Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. - Steve Jobs

Friday, December 3, 2010

Garner Flashback


I'm not sure what this event was for but check out how tiny Mike is!
Hiking Timpanogos.
My favorite picture of the girls.
We found Keith's award for physical fitness from President Bush in Jake's baby book. The proud recipient.

Grandma Garner

I love how accurately she drew her lips. ;-)
You too can achieve silky smooth hair with Pantene ProV.


I'm sneaking this pic of Jake in because it's my favorite.
Check out how tiny Mike is. He looks so polite. What happened?


Looks like a red headed mixture between the hulk and Quasimodo.


Another one of my favorite pics.


And another one!

Keith raising his girl right.


Such a good hiker.


Like father like son.

Little John get an early start on his rebellion with his baby mohawk. And yet he turned out so sweet.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Sundance


We got together with the Garner family this summer for some fun at Lagoon & some quality hiking at Sundance.


Cherie & I pumping ourselves up for the grueling uphill hike.

We ate lunch up top with the waterfall. Jayda & I had a little pow wow & shared our lunch. We also saw a guy go running down a steep hill, lose control & go head first into the river bed. That was awesome.

I was sneaky & got a great pic of Keith & Cherie changing Jayda's diaper.


I was posing for a pic when Cherie decided to lick my face. Technically I think she was pretending to lick my face for the pic,without me knowing, when I moved & hit her tongue. Regardless this is the pic we got.


Reenactment

Cutest hiker award.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Summer Work


Jake and I worked on a lot of projects this summer outside. The biggest project was out front. We pulled out all of the rocks in the front. Pulling all of the rocks out took about 20 hours between the two of us just for the front section closest to the house. We also pulled out all of the rocks in front by the road and all of the rocks on the south end of the house. That was another 20 hours of rock pulling. Then we tilled, laid down landscape material, & planted.

On the south end we just covered the landscape material with lots of bark. I want to build in a path someday & replace the rotted out fence that's falling apart.

We planted 8 bushes & 3 trees. I can't wait to see them mature. I did lose one tree in the process. At least it was a cheap one.

My favorite plant is the one in the middle. It's a cotoneaster on standard. It's a crazy resiliant plant. The first time it snowed I found it crumpled on the ground. I almost cried. I shook the snow off of it & it stood right back up. Sweet.


I repotted my pond plants for the first time ever. That was a huge learning experience for me. Each one is done differently & has specific instructions. Lilies have to be kept in water at all times so I repotted them in my wheel barrow. They really stink as well.
This was my first attempt at repotting Iris. It was cool to cut the babies from the mama & then watch them grow. I was nervous that I had messed everything up and over joyed when I saw that they flourished despite it.

Mom's 70th Birthday


Mom was very nice and had a 70th birthday so we could throw her a party. Jenny kicked it into gear and put together an awesome impromptu party complete with a pinata. We had a BBQ out back complete with green chili burgers, hot dogs, & some yummy salads. Then we were off to play games.


Seth was youngest so he went first.








Jen got mom all gussied up and she took a swing.



Dad got in a few good hits.


I don't remember who cracked it. It was just more fun to watch a bunch of adults run for candy.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Halloween


Keith & Cherie hosted a Halloween party this year. We had a blast playing cherades in costume, gorging on Cherie's yummy homemade treats, and laughing all those calories off.


Mike was halarious at cherades.


Keith's costume was very fitting as he is recovery from a huge knee surgery.


Nathan Low and his wife Cat had my favorite costumes. Homemade & funny. Can't get better then that. What made it even funnier is Cat is pregnant. Can't tell in the pic, but it was awesome.


Cousin Devan and his wife Lynette came out for the party as well. They've just been married for a couple of months and they are as cute as hell.

The ginger mullet and his girl Jem came out to play again. We were super tired from the Halloween Half that morning but it was so fun to go play with everyone.
Jake won the costume contest. He spent most of the night with a pillow on his lap to "keep things in place" but Cherie convinced him to take this awesome shot. Ha ha!

I think it was the mullet bootie shorts that pushed the vote in his direction.


Baby Jem. With out the hair she was a UofU football fan.


Just enjoy this pic. I know I do.

Yard Adventures


We're having quite the adventures with our yard. We seem to have the most problems with our trees. This is our bungi catalpha in the back yard. Only 1/3 of the tree grew back at the beginning of the summer. What was amazing was our local nursery had us cut off all the dead branches which was 3/4's of the tree. In two weeks, the entire tree was full & beautiful again. I love how resilient trees are. What a great metaphor for life.



This is my first attempt at a garden. I learned A LOT and can't wait to try again next summer.



The peppers were my favorite! I wouldn't do lilac again though. Too tough & bitter for me.


We had 6 grape tomato plants which kept us and my entire office in grape tomatoes all summer. Yum!

I loved putting together a meal from the garden. I suddenly grew an understanding of why mom always beams when she prepares meals straight from the garden. I'm so excited for next



Oh the annual pond cleaning. This was our first time cleaning out the entire pond by ourself. It was a 6 hour process that I think we will have down to 2 hours next year. The biggest problem up front was getting the water out of the pond. We had purchased a shop vac that would suck up water when we first bought the house but we quickly learned that would take FOREVER.

Jake being the creative thinker that he is made the coolest pond pump. He bought some piping and hooked it to our waterfall pond pump. Turned it on and drained the stinking pond in 10 minutes flat. It was awesome!!

Grass got a good watering.


Once the pond was low enough. I hoped in & started catching fish. We fill up a large bin full of pond water with all the healthy bacteria & put the fish in there with a fish tank pump to give them oxygen.


After that I moved out all the plants and spent the next 2 hours scraping rocks and sludge from the bottom of the pond. Sludge = fish poo mixed w/ decomposed plant matter. Stinks!

Next is rinsing off all the algie and sludge with a hose. You have to leave some algie to keep the water healthy with bacteria. We also just leave all the algie on the waterfall rocks. It dries during the winter & is a piece of cake to get off in the spring.


Last is fill the pond up, drain it again, cut the pond plants down, put them all on the bottom, & fill the pond up again. You also have to put in a chemical to protect the fish from all the chlorine in the hose water. So the fish stayed in their temporary home for 2 days until we got that in.

I've learned to really enjoy working in my pond. I no longer scream at the snakes. I just name them & try to convince them that if they let me pick them up I will take them to the canal which will be like a frat house full of snakes. I don't think snakes have ears. Terrible listeners.
We woke up to 5 inches of snow in October when previous days weather was in the high 70's. The pond looked so pretty in the snow.


What wasn't pretty was my bungi catalpha in my front yard.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!