Garden, Cars, and Summer Fun

For family night last night we spent a family activity planting our garden. This is our first attempt at such an endeavor so we’ll see how it goes. Mya and Olivia were great help with planting seeds. They helped with the corn and pumpkin seeds as well as pulling out weeds. We’ll have to see how the corn turns out because in each little hole I told them to put 2-3 seeds in each hole. Mya followed instructions well but Olivia didn’t really get the concept of only 3 seeds per hole. They were both very excited about planting pumpkins so I think that will go well.

Other plants we are planting are beans, peas, beets, cucumbers (our girls love fresh cucumbers), and radishes. Our garden plot is pretty big and I spent some time getting a sprinkler system setup to water the whole plot on the timer so I don’t have to worry about the watering. I’ll post a picture with progress through out the summer.

Also I finally decided to get out of the Ford Escort I was driving. It would put out a smoke screen driving down the road at odd intervals and it needs a new motor. So rather than spend a couple thousands to fix my old junker I got a new Nissan Altima to drive around and am really enjoying the upgrade from a 1991 to a 2006 car! Fifteen years makes a big difference.

Lastly an update on Madalynn. She is talking quite a bit. I truly believe she is the politest 2 yr old I’ve ever known. When you get something for her she will say “thank you” or when you come into the room she will say “hi”. However, you have to realize that she doesn’t say them normally but uses more of a voice inflection to say her words. She is also walking around and getting better and better with stairs. She still falls on a regular basis and has bumps and scraps from her little falls. She is also enjoying playing with Olivia. She understands many of the fun games that Olivia like to play like monster, chase, and so forth. It is quite cute!

Kennedy is getting chubbier and looking more and more beautiful. She still has a little trouble spitting up after eating but we hope she will grow out of that phase. She sleeps fairly normally but we could always use a little more sleep. Things can get pretty crazy during the day for Carrie as she juggles the needs of all 4 girls. She does a great job and for sure is a full time job!!

Hiking the Logan River Trail

Carrie has been a little under the weather with Strep throat today and yesterday. I stayed home most of the day today with the girls (I took Mya, Olivia, and Madalynn to work for a few hours) and had the chance to take them hiking down the Logan River trail. Hiking is one of our favorite activities to do and we have been planning a hiking activity for the last couple of weeks.

We had a wonderful time walking the trail. The river was expremely high so we stayed away from the water on this trip. The girls (I have Olivia, Mya, and Kennedy with me) loved the bridges, large trees, and animals that we say on the trail. First was the old trees that created a growing house that they could climb and hide and roam through. After spending a few minutes exploring the giant trees we continued on our way.

To our great luck we came across Arial White (this is the name Mya gave to a white butterfly). Mya has been intensely focused over the last few weeks with catching a butterfly to have as a pet. To our surprise and luck Mya say a white butterfly and started chasing it. I joined in the chase and to my surprise with a swoop of the hand I caught the butterfly. We soon transfered it to Mya’s hand and she was so happy to finally have a pet butterfly. The butterfly’s name was officially Arial White (not to be confused with White Arial) and was very soft and beautiful. After carefully carrying the butterfly down the trail we decided that we would let her go so that she didn’t die. When Mya opened her hands the butterfly paused for a few moments, seemed to look at Mya, and then flew away. We decided that the butterfly really loved Mya and she was so happy to have a pet butterfly that loved her even though she couldn’t keep it.

We also saw baby mice, blue hatched eggs, robins, and a couple of garden snakes. Mya has a real knack for spotting snakes. As we went down the trail we were looking at a tree with mushrooms and Mya said, “There’s a snake dad.” Sure enough over on a low hanging branch to the side of the trail was a garden snake. We watched him sun himself on the branch and then to my surprise Mya said, Dad, There’s another snake.” And so there was. She really had an eye to spot the sunning snakes in the twigs, grass, and branches.

It was a wonderful hike on the trail. I’m grateful to have the time to spend moments like these with my beautiful daughters.

Thanks girls!