8.02.2011

Nor Cal

Back in May I got to go to California for a much needed trip to see my parents and their new crib.  Chase couldn't come...someone had to support my spending habits.  That was sad.  But Harper and I had a great time!  We stayed at my parents beautiful house in Acampo, took some day trips to Sacramento, and enjoyed the lovely weather.  Most of all, it was just great to be with them!

Swingin in Grammy's yard


The girl loves chocolate!

Love these two so much!

Harper totally got my mom's ipad figured out in like a day.  Pretty amazing!


She was showing me how to find Angry Bird.  Thanks Harps.

At the Sacramento Zoo


(Not sure why some of these won't flip.)



See the jaguar up in the left corner?  Look past the cute baby.

It might not look like it, but Harper loved the carousel.  She was a little nervous at first but once it started she couldn't stop giggling.


More fun...

...and games at Grammy & Papi's.




She thought Papi was the funniest guy in the world!

They crack themselves up



Such great grandparents!

Love that face

Cruisin Old Sac(ramento)


We took a train ride along the river...and the freeway.  Not quite the relaxing trip we had in mind.  But still entertaining.




Going for a ride on Papi's "tractor"





The last 4 months

YIKES!  4 months.  You have no idea how much this blog has tortured my mind.  I honestly hadn't realized it had been so long.  The true reason I hated blogging so much was because of the crappy photo uploading system.  But then I got on today and wah-la.  It's new!  I'm sure you all knew that...but I didn't!  Makes uploading photos so much easier.  Because of this "new" technology I have uploaded a ridiculous amount of photos into one blog post.  These are the general happenings of the last 4 months.

Waaay back when it was cold (SO unlike now) we went target shooting with Bridger (Chase's bro) and his girls, Bennett and Madelyn.  Fun!

Harper with her ear protection

The cousins



This is Harper and Great Grandpa Fly.  He loves the babies.

Oopsies Harper...
 So we FINALLY moved to Twin Falls so Chase wouldn't have to commute 2 hours each way every day.  We moved here the beginning of April and we really like it.  We're renting an old farm house out of the city limits.  Yep.  We're country folk.  Actually, we really kind of are.  We have 4 laying hens which give us about 3 eggs a day, a LARGE garden, live on 77 acres (that someone else farms, of course), and are surrounded by corn fields.  We live on a real, live farm!  Horses, cows, dog, rabbit, chickens and all.  We're renting from a friend of a friend and we really like it.  The house is certainly old and farm-like, (think inefficient, a bit worn, and dusty) but we like having space around us and Harper especially loves the chickens, as you can see below.


Love my built-in bookshelf...so does Harper.  It's just her size.


Mother's Day 2011.  LOVE being a mother.  Really.  A lot.


This is how we can be found on many sunny summer days.  Outside.  There's a great playground thing and a trampoline that were left here and Harper gets a kick out of them.  She sure knows how to have fun!



This is our garden area.  It may not look like it, but Chase says it's about 3000 square feet.  Ya, I told you it was large, didn't I?  This is when it was all tilled and ready for planting.
And here it is about a month later, June 1.  See those little specks of green?  That's our stuff sprouting.  We planted almost everything from seed.
July 1.  More green.  I remember thinking at this stage how big things were.  Oh boy.  Wait until you see the photo I took August 1!
August 1--yesterday.  Huge stuff!  Our garden includes:
4 Roma Tomatoes
4 Early Girl Tomatoes
4 Green Peppers
4 Jalapeno Peppers
Green Beans
Snap Peas (which are starting to die due to heat)
Carrots
Broccoli
Cilantro
Basil
Onions
Crookneck Squash
Cucumbers
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Red Potatoes
Sweet Corn
Raspberries

That's a lotta stuff!  Ya.  And it's even more weeds.  We've gotten a lot of stuff out of it and it's been fun!  This is our first real garden and we're pretty pleased that it's worked out.  Everything was started from seed except the tomatoes, peppers, and basil.  I was nervous about the seed actually germinating.  It was so much work to get the garden prepped and everything planted and then to have the faith that something would actually sprout was...tough!  But it did and now we've got squash coming out of our ears!!  Lots of fun, though.

Typical

We got a puppy!  A Brittany Spaniel.  We named him Huck.  Or Walter Huckleberry Finnigan, as Chase calls him.  He's a handful sometimes, but I'm excited to have a puppy that will grow up with our kids.
She likes to find little cubbies to sit in.  This is at Grandma Fly's.

Posing

Another one of her "cubbies"--under the kitchen sink.  A couple times I've not been able to find her after coming back into a room...this is usually where she can be found.  Just sitting.

(...and sitting topless, apparently.  Oops.)

Chase's craftsmanship.  He made Huck this deluxe dog house.  Complete with insulated walls and roof, porch, and shingles.  He says all it needs is an Adirondack chair.  (P.S.  It's painted now and oh-so-cute.  I'll have to take a new picture.)

Trying to keep Harper in and Huck out as I work in the office.  Failed on both accounts.
 Do you feel overloaded with photos and info?  I'm sure you do.  But there's more.  Just an update on us:  Living in Twin Falls.  Chase is 2nd counselor in the Elder's Quorum at church and I teach the 14-15 Sunday School class.  Harper started going to nursery and LOVES it.  Never a tear shed.  Except by me.    Chase likes his job.  I like to stay home.  Keeping busy with home, family, church, work, and fun weekend trips.  More on that to come.