Okay, so I have a love/hate relationship with my garden!  I love to see the new sprouts in the spring popping up out of the dark, rich, moist soil, but I HATE all the soil prep, tilling and hard work that goes into getting the garden ready.  I really hate the months of weeding without much else happening with the plants.  I love to pick peas right from the vine and pop the little, green pods open and eat them fresh.  I love and hate my raspberries that produce so much that I don’t know what to do with them after I’ve made double batches of freezer jam, had raspberry shakes for breakfast and dinner, and used them in every possible way I can think of, yet still have bowls full left over.  I love Spencer and Chris singing, “sometimes we have to work hard in the garden!” after an FHE lesson on hard work and since just about every Monday night through the summer and fall is spent weeding or picking veggies.   But most of all I LOVE the harvest at the end of the year!  I love to see bags of freshly picked tomatoes bursting out of their skins.  I love to eat tomatoes and cucumber salad.  I love to see the beautiful jars of canned vegetables and fruits sitting on my counter ready to be stored for the winter.  I love my wheelbarrow filled with the onions that will store in my cold storage for the winter.  I love the smell of tomato sauce simmering on the stove that took all day to create.  But truth be told I hate all the work that goes into canning, freezing, saucing, jamming all those veggies!  It truly is a love hate relationship.  But worth it in the winter when I can use all those yummy veggies we prepared together, Chris and I, and know the love and work that went into it!

Okay, so I don’t think you are ever prepared for that first day you send your kid off to school!  He has been anxiously awaiting his time for preschool to start and every day he sees his friend, Cameron drive off for school he says to me, “Mom, I WANT to go to school with Cameron!”  Well, that day finally came and it was bittersweet!  Let me first start off by saying that I didn’t cry…I got a littly misty, but no tears at least. 

He woke up in the morning and I made is favorite breakfast, “dunkin’ eggs” and we sat and talked about what was going to happen this morning.  He got dressed in his new school clothes and let me do “handsome hair”–lately he wants to do his own hair, but he let me this morning.  We took some pictures with his Bumblebee Transformer Backpack that is roughly the same size as him.  While driving to school he chattered the whole way there.  We arived at the High School where the Cave Kids Preschool is and waited for his teachers.  When they came out he took my hand and walked me over to them where they took his picture and he told them he was “Spencer, Spencer Powell.”  Then thinking he might cling to me a little bit, he turned around waved at me and said, “See ya later Mom!”  and that was it…no clinging, no crying, so coersion

We just spent the week in St. George, UT on vacation!  It was so much fun and absolutely beautiful!  Spencer, Josey and I drove down on Saturday while Chris had “work issues” and didn’t fly in until Monday afternoon.  I have decided that portable DVD players are a great invention for traveling far disances with children!!!  Also thank goodness for city parks, where we stopped to get the wiggles out!

We went to Zion 2 days.  Boy, is it beautiful there!!  It always amazes me the beautiful things Heavenly Father has created for us and the fact that they are only a few hours drive from where I live!  Utah is so beautiful!  Spencer was an excellent hiker and insisted on carrying the camel pak filled with water.  It was as big as he was, and pretty heavy, but he carried it the entire 2 mile hike to the start of the Narrows. 

We went swimming 2-3 times a day…the pool was right out our patio door across the lawn.  Spencer LOVED the hot tub (as much as I would let him get in it)!  We went to the Tuacahn an saw Big River it was incredible and the kids did remarkably well.  It is so different vacationing with children vs vacationing just the two of us, you have to do things a lot differently and at a slower pace.  We sure had fun!  The thing that made it all worth it was one night we were watching a movie and made popcorn and had “black cookies” (what Spencer calls his Oreos) and he said to me, “Mom this is the funnest night ever!”  And that is why I do vacations!!!!!!