Fun New Game

Someday I will own nice furniture, but that will not be until it can be appreciated for what it is and not as a piece of acrobatic equipment.  Miles has a new favorite game- somersaulting off the couch.

Food

For the fourth time this growing season, the stupid deer has munched on my tomato plants.  I think the plants are not going to be capable of producing much fruit this season.  I did harvest 2 cherry tomatoes so far.  This evening I went out to check on the garden and picked our first Anaheim Pepper and first 2 Armenian Cucumbers.  The cukes were huge and one was a surprise.  I knew one was on, but had no idea there was a second one until I poked around out there for a few minutes.  They are yummy and Jonathan is excited to have home-grown organic cucumbers!

On Saturday I found a recipe for a dessert that looked awful.  The picture was ugly and the recipe didn't sound appealing... Imagine a 6 layer 8-inch "cake".  The base is a round of brownie topped with marshmallow filling, followed by a round of chocolate chip cookie topped with marshmallow, then a round of cheesecake topped with chocolate frosting, then a layer of graham crackers topped with chocolate frosting, then another round of cheesecake topped with marshmallow filling, then a second round of chocolate chip cookie topped with marshmallow filling, then the final layer of another round of brownie; then the whole "cake" is frosted with chocolate frosting.  Because I was so nastied-out by the recipe, I had to make it so I could find out how awful it was.  The cake was about 8 inches tall when assembled and it weighed 11.4 pounds.  Seriously.  It was huge.  So, how was it?  Actually, it was surprisingly good!  It was like having a brownie, cookie, and piece of cheesecake and taking a bite out of each one before moving on to the next treat.  Even though it was good, I'll never make it again.  It's not worth the effort.  Here's what it looks like...

Silly Boys

These two have fun together sometimes often!

Kings Peak 2012

 Nolan has wanted to climb Kings Peak ever since he was told he was too little to do so, but Jonathan was big enough.  This year was Nolan's turn.  Due to Jonathan's work schedule, the boys' backpacking from the North Rim to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon adventure had to be postponed.  Dan already had the time off from work so he decided to take Nolan to climb Kings Peak.  The plan was to drive and hike in 6 miles one day, summit the next day and return to camp, then hike out on the third day.  We'd told Nolan repeatedly that it was a long hike to the summit (20 miles on day 2, round-trip) and that making the summit was never guaranteed due to both physical and weather conditions.  He got tired of hearing that.  Well, the trip went off without a hitch- gorgeous weather included, and around 10 a.m. on day 2 of their trip, a message was left on my phone from the summit of Kings Peak.  They had a lot of fun, but Nolan sure hates freeze dried food.

On the summit of Kings Peak

Nolan and Kings Peak

Hiking out

Freedom Fest Parade

It was hot on the 4th of July.  I sure thought so and I wasn't the one wearing wool, carrying an instrument, and marching more than 2 miles on asphalt in a parade.  Jonathan loves this parade though- he even traded his work shift so he could be in it.  At the end of the route I caught up with him.  He was hot, tired, and really sweaty...

DCI Bomb

Miles loves DCI.  He watching the videos of the 2008 and 2011 finals constantly.  He plays the roles of Drum Major and Snare.  He prays for the corps individually every night.  He's a DCI geek.  The summer DCI tour stopped in Ogden on Tuesday night and we decided to to take Miles to see the corps.  We'd talked about it for days.  Miles walked around saying, "Blue Devils coming. Phantom Regiment coming.  Boston Crusaders coming.", etc for days.  Dan and I were excited to see Miles' excitement.  We got to Weber State on Tuesday and it was evident that Miles does not like DCI in person.  The night was a disaster as Miles preferred running on the bleachers and jumping off the benches, and making his own noise much more that watching the show.  We left at the end of competition instead of sticking around for the encore and awards.  Bummer.

Miles actually watching one corps perform

At least he was being quiet!

New Phrase

Miles has a phrase that he started saying last week while Dan and Nolan were backpacking.  Miles' playmate (Nolan) had been gone for 3 days, Dan was with him, and Jonathan was at work.  That was the way things were last week.  I guess Miles was at the end of his tolerance for me and came up to me and said, "I sick-a-tired a you a-day."  So funny!  I laughed so hard.  Since then, the phrase "sick and tired" has become very articulated and is used frequently by Miles.