Garden Masterpiece?

Last year I planted sunflowers in my garden, I had about 5. I left the huge center of the flower that was full of seeds out all winter for the birds to eat. I knew that some would grow again this year because of that. This summer as my garden grew, sure enough, several sunflowers sprouted and grew. I let 3 grow to maturity. Two of the three are regular sunflowers, with a large flower at the top of the stem, full of seeds, the top is so heavy, it bends way down. The third one is much different; instead of one large flower on top, it has about 20 flowers growing all up and down the stem. But these flowers are all growing seeds in the heads like a regular sunflower. I didn't have any like that grow last year so I'm not sure where this one came from. It's a little bit weird, but it is really beautiful. My question is, is this an amazing garden masterpiece...or the biggest weed you've ever seen? I'd like to call it a masterpiece.

Football Season!!

Football season is here again, and Conner is in the zone!! His number this year is 27. He is on the same team as last year with just a couple of different boys. They played against Alta today and....

you've got to be kidding me!!! Can you believe the size of this 11 year old boy? There were two on this team that were this size. What do they feed these Alta boys???

Here's Conner waiting for the kick off. He helped with several tackles today. They lost by 1 point, but they played really hard. The Alta team had more than 22 boys on their team, so they had completely different boys for offense and defense. We have 15, and mostly keep the same boys in the whole time, they have more of a rotation. They were ahead for most of the game, but by the last quarter, they were exhausted.

This is my favorite play, "the Wedge"; they all form a wedge, and the person with the ball follows the wedge as far up the field as they can push the other team. They usually get a lot of yards off of this play. It was sad that they lost, but fun watching them play so well.

Cross Country Invitational

Kaylea ran her first cross country race today. There was an invitational in Tooele. There were schools from all over Utah here competing. from 1A all the way up to 5A schools. Kaylea was able to finish 3.2 miles in 23:13. She was third on her team. She runs on the Varsity team. The other two girls are two years older than her. Kaylea is a freshman. She has had a little problem with her leg...tendonitis. She has to wear a brace for the next few weeks while she runs. Hopefully it won't slow her down too much.

I think she did great, and was glad to have the first race over with. She was a little bit nervous, but did really well. We're so proud of her.

Cousin Camp

Just wanted to thank Todd and Denise for planning such a fun Family Reunion. We went to Island Park and rented a cabin for 3 nights, not nearly long enough. It was fun getting together and having the cousins renew friendships. We had 3 rooms upstairs that had lofts in them. Kaylea and Kenadee are showing us this cool loft.

I had to put this next picture in because several of us spent countless hours working on this puzzle. It's a memory I don't want to forget. I think after 4 days, Sandi was the one to finally put the final piece in the puzzle. (Actually, she said there were about 5 pieces missing, but close enough.)

We spent much of the first evening and second... okay and the third playing rock band. My kids absolutely loved hanging out with their uncles and aunts and jammin to some music. I think everyone who wanted a turn to play got one. I enjoyed watching more than anything. Man can those Collings boys sing!!!

Here's Chloe, Steve, Douglas, Grandma, and Grandpa watching everyone play Rock Band.

Caitlyn, Victoria, and Bailee hanging out on the couch. This cabin had 8 bedrooms, 3 lofts, 2 family rooms, 4 large bathrooms, a large kitchen and dining area. It was amazing.

Molly, Denise, and Grace. Denise cooked all of the dinners while we were up there, we were definitely fed well. The meals were absolutely delicious. I am afraid to cook when my year comes around. Hopefully I can work around that.

Marc, Sandi, John, Brinlee, and the most AMAZING drummer of all time, STEVE!

Kaylea holding our newest cousin, Bailee, she is such a sweet baby. Zoe is in the front of this picture, another new cousin, and just a darling. She had the cutest smiles.

We decided float down the river on tubes, so a group of us went to rent them, the only problem was it was late in the day, and they were sold out. We decided to just go play in the river instead. The water was FREEZING cold, and it took some getting used to. Uncle Steve decided to help get us used to the water by splashing anyone close to him... thanks?

We found a small dock, with a couple of old row boats attached, and decided to adopt it as our area. It was a warm dry place to sit and watch other rafts, canoes, and tubes go by.

We had a couple of kids decide they needed to chase the fish. Brinlee was the bravest, she'd follow a fish to the ends of the earth if you let her. Conner, Kelton, Cameron, Chloe, Jake, and Kenadee joined in. They all waded to the middle of the river, right through the sea weed. I thought the sea weed felt gross, so I didn't get too far into the water. The middle was a lot warmer than the shoreline so I did go out a ways.

I also found out that if I stayed close enough to Steve, I wouldn't get splashed. He aimed for those a little further away from him.

What's a day at the river without some hot bodies and muscle flexing? Kaylea and Steve.

After the river, the kids decided to warm up in the hot tub... they were chilled to the bones! We kept saying the adults would go out later, but never had a chance. So much to do, so little time.

We spent a day at Yellowstone Park, our first stop was Old Faithful. We showed up a little bit early, or late... whatever. We had a 40 minute wait to see it, but it was a nice break from the car, and it was worth the wait. My kids really loved hanging out with their younger cousins. Conner loves the babies, he spent a lot of time holding them and loved pushing Douglas in the stroller.

Here's my family, Jessica had to stay home and work, it's not the same without her here. Conner and Kaylea are showing off the amazing tie dyed shirts they made. We had everyone that made a tie dyed shirt wear it to Yellowstone Park. Not only did it look cool, but you didn't have to guess which family they were from. Here is a picture of all the cousins with their cool shirts at Old Faithful.

Our main goal for the day was to search for bears. We found elk, and buffalo, and a coyote. I was one of the lucky ones to catch a glimpse of a rare chipmunk! But no bear. I was able to take one final picture of Conner before my camera died. So I missed pictures of Grandma's closet, or the cool hat craft that the kids made. And one more memory I'd hate to forget. Chloe got sick on the way back from Yellowstone. I was so impressed with how organized Molly was. She has a bin in the back of her van that holds everything you could want for just such an emergency. Chloe threw up in Kenney's car. We all pulled over, and while the dad's were dry heaving, we were all trying to clean it up. Meanwhile other cars passing by were pulling over to see the wild animals that we surely must be seeing, why else would we be pulled over. Thanks to Sandi for directing traffic, "there are no bears here" "there's nothing to see" "just sick kids" "move along people".

All in all, it was a great family reunion, we had a great time. I didn't want to go home. My kids start school tomorrow, I can't believe how this summer has flown by.

Pickles

I went into my garden 2 days ago and found about 20 ripe cucumbers. I have never had even one cucumber plant actually grow in my garden so this is something new. I decided I shouldn't waste any of the food that I've grown, so I set out to make pickles, and bottled green beans, and tomatoes. I've felt so domestic these past couple of days.

Jessica came home yesterday and I was so proud of all the bottles of fruits and vegetables that I've put up, I wanted to show off. I opened the cupboard and smiled really big. Jessica twisted her face and said, "You grew pickles in your garden??" Her brother started laughing and kindly reminded her that you can't grow PICKLES in a garden, that would be weird.

Bottled Apricots

When I was growing up, every year we spent the last month of summer picking apricots from the two apricot trees in our back yard. I remember climbing the trees as high as I could without breaking branches, and filling buckets full of apricots. Then lowering the buckets down with a rope to somebody waiting below. One year we had a 3 foot swimming pool in the back yard, and when we'd get too hot picking apricots, we'd go dip our head in the pool and come back with our hair dripping wet to pick some more.

I really learned to love bottling apricots. My fingers would be puckered like prunes, and I'd have slime up to my elbows (actually I think the slime came from bottling peaches). But when we were done, it seemed like we had HUNDREDS of bottles of apricots lined up on the counter top, waiting to be put away in the fruit room.

Last week I was commenting to my husband how much I missed having an apricot tree in my yard. It just doesn't seem like a real summer without doing any canning. About 2 days later Tera called to offer me a couple of boxes of apricots she had picked. I was ecstatic! Only problem was, I really didn't have enough time to bottle them before I had to leave out of town. I placed the boxes in my laundry room right next to my air conditioning vent and actually forgot about them while I was at Education Week.

Today I decided I would go asses the damage, and throw out all the rotten apricots... it had been way too long. I was actually afraid to open the boxes, but decided I'd better be brave. What I saw were perfectly ripe, sweet, juicy apricots! I was shocked! I spent about an hour cleaning them and putting them in bottles. Tera gave me enough apricots for 7 bottles. That may not compare to the HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS we used to bottle as kids, but it brought back some fun memories. I really had a nice, nostalgic day.

Thanks TERA!!

Education Week

Steve and I just got back from Education Week at BYU Idaho. We had a really nice time. We actually went up a couple of days early so Steve could get some work done in Idaho Falls. I was able to get some reading in. By the end of the week, I had read the second book in the twilight series, New Moon. It is addictive.

When we finally got to Rexburg, we decided we'd better take advantage of the new temple that's there. It's so beautiful inside. We met our friends Troy and Shanna, and went through a session with them. The fun part about hanging out with them is that Troy was raised in Rexburg, and knows just about everyone. Sadly, they have decided to move back and have put their house on the market. I'll be sad to see them go.

Erin and Brayden let Kaylea, Conner, and Steve (on a part-time basis) stay with them while we were gone. I really appreciate them for helping us out. It's nice having family so close.

When we got home, the mountains to the west of us were on fire. I saw the strangest helecoptors I have ever seen. The one pictured here had this fire hose hanging out of it's belly and looked like the front cab was separated from the back, I assume water tank? They would fly over our house when they needed more fuel. The second helecoptor was shaped like a U and had propellors on each side. It had a long rope with a huge bucket on the end. It was about the biggest helecoptor I've ever seen. Then there were 2 normal ones, both with buckets.

Conner and I spent Sunday evening with our binoculars watching the 4 helecoptors go back and forth from the mountain to the reservoir and back to the mountain. I must be terrible, but when the mountain is on fire at night, it looks so neat. You see a long line of fire snaking its way accross the mountain.

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for, I finally took a picture of the new hair do. Sorry it's taken me so long. I really hate taking pictures of myself, but here you go.

TA DA!!!!!!