Father-Son Camp-Out

Our ward had a father-son camp-out this weekend at Antelope Island and Anthony and Lachlan were both excited.  They had a campfire, roasted marshmallows, and played hide and seek in some bushes.  Lachlan excitedly told me all about how they made coyote sounds and then jumped out of the bushes at some fellow campers.  Before bed they called to tell me goodnight and Lachlan got the saddest tone in his voice and said "I miss you , mommy".  It broke my heart.  Anthony explained that it's okay to miss someone because then it's even more fun when you get to see them again.  What an awesome dad.  Lachlan was still excited to sleep in a tent with dad and Simba.  I had my doubts that my two-year old would actually sleep, but he proved me wrong and slept like a champ.  

I took advantage of the time to myself by shampooing my rugs and scrubbing down the bathroom.  Exciting, right?  I think so.  It's relaxing for me to have a clean house that won't be immediately dirtied.  I even had some time to read and get to bed nice and early.

The next morning Anthony and Lachlan tried to go for a hike but they were getting eaten alive by these nasty little biting gnats.  Poor Lach looked like he had chicken pox with little red spots all over his face and arms but they didn't seem to bother him. 

My cute campers.  I don't know why Lach isn't wearing HIS headlamp cause he loves it.

First Try

Hi everyone!  This is my first try in the blog world so I hope I can post consistently and make for some interesting reading.  

I finally graduated!  In the picture you''ll notice that Anthony is holding the diploma and that is on purpose.  In the eight years that I have been pursuing this 4-year degree (b.s. in psychology), I have always told Anthony that without him I wouldn't have been able to do it so it's really half his.  He maintains that I earned it on my own, but he's just being modest.  Either way, I am very excited and relieved to be done.    

Weather has been warming up so we just planted our first vegetable garden.  We have little pumpkins, watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and broccoli.  We still need to plant corn, carrots, banana squash and zucchini.  Then we'll attempt to grow celery towards the end of the summer when it's cooler.  Admittedly, I have no idea what I'm doing but Anthony has been kind enough to help me get this project underway anyway.

The gardening idea was inspired by a recent push we've felt to build up our food storage as well as rising gas and grocery prices.  I've been making our own whole wheat bread, which I never thought I'd be able to do, but I must say it's delicious.  Next will be grinding my own wheat for the bread as soon as I get a grinder and use up the whole wheat flour I have.  

I've also been trying to do my part for the environment, which, until recently I hadn't been too concerned about.  I bought recycled tote bags at Whole Foods so I won't have to use plastic bags at the grocery store.  They're only 99 cents ea. and I got six.  I'm also in the process of using up my toxic household cleaning products and substituting with earth-friendly, or even homemade, cleaning products whenever possible.  It's been surprising to me that the non-toxic products clean just as well as or better than the chemical-full products.  Oh, and lets not forget recycling.  I haven't found a curbside recycling program in our area  yet so I just fill a trash can with our recyclables, which I take to a nearby recycling center when it's full.  We have a lot less garbage since we started doing this.

Lachlan is just over two and a half years old now and is such a big boy.  He's so talkative and inquisitive.  We have conversations all the time.  Lach is also very energetic.  He does everything at a run.  We even managed to switch to a big boy bed a couple weeks ago and Lachlan loves it so much that he doesn't try to climb out when it's time to sleep.    

I'll have another update soon and I'll get pictures on here shortly.