Memorial Day Fun

We had a pretty good Memorial Day yesterday. We wanted to get out, so we ended up going to the "This is the Place" park up in Salt Lake City where they had all sorts of things going on. Here's the kids next to a pioneer statue.

Jack loved riding the ponies there.

It was baby animal day and they had some very cute lambs there.

Even Jack liked petting the little baby goats.

The kids thought the Navajo sweat house in the Indian village was pretty neat. Just their size. Jack is already assuming the Indian pose.

Jack and Isaac learned how to wash laundry the old fashioned way. They actually liked doing it. Hmm.

It was then off to get the dust out of the rugs. Beating the heck out of a rug with a piece of metal . . . very fun.

You can't forget Jack either.

After leaving the park, we headed down the hill to the Salt Lake Cemetary where the kids were able to visit their cousin, Hope's grave. They put little patriotic pinwheels in one of the flower pots.

It so happens that President Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife Marjorie are buried just down the way from Hope's grave. President Hinckley was a great prophet and the kids thought it was very cool to stand next to the huge grave stone. All in all it was a very suiting Memorial Day.

Garden Time

Tami has been bugging me for several weeks to get our garden going. Tami and I really don't have green thumbs, but we did some research and decided to try square foot gardening this year. My Dad and a few of my friends have been very successful at it, so why not us? I built a little smaller boxes (6'x4') and got some great compost dirt from the Springville sewer treatment facility. I'm not going to even question what's in the soil as long as it helps our garden grow.

I found that the extra slats from the blinds we installed in our house make great square foot garden dividers. I like the contrast they give too.

Here's the finished product. We're trying all sorts of things this year. Large tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, carrots, beans, Swiss chard, Anaheim peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers (peppers for salsa), zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber and then all the marigolds to supposedly keep the bugs away. I have the garden beds plumbed for drip lines, but just need to install the drip tubing. In the meantime I'll just water by hand, which is kind of therapeutic in a way. I still need to buy the cages for the tomatoes, but I'll get those soon. I don't need them right now.

This year we also finally put down wood chips in our playground area so that the kids don't have to battle the weeds. It also turned out very nice. Our backyard is slowly but surely coming along.