A Catch Up Post

I just realized I forgot to transfer some pictures to my computer before I dumped the card for new pictures. Argh. I don't have any pictures of Faith and Matt coming home to show now, but they made it safe and sound!

We have been going ever since. We spent the next afternoon at our friends' house, where Debbie and Kevin spoil the kids with frozen popsicles, water balloons, and games! Todd and Beth can't stand to just take sweet pictures, they always have to throw some goofy ones in too!

Faith got home just in time to go to the final event of the summer reading program she participated in at the library. She was worried she would miss it while she was in the Wild West, but she got to collect all of her awards!
Kindersongs was performing for the kids that day too, and they have a bunch of really fun music for the kids. At the endm Brian asked if I was with the paper since I was taking pictures the whole way through. Sigh... no...I am just a camera obsessed mom. I did take the group picture for them since nobody from the paper had made it.
The next day I took Faith and Matt to audition for the Hansel and Gretel play with the Missoula Children's Theater. (They go to all 50 states, as well as 13 countries... you should really see if they are coming to your area!) Matt didn't want to actually be in the play, so he spent the week being an assistant director (a very fancy title for a stagehand!), and Faith was chosen as one of the "Nasties." These kids practice for five days in a row, and on the 5th day they perform the play. It is so incredible how much they learn and accomplish in those few days! Faith and Matt both had a blast! I have a video clip to add as soon as we have batteries for the remote control so I can copy the tape over. The battery elves have been up to their cleptomaniac tricks again. Faith is the one in the middle with the big arm expressions and huge smile. Who knew she could be so dramatic????? (tic)

The tractor eggs, as Nathan so whimsically dubs them, have been taken to their new winter home. The boys and the dogs sure enjoyed playing on them before they left, though!
Some parts of the garden are still doing well and enduring. I pulled mountains of wild marigold plants out of there, we doused it all with grasshopper repellant, and pulled the wayward pumpkin plants. My jalapeno peppers are doing really well. mmm... I foresee pepper poppers in our immediate future! I also have bells growing, and another type of peppers that look like long wrinkly jalapenos. I don't have any idea what kind of pepper they are, but knowing what I am doing or growing in the garden has never been my strong point. My Roma maters are really taking off. None are green yet, but my pallette is patient. Soon they will be joining my peppers in a heavenly combo of pico de gallo.
More green maters... these are the Big Boy hybrids. I like to eat these like apples. Or I dip them in homemade thousand island sauce. mmmmmmmm
I really have watermelons this year too! Anybody who remembers the debacle of last year's 4th of July where I invited everybody over for home-grown watermelon will appreciate these guys. Of course, this time they won't be pumpkins when we cut them open. At least I don't think they will be. You never know what pumpkins have planned for me next.
Matt decided to take some pictures of me the other day. This one is rather smirky, but it is the only one that came out clearly. Maybe I should use the blurry ones instead...lol.
It has been hottttt... over 100 degrees here! The kids have been wallering in the kiddie pool everyday to beat the heat. Today it is back to normal... whew. I left those unbearable heat waves behind when I left Vegas. They don't belong on my mountain!
Well, that was a basic recap covering some of the highlights since my last post. School starts again in a couple of weeks, and football has already begun. Summer is coming to an end. Thanks to VBS programs, library programs, a visiting theater, traveling, baseball camps, and pottery classes the kids have had a really good summer full of enriching activities. Don't you love when it all works out that way?