on the right.
The balloons mostly bounced off of people, so I started squeezing the balloon as I threw
it so it would break.  You can see the water in action.

Anika getting Emily yet again...

... less effective.

I'm pretty sure Emily wanted me to put these pictures in too.

Nathaniel's Savory Zucchini Bread

Savory Zucchini Bread

We sure have had a lot of zucchini lately, and we've been getting increasingly adventurous with ways to use it.  Nathaniel wanted to try out a savory zucchini bread.  There's probably a recipe out there, but he just made this up, and it was really tasty:

1.5 cups warm water
1 T yeast
2 T sugar
Let sit for a couple of minutes (proof the yeast)
1 T salt
~2 cups grated zucchini
0.5 package of cream cheese
2 T dehydrated onion flakes
0.5 cups shredded carrot
2 t dill seed
1 egg
1 clove minced garlic
~7 cups flour

Mix it all up,
let it rise for 90 minutes,
split into 2 bread pans
let 'em rise another 30 minutes
bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes
It turned out really tasty, but the next time I make this, I'm going to adjust a few things - probably reduce the water to 1 or 1.25 cups, and I think some sun-dried tomatoes would be really good in it.

Anika's Prayer

About a month ago Anika started hi-jacking our prayers.  We would start

praying and she would jump in with one of her two prayers.  Her prayers

had the usual beginning and ending.  In the middle she was either

"grapeful" (grateful) or gave "hanks" (thanks) for "this day" or "this to eat."

Yesterday she surprised us with new content prayer during dinner:

"...Hanks for eating our breakfast.  Hanks for playing at Conner's house.

Hanks for taking me to the playground..."

and another couple lines I couldn't remember :(

It was very cute.

Ssseth was sssix months...

...but now he is over ssseven months.

At his 6 month appointment he was

19 lbs 2.5 oz  (50-75%) and

28.75" long (above 95%)

Time to put the co-sleeper side up.

Seth loves to play the piano.  He'll dive toward it as we walk by,
even if we are far away.  Lately he has been sssinging as he plays.

Our Little Cowboy.  Gotta love those legss!

Random picture of Anika...
She moved the blocks and picture from the shelf and used it
to put her animals to sleep.

Ssseth loves this sssnake!  He used to ssscoot across the room to it.
But now he crawls!!

Seth, friend, and Anika at a splash pad.

Ssseth sssmiling and sssticking out his tongue.

Anika

She climbed out of her crib, so we changed it into a toddler bed...
for a week.  She's back in her crib and things are much better.

Notice the bear sitting on the chair and the monkey  in the boppy :)

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Sporting her star glasses upside down and her towel robe.

Anika hasn't been taking naps, but she likes to put her dolls and animals to sleep.
She will even turn out the light, close the curtains, turn on the sound machine and night light.
Today she even asked me to be quiet so as to not wake her doll up.

It is so cute when she carefully lays her doll or animal next to her on the pillow as she lays down to sleep.
She makes sure that the blanket covers the doll/animal as well.

We've been swimming and to a few splash pads lately.

Here she is at her cousin's birthday party.  She LOVED going down the slide!

Hardman Reunion

We went to Family Camp at Maple Dell Boy Scout Camp with Nathaniel's siblings and parents.  It was great to see and visit with so many (I think there were over 

40 of us with one family of 7 missing).

This horse was in the area where the adult classes were held.  It was nice to help
Anika pass the time since she wasn't quite old enough for her own age group.

Nothing special but maybe the only picture I have of me there.

Nathaniel making a duct tape wallet, and his sister, Anne, making a duct tape bag.

Anika got to go on a pony ride.  After finishing the loop she told the guide that she was not done yet.
Luckily there were no other kids in line at the time so she got to have two more turns.

Anika on the "beach" with dad and cousin Luke.

Anika out on the "lake" with dad.

Off to the Races

Last Saturday I participated in the Art City (Springville) 5k with Seth, 

Anika and my sister, Emily.  I woke the kids up around 6:30am and

neither of them fell back asleep in the car or during the race.

When I woke Anika up she said, "But, Mom.  I'm tired."  :(

During the race she would say, "We're going so fast," and ask if were

chasing the cars.  The race was sponsored by Nestle, so there were some

fun after-race treats and snacks.

Anika kept herself busy for awhile alternating between a melting chocolate-covered ice cream popsicle and an apple.  We didn't stay for the whole raffle after so

I don't know if we would have won anything :(

Meanwhile...

Nathaniel did his first century bike ride.  He had fun drafting with random groups of people.  We had the camera so he didn't take any pictures.  (Nathaniel's part:

It was a really fun ride (this was the Pony Express century in Eagle Mountain).

The first 35 miles or so were kind of rolling hills with a headwind, and I was

glad to be in a long line of riders.  Even though they were strangers, and even

though we didn't really talk, we all shared a laid-back sort of camaraderie.

I liked it when I finished taking my turn in the lead and fell back, everyone said

"Nice pull," or "Thanks for the pull" or something like that.  

Then there was a 9-mile, 6% climb up to Eureka during which I died.  Well, I didn't die, but I went down to lowest gear, and I was just crawling along.  I remember sweat poring down my face, inching up the hill, getting passed by other bikers, feeling miserable, and then I looked back down the mountain and I saw other bikers climbing up toward me, and I thought, "These too shall pass."  Then I kind of got the giggles for a while, which happens to me sometimes when I'm exhausted.  

At the top, which was about half way, we had lunch, and then it was downhill.  I was with a group for a while, but it was a much smaller group, and we kept splitting up, and I ended up just riding with one other guy from that group.  Then we caught another guy, and the three of us rode together for a while.  Once we turned north, toward Tooele, there was a good tailwind, and I was going pretty fast.  I can't say how fast exactly, because my dumb computer decided to turn metric (it's not supposed to do that unless you do a factory reset, which I didn't).  I do remember seeing 61 km per hour at one point (and that was on a flat stretch).  

I was completely on my own for a while, but I didn't mind with the tailwind.  Around mile 65/70, I started feeling kind of sick, probably from the heat.  When I pulled into the final rest stop at mile 82, I was about ready to throw up.  So I laid my bike down (in the sun, because the shade was very limited) and sipped water slowly under the tiny pavilion.  After 5 or 10 minutes of that, there was a bang like a gunshot, and it turned out that my tire had kind of exploded.  I'm guessing the heat built up the pressure in the tube too much, and it just burst (both the tire and the tube split).  I had a spare tube, but no one takes a spare tire along, so that ended my race.  82 miles.  It was really fun, and I'm glad I did it.  Another time I'll finish one.

Here is Anika with her new friend.

This little girl is so sweet and nice and shares well.

Anika even let her older sister paint her fingernails and toenails.  Something I have offered to do several times, but she has never let me.  Ha.