Gardening and Morgan's Payoff

I wanted to post some more pictures of my gardening efforts. Here is my very first-grown cauliflower. It was self-blanching so I didn't have to tie the leaves up. I say WAS, because we ate it and it was delicious. It was made into a casserole thingy. Very tender and tasted just like cauliflower. Imagine that.

I am waiting for its sister to get ripe which is right next to it. I have a different dish planned for it.
This is my garden five days ago and it has grown quite a bit since then. I have used a lot of lettuce, spinach, broccoli and onions. All cold weather crops. And the peas are ready up on the Habekost place. I already have heard from a lady that I visit teach that they are delicious. I'm glad she told me, because Alan didn't. I may go up on Friday and pick some and make peas and potatoes. I always think that it is too hot to eat peas and potatoes in July and August, but it is so good.
Here is a picture of the lone blossom that bloomed from my two salmon poppy plants. I can't wait til next year and there will be more of these. It was beautiful.
The delphiniums are gorgeous and even more full and lovely than they were when I took this picture. The stems that look like they have nothing on them are in fact white delphiniums and are blossoming now. Dark blue, light blue and white blossoms all together.

These are my favorite dianthus plants. I bought these the year Morgan and Andrew were married and they continue to grow and get lovlier and lovlier. I hope Morgan and Andrew can say the same.

This is my beautiful clematis. Grandma Baum (Luella) planted this and tended it like it was a baby. One of the only plants that she really doted on. It hasn't done as well for me, but I'm learning to dote on it, so it will bloom as profusely as it did for her.

My newest flower love. I have never planted Zinnias before, but I must say they are going to be a staple in my garden from now on. I love Zinnias!

A view of the front of the fence where you see I have planted the Zinnias. These are crimson, lime, yellow, orange, and pink. They are so colorful against the white fence. I have to go out and look at them at least 2 to 3 times a day. I can't stop looking at them.

This next picture is a clever little idea that Alan had to fool Morgan into believing that this was the instrument that is coming to her condo. I don't know why he thinks she would be getting an organ. Alan has an obscure sense of humor sometimes.

Neither is this the piano.

This is the piano. Enjoy it Morgan. I just needed to know that you had something to play after going through all those piano lessons. They have paid off because you are a good piano player, and now you have something to practice on. Andrew will enjoy it too, but remember it is yours because you earned it. It is yours with much love.

Today is Jenny's birthday. I always thought the week of July 24th through the 28th was the best during the summer, because our family had a holiday and two birthday's to celebrate. There are some things that when I see them I think of Jenny.
Freckles remind me of Jenny's face when she was little. She had them across her nose and on her cheeks.

The organ, because she plays it so well. I'll bet this would be a nice one to have.

And anything that is so girly, she definitely likes. And especially encourages her girls to wear it. That's OK, someone has to keep up the feminine mystique.

Have a great day Jenny and make Tenny and Banner decorate a cake like this for your party.

Happy Birthday to Lizzy

Today is Lizzy's birthday and I have been thinking about her and hoping she had a nice day. It's way past dinner time, but I hope that you (Lizzy) have had a good dinner and some delicious birthday cake to top it off. You are a good example of homemaking and living the gospel to me. I love you and hope that the next year is an especially good one for you.

Just a little reminder of how lizzy looked when she was about 6 or 7. Really, really skinny legs and much cuter hair than either AA or me.

Our 24th of July Parade on the 26th of July

Every year we go to St anthony to the pioneer day parade. I took lots of pictures because this is one of the premier parades in southeast idaho. We truly love this parade and hope it always continues.

The ColorgaurdLots of military trucksand tanks. They shot taffy out of the gun.Our county vehicles including firetrucks, ambulances, search and rescue and anything else that they could throw in the mix. And all with their lights and sirens on. Lots of excited children when this came by. This year's theme. In God We TrustA veteran' s float.Ashton's Jr. Miss Arleigh Grube and attendants.The Hispanic community put this one together. It was so cute. Lots of little senoritas and muchachos dancing and looking sweet by a cute little pueblo type casa. " Su casa es mi casa." The Farm Bureau Float or should I say "swarm."I told you that they had ordered thousands of chocolate milks to hand out and they were running back and forth with crates and had little children mobbing them. Alan and his crate of milk and eager beaver kids.The air conditioned rhino that costs $16,000. Someone got to drive this from Farm Bureau and I think it held drinks and snacks for the Farm Bureau milk handers outters.Zack was on the other side of the semi so I had to run out into the middle of the street with all the wild children and I snapped this great picture of his shoulder.The Americanas. I forget what you call these riders, but they always remind me of a book I once read by Janet Daily about Oklahoma and a rodeo girl who rode like this. What are they called? Roman something.The whole group of Americanas. You will often see them riding at the Days of 47 parade in Salt Lake City. This was the 3rd place float from Egin Bench Ward. I thought it was the best float, but I know Egin Bench usually wins and so I think they have to give other wards a chance to win so they won't be offended and drop out of the parade float building contest. The three pictures below are of this float. The front. Too bad the signers of the declaration had their backs to me. I believe that the one on the right is a British soldier. How odd. I didn't know the British were in on the declaration of independence. The middle. Handcart pioneers. This platform went around in circles. So they twirled around as they went. I heard that they got so dizzy that they fell off toward the end. JKThe last part of this float. I think that the missionaries were coming to preach the gospel to this very patriotic young couple with a flag pole in the front of their house. The couple looked like they were just out of primary. Cute but young for a happily married couple. This float was so drn cute, but it had nothing to do with the theme of the parade. And I'm not sure that I got the whole theme of this float. The car was supposed to be out of gas, and the side panel said " if life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Hard to give this float a prize when it doesn't follow its own theme let alone the theme of the parade. This was the 1st place float. There were workers building the temple and using blocks of granite from a quarry. Angel Moroni was also being put into place. I think you can see it if you click on the picture. This is the quarry they were taking the granite from.This was the grand prize winner! I thought it was OK, but it wasn't very showy. That's George Washington praying on the front of the float with a twirly thing that revolved showing patriotic pictures and documents and then...the back of the float showed Joseph Smith in the grove seeing the first vision and the twirly thing revolved showing pictures of the church and the proclamation. Very good theme follower. That's why it won.

The big tractors are from Ashton and the small ones are old ones that have been redone.

A rhino decorated like a rhino.

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The missionaries.

Ashton Stake float. I didn't know this was Ashton's until I saw the back.

The people in this wagon look like a pretty rough bunch to me.

A great grandma was supposed to be on this float with her gazillion great-grandchildren, but by the end of the parade route, great-grandma was not to be found. I think she high-tailed it away from all those grandchildren.

One of my more humorous observations. Angel Moroni looking suspiciously short and chubby. It was a baby doll someone had spray-painted gold. I can just imagine them finishing the float and saying," hey, we don't have an angel Moroni yet, what are we going to do, and some frantic float chairman runs home and grabs her daughter's baby-doll, spray paints it and says, "Here , no one will even look at him." All the decorators roll their eyes and think to themselves, "Sister so-and-so has lost it. Maybe she needs to be released as the float chairman." Let's talk to the Bishop on Sunday.

Joseph reclining in the sacred grove. The parade was just about finished and he couldn't hold his kneeling pose with arms upraised anymore. He groaned and just fell backwards. Funny Joseph.