Sayonara Summer?

This last Saturday was another scorcher, well over 100 degrees. Uncle Peter & Aunt Melody spent the day at the CA State Fair and had a ball. I spent the cooler part of the day in the back yard beginning to put in a small retaining wall around our garden to keep the dirt from escaping, and to improve the appearance of our yard. Here is the foundation level of stones, just laid out, not yet set. We'll keep you updated on the progress as it goes up.

Looking the other way, here is a shot of our grape arbor with the grape vines on it. They have made some great progress this summer.

Although we are still in for some hot weather, we may be past the hottest of it (over 100 degrees), and will slide gradually into the cooler weather of Fall. As a farewell tribute to Summer, and applying our newly-sharpened yard sale-ing skills from our time in IN, we picked up the bbq shown here for a fiver and christened it tonight with dogs, chicken & spinach sausage, and grilled zucchini and pineapple.

The pineapple had cinnimon on it, and the zucchini had Mrs. Dash Southwestern Chipoltle on it. And as you can see, I cooked it just the way I like it. Yummmmmm.

Grandma Gets Schooled

We just had such a wonderful visit in Indiana. Lots of fun and good company.
On one of the days I got to take care of Brooke, Tyler and Kate. Brooke and Tyler went out swimming and when they got done I decided that I would give them a quick bath. We went up in the loft and and I got Tyler into the tub while Brooke played out with the toys and Kate slept. I got Tyler all dressed and Brooke into the tub. Kate started to cry so I ran downstairs to give her her binkie and as I was down there I hear Brooke yelling "Grandma, Tyler is the in tub, Grandma, Tyler is in the tub." I am thinking that Tyler is probably in the bathroom so I run upstairs and Tyler is in the tub fully dressed just having a great time in the tub. He was so happy and so excited that he was back in the water. Lesson #1 - Life is too short to let little barriers get in our way and we need to enjoy life as it comes.

One afternoon I was visiting with Brooke and she asks me,"Grandma, who is your best friend?" I quickly answer,"Brooke, you are my best friend." Brooke looks at me and says "No Grandma, Grandpa is your best friend." "You are right Brooke. So who is your best friend?" I ask. "Mom, Jeremy, and Kate," Brooke replies with a smile.

Lesson #2 - Families are our best friends. Though we are imperfect and we have our differences, we have within our families a great source of support, strength and love. Elder H Bruce Stucki of the Seventy said: "I sincerely believe that in the sanctity of the family our love, loyalty, respect, and support for each other can become the sacred shield that will protect us from the fiery darts of the devil. In the family circle, filled with the love of Christ, we will be able to find peace, happiness, and protection from the wickedness of the world that surrounds us."
I am ever grateful for my wonderful family and that which they teach me.

What We Saw At The Zoo

While in Indianapolis, we went to the Zoo, which is always a fun time. Here are some videos of what we saw. We begin with feeding time, then move on to the stingrays, the jellyfish, and end with the bears horsing around.

More of the Happy Couple

I know it is taking a long time to get wedding photos up, but here are some more. Stay tuned as I go through them and post even more.

The Happy Couple with her siblings: Paige, Abbie, Sarah, Thomas, Brigham, & Megan.

With Grandma Hall.

With the Grandparents Whitaker.

With Peter's siblings: James, Rebecca, Emily, & Saramarie.

What was that?

Exiting the Temple.

See Kim Decorate Cakes on TV!

As explained before on this blog, I enjoy watching BYU Weekly. It's a fun 1/2 hour keeping up on what is going on at BYU and watching budding young journalists. So this afternoon I was watching the 8/15/09 edition while folding clothes and who should I see? It was Kim! and she was decorating a cake (follow the link and click on the cake decorating class article). OK, she's in the background, but it is still fun to see someone you know on TV.