Independence Day

First thing this morning Kyle and I went shopping because he had seen some things on sale that he wanted to go get, and I needed to get a few more ingredients for the dessert that I was making to take to Laurel’s and Roine’s later today. I still hadn’t decided what kind of ice cream I wanted to make today either, and that question was answered when we saw strawberries for 80 cents a pound!

So when we got home from shopping, Kyle got to work on making strawberry sorbet, and I got to work on making the dessert for Karen’s birthday party. When I had the dessert chilling I make up the mixture for the strawberry ice cream so that could chill so we could freeze that when we got back later today.

We went over to Laurel and Roine’s for a birthday party for Karen. Roine was barbecuing ribs and chicken for lunch and we brought corn on the cob and dessert. Apparently they already had corn on the cob as well so we had LOTS of corn on the cob today. The real excitement of the party was the fact that the house caught fire. I wasn’t in the kitchen but I heard that Roine came into the house and with a totally straight face told Laurel that the house was on fire. At first she thought he was just messing with her until he kept insisting that the house was in fact on fire, that’s when she went out to look. Kyle and Roine and I think Alex and Sylvia were filling up bowls with water to pour on the fire, while Laurel went to go find the hose to spray it out. I realize that this is no laughing matter, especially since there was a propane tank sitting right there next to that part of the house. This episode could have ended very badly compared to how it did, but now that it’s over, it’s something to look back on and laugh. 😉

After the party for Karen we had to make an appearance at a pool party that Debby was having. I didn’t realize till we got there that we WERE the party. It was just us with Debby and Jeff and one other friend of theirs. They were planning on making hamburgers for dinner, and had a watermelon and chips, but we had just come from having a late lunch at Laurel’s so we didn’t really eat much. But we hung out for a couple of hours before deciding it was time to come home so we could get the batch of ice cream frozen and do fireworks when it got dark. Debby and Jeff’s apartment is up on the mountainside near the ‘Y’ and the drive down was really creepy. At one part it felt like the van wanted to go faster than we wanted to let it, and Kyle was applying the breaks to slow the van down, and the van made a very yucky grinding noise. I am glad that everything was ok and we got down safely.

This year our neighborhood decided to pool together and do everybody’s (well, everybody that wanted to participate) fireworks at one spot. Debby and Jeff and their friend came out to do fireworks with us, and so, as it got dark we walked down to the end of the street to watch the show. Dad had gone out with mom this morning to buy a bunch of fireworks as well, so we sat at the corner and watched as they set off fireworks across the street and Jeff set off a bunch of fireworks that he had brought, and Dad let Jeff set off the fireworks he bought as well.

CIMG4617

CIMG4619

After awhile Chloe started crying at the loud noise the fireworks would make, and I realized that she was also very tired. Mom was having issues sitting on the ground to watch the fireworks and I figured it would be better if I got her up to go back to the house so she could watch Chloe and get her to bed. So I took mom and Chloe and Lydia back to the house. I gave Chloe some of the home made ice cream so she wouldn’t miss out on that part of the day:

CIMG4623

You can see in her eyes how tired she is. 🙂 I got Lydia ready for bed, and let mom feed her then I headed back down the street to watch the rest of the fireworks.

When the fireworks were all done we came home and got ice cream out for everybody:

CIMG4627

Chloe was OUT by the time we got back (of course this was no surprise):

CIMG4626

It has been a really long and full day. The one thing that bugs me about this holiday, is that there is always so many things going on that I never get to do all of what I wanted to do in the first place. I had three things that no matter what else happened, I wanted to do today.

  1. Make home made ice cream
  2. Watch 1776
  3. Do fireworks

There were so many other things going on today that I didn’t get time to watch my movie. 🙁 That seems to happen almost every year. Oh well, maybe next year will be different. NOT.

Lydia’s Baby Blessing

Back in January, when my family was up for Ethan’s baptism we decided that we would probably have the baby’s blessing over 4th of July weekend. She hadn’t even been born yet and we had no idea if we were having a boy or a girl, but we were already planning the baby blessing. 🙂 This weekend turned out to be more crazy than expected. Yesterday we went to Orem for Lars’ baptism, and my parents drove into town. Today we had Lydia’s baby blessing, and due to the baptism yesterday, not all of the family were able to come to our ward for the blessing. 🙁 She looked beautiful anyways:

CIMG4577

Lydia was awake, but quiet through the whole blessing, then decided after, that she was going to be gassy and was fussy for the whole rest of the meeting. 😉

The bit of Kyle’s family that came out for the blessing decided that they couldn’t stay for dinner afterward due to the fact that the Andelin family reunion down in Mt Pleasant was planned for the same evening, which was a bummer. We might have actually gone to that if we hadn’t been planning on having the baby blessing today for the past several months instead.

My Poor Tree

CIMG4494

In the spring I anxiously watch my fruit trees for blossoms, and after they blossom I check them frequently to see if I can see the start of any fruit on them. Last year our most beautiful tree was the white nectarine that we had in the front yard. Over the course of last season the branches grew by at least a foot, and it was so full of beautiful leaves. Not one of our fruit trees have ever born any fruit, which is sad, but I was hoping that this tree was getting close. After all we planted it in 2007 and that makes it about 4 years old now. This spring the white nectarine blossomed, and as the blossoms fall off it started putting out leaves, and then it just stopped. The leaves only got about an inch long and then they started curling up and drying out and getting crispy. I called a nursery to talk to them and they said that I could try to treat it for fungus, or for bugs, so I went in to pick up the stuff to treat it with. Of course I didn’t know WHAT to get so I talked to some people there. The person I talked to didn’t want to just sell me anything and she suggested that I bring a couple of the branches in so they could properly diagnose the problem. So all the way back home I went to get a couple of branches and then all the way back to the nursery. This time they took me to a fruit tree expert and he just looked at my branches and said that it could have been fungus, borers, winter kill, or crown rot, but the tree is dead and won’t be coming back. 🙁 So sad, so now I have to dig it out and get a replacement. But it’s too hot to plant a new tree now so that will have to wait for the fall or next spring.