Tree update!!! My plan was to wait until the fall to plant Citrus and finish the front by adding the granite needed at the driveway and around the house. I found out the we can't get the granite until next week when we will be gone. Then I asked at a nursery about planting citrus now vs. in the fall. They said they plant citrus all through the summer and guarantee them. So without having to move 10 tons of granite I decided to look for citrus to plant this weekend. I went to Lowes this morning and found a Trovia and Valencia Orange, a Lisbon Lemon, Flame Red Grapefruit, and a Clementine Tangerine (Mandarin). These are all on semi-dwarf root stock. I also picked up a Berass Lime on standard rootstock. My goal is for them to all be about the same size and since the lime is smaller anyway I gave it a standard size rootstock to the rest semi-dwarf rootstock. Hopefully it will work and look semi-uniform. We had family over tonight and I smoked ribs all day. I worked in the yard as I had...
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Family Time We really haven't had any family business noteworthy to blog about lately, but that doesn't mean our lives have slowed down much. Justin and I (but mostly Justin) have spent a lot of time putting in weed block and planting plants in our front yard around the house so we can finally finish up the landscaping (pictures to come when it's finally finished). We've actually had quite a bit of just unplanned family time in the evenings, so that's all I have to post about. How could this not cause a concussion? Adaira, Dale & I had walked down to the bus stop to bring Brighton home. We came back to the driveway and I took Dale out of the stroller and let him run around while Brighton and Adaira played on their bikes. I had a few small plants I wanted to plant in front, so I got to work. While I was around the corner, Dale climbed up on the stroller, and proceeded to try and climb up to the handle of the stroller (this kid always has to get up to the highes...
Happy Birthday BRIGHTON!!! Brighton after "helping" make brownies I told Brighton this morning that 7 years ago, my and Audra's life changed forever as we became parents. We now shared our home with a special little man who we loved so much. Brighton has lived in five homes with us now and is a very good big brother. He loves to read and play games like Deadman on the trampoline, Balloon Tower Defense on the computer, and Yatzee. Brighton, your love of reading is amazing for a newly minted 7 year old. It will serve you well as you go through school. Your mother and I are so grateful that you are in our family. We love your silliness, your spontaneity, and your kind heart. We love that you still give us kisses and hugs. I really love that you run up to me every day when I get home from work and yell "Daddy" and hug me around my waist. I usually can't bend over because I am carrying things in my hands and/or over my shoulder but I still appreciate the hugs. I ...
Ragnar Del Sol 2011 Everyone either loves or hates running. I used to hate it when I was in high school but now I love it. I wish I had more time to do it. I must be built for it or something because I can run fairly fast with little training, compared to some runners I know. Colin and Jenny, soon to be wed. Me after my second leg at daybreak. I am handing off the slap bracelet (baton) to the next runner on our team. I have wanted to run the Ragnar relay since 2007 (after our first adventure race). Timing has never worked out until this year. Last summer I found out that the US Attorneys put together a team and I asked to be on the email list. I talked a friend into accompanying me, and Scott Gohus and I were in. We were put in a rental van with 4 strangers and spent 30 hours together, running, sleeping, driving and having a good time. Everyone in our van was great. 2 are US Attorneys, two are professors at ASU (who just got engaged to each other by the way) and Scott and I. The relay ...
Dale's second hair cut! Dale has surprised us with his hair from the day he was born. Brighton and Adaira were both completely bald for nearly the first 18 months of their lives (around 18 months it would finally start growing out longer than just the baby fine peach fuzz). Here is Dale pre-haircut (umm....this picture was also taken to document what he did to himself after waking up from his nap and waiting for someone to come get him. He was put to bed with his shirt on correctly and his overalls completely on and buttoned...) and by the way, the shoe he is holding has soles made out of that foam plastic stuff, and Dale likes to take them off in the car and EAT them, so the front tips of both of them are gnawed off... Earlier in the day before his haircut: Later that evening after we tortured him with the clippers: Dale just got over his ear infection and then the whole house became sick again, hence his red eyes below... Oh yeah, just further documentation of the fact...
Valentines Celebrations Just a quick post about Valentine's Day. We sort of celebrated early on the Saturday prior (after going to Rawhide) since our stake was having a Valentine's dance. It called for "formal or Sunday attire" so we opted to dress up a little. Good thing we made some friends in our old ward before it split, because nobody from our ward even went! LAME. We got to visit with old friends, though, and dance to a few dances. At least we went out to eat beforehand... Brighton wanted to snap a picture of us before we left (he was funny, acting like a parent when they send their kid on a date) and then he told us to have fun. As for my Valentine from Justin, let me just start by saying that Justin is so amazing and thoughtful. I honestly don't know where he thinks up these things, and he really sacrifices to find time to make them and takes great measures to keep me from finding out. He's woken up at insane hours and lost sleep making them. I ...
Head em up move em up Move em on head em up Rawhide ! Rawhide is an outdoor cowboy western town theme park of sorts in West Chandler. I had heard of it though never been, but we got a flier about the 40th anniversary of Rawhide and they had free admission and free attractions, so we decided to go! Turns out everyone else did too.... It was super busy, but the kids did get free hats and bandanas, we got to see someone get arrested and put in jail (for $10 you can have the sheriff arrest someone for you and take 'em to jail), saw a loud drunk man (above, obviously) storming through every so often, Justin commented several times how that would be the best job to have EVER except he could never do it since he just could never compete with that dude's belly. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to ride the train (they had other rides as well but with the lines we just had to pick one and call it good). Even though it's only February...