July Chronicles

We spent the 4th of July with my Aunt and Uncle, Marie and Jerry (& awesome Erik) in Montrose, CO. Aaron and I tried our hardest to win something, anything by entering every contest from the tricycle riding to hop ball, but alas we always came in the first place losers: 4th. But it was a fun carnival and the Thuns showed us a good time making homemade ice cream and doing fireworks. Erik and I even ran our very own "Four mile Fourth of July" fun run. I forgot my running shoes so I had to wear Chacos. Whoops. Erik is a good sport.

The rest of the month we relaxed and caught our breath after the busy months before. We did a little camping, a little grilling, and a little canning. My friend and partner in reviving traditional homemaking skills writes a much more eloquent narrative on our canning adventures: http://majjcshow.blogspot.com/2008/08/if-you-want-best-jam-in-land-you-gotta.html
Aaron was inspired by Thun's beautiful, plentiful garden so he came home and built me a fancy designer garden with boxes and the whole 'square foot gardener' set up. We only planted a box of lettuce though because we figured we only had about 6 more weeks in the season. It's hard to garden at 7000 ft when it snows on Memorial Day and starts freezings on Labor Day. We were so proud we got one green pepper, one yellow squash and about 15 tomotoes. That was our real success.
I got to do the flowers for another wedding this month. That was a fun diversion, as usual. It was my first silk flower wedding and it turned out nicer than I expected.
Addie learned to ride a two-wheeler. Aaron and I would have never put her up to that but she asked so we thought she deserved a shot. She got it in about 3 sessions. Don't underestimate your children!
Enoch has started using words with gusto. He picks up about 3 a day. The most common words are "shoe" and he'll retrieve everyone's and deliver them personally to you any time we get ready to go; "cookie" which he uses for anything edible and yells with increasing intensity if you don't listen. He's the most famous for this word because he stands up and yells "cookie!" every week in the middle of the sacrament. It gets his dad's attention and chuckle from up on the stand. And lastly he repeatedly shouts "car" with unmatched enthusiasm, over and over and over whenever we drive anywhere. He measured in at the 10% for height and weight at his 18 mo check. That good old 'Hopkinson Head' measured in at the 70%! Right in line with our other kids...and their dad.