Family Weekend

Well, we had a wonderful weekend last weekend and I haven't been able to blog about it until now. Brian's parents came into town for a few days and his brother and his family as well (the family we went to the beach with). We had so much fun!! I'm sad I really didn't get any pictures. I need to take a lesson from Grandma Hofmann and take pictures more often.

On Thursday we were excited to first welcome Brian's parents and have lunch and show them around the house. As I think about, it was really exciting for us to show them our house, as an accomplishment. I know it will be the same for my parents when they come and visit (hopefully soon). Having our parents know and see that we are doing well is rewarding.

Anyways, after spending some time with them, Scott and Melissa and co arrived and we all had a great time talking and laughing. Melissa's sister Lisa was able to come too. We're so excited for her as she prepares to serve a mission in Brazil--we wish her luck!

On Friday we all went to Bays Mtn. and enjoyed seeing all of the animals. We were even able to hear the pack of wolves howl--that was really cool. Afterwards we had lunch together and went to splash pad (a kids water park with lots of fountains) and had a blast! We all played on the playground equipment and had a "jolly good time." Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Scott, Melissa & Co. but we were so happy they were able to come!

We kept Brian's parents busy on Saturday with putting the 2nd coat of paint on the yellow room (to be a nursury eventually), took them to the ward 24th of July celebration, helped a family pack up their moving truck, ran errands, and took them to our neighborhood block party. It was a busy weekend, but so much fun!

As we had to say farewell after Sacrament meeting on Sunday, I found myself really sad that they had to leave and having to hold back tears. It was so nice to have family here. Despite how much we miss our families (and that's an incredible lot), we know that we need to be here now. And we're happy. We are so happy that Brian only has to work one job and that I can stay home with Adam and that we are developing close friendships with people here. We have been truly blessed.
Here are the three Daniels' grandsons playing the piano at our house. They had so much fun together!

The Beach!!

Our family had the wonderful opportunity to go and see Brian's brother and his family (Scott & Melissa) over the 4th of July weekend. To celebrate, we all drove to the Outer Banks (North Carolina) and we went to Ocracoke Island. It's a great little island with beautiful beaches and few enough people that you could have your own stretch of beach for the evening. We took a (long) ferry to the island and had fun just spending time with family. Here we are on the ferry as we are, uhh...I guess taxiing(??) into the harbor.

After arriving on the island, we drove to our hotel. We were planning on just a small room with two beds and a bathroom (like Scott had reserved) but to our pleasant surprise they had sold our room and upgraded us to a beautiful suite with two master bedrooms with their own baths and jetted tubs, a full kitchen/dining room, and a living room along with two balconies with lovely views of the island. After dropping off our things we all changed and headed to the beach. We had a lovely stretch all to ourselves--the weather was perfect and so was the water. Enoch and Adam were so happy to spend the evening playing in the sand that it took me multiple tries to just get Adam's attention for the picture. Thanks for indulging Mommy, Adam.


We all loved playing in the sand and the waves. Both Enoch and Adam were knocked over in the waves, but after being pulled back up, a hug, and a reassurance, they were back playing in the sand in minutes. Here's Brian, Adam, and Enoch playing in the sand together.


And what is a summer vacation without a family picture?? This was the first night we were there and between the waves and the wind, we all have lovely hair yet nobody cared because we're family and we were enjoying ourselves too much anyway.


And who can forget our lovely hosts--the Daniels. Scott, Melissa, Enoch, and Zacharias were so much fun to spend our vacation with! Thank you so much for all that you put into the trip between the planning, reservations, food, driving, etc. The picture, like I said, is on the beach that first night--it was so much fun!!


The sunset that night was amazing! Such a beautiful place and a great place to relax and have fun. The mosquitoes that attacked as we were leaving the beach were a nightmare, but aside from that it was a perfect trip! I'm wondering if they were some weird mosquito because Adam still has the bites and it has been two weeks...he seems fine and they aren't bothering him...he's tough.

Fresh Raspberries

Today we had a very adventurous day. We had some young women stay with us for the weekend for Youth Conference this weekend and it was a lot of fun! This morning we all slept in (oh glorious day!) until 8:30 and then we had breakfast and went for a hike on the Warriors Path trail head. I had seen lots of blackberry blossoms out there and we were curious to see if they were ripe. They weren't. Some of the little wild raspberries were though. We kept trekking along until what to our wonderous eyes should appear?? A HUGE bush with humungous raspberries that were ripe and so delicious!! Well, golly, we couldn't just walk by. So we drank what we could out of the water bottle and then emptied it out and filled it with delicious berries, eating a few along the way. Adam REALLY enjoyed that part. Then we headed back to the car and back home to change clothes.

Next we went to Splash Pad--a local water park of fountains and such. It took a while for Adam to warm up to it, but once we got his hat on, so he didn't get so much water in his face, he really enjoyed it and so did Mom and Dad. Exhausted, we loaded back into the car. Adam fell asleep on the way home. Sadly, he did not stay asleep, but he had quiet time in his crib, at least. Next we planned our menu for the next few weeks, talked with Scott and Melissa and planned our fabulous trip with them this week (I'm so excited!!!). Then we went to the store and when we got home, Brian made crepes. We ate our fresh raspberries rolled in delicious crepes with homemade yogurt. Yum!

Adam had yet another first this week. Earlier this week, after getting out of the tub and walking to his room to put on a diaper he peed on the carpet. It startled both of us and I just had to laugh--it was rather silly. Oh well. One more reason to clean my carpets this summer.

We have also noticed a few bug bites on my little Adam. We assume they are mosquito bites, but they loo nasty. This one was nearly the size of a dime. He also had one on his leg, a little smaller, but huge for a skeeter bite.
And of course I have to put pictures up of our first fruits from the garden. I must say--they were delicious!! Now that I have had fresh zucchini, steamed and sprinkled with parmesan cheese, it is officialy summer. Oh, I love garden vegetables! Oh and we caught some nasty huge slugs with the pie-tin trap, along with some small ones and some ear whigs (eww). Thanks Daddy! The peas are so tender and tasty! Adam has loved all the veggies we've taken from the garden so far...well, maybe not the rasishes so much, but everything else. Something in the garden sure loves our radishes...there's hardly any leaves left. We love our garden!!

The First Big Haircut...and other updates

So I have given Adam a few "trims" to keep his hair presentable, but Tuesday night we decided to just do it and get it over with. Besides, it's summer and he can handle a buzz. Here's my little boy before the cut--he's such a cute little boy! Oh I love him...if you need further evidence of how out-of-control his hair was, see the next picture.
The craziness...oh and that's our new rug in the front room. I just finished the pillows that help "accentuate" the room.
This is Adam checking with Mom after the buzzing was over--"are you sure it's not going to hurt? That felt WEIRD!!" He did REALLY well with the clippers! As long as I put my hand on his head and then the clippers and held it still for a second before I moved it, he did great. I was so grateful!
And here's the top of his head. It really reminds me of Zac, Caleb and also Enoch when they get their hair buzzed.
In the bathtub, trying to get out all the little hairs. This is what Adam thinks of it all. He's so silly!
And here's my little goober. I was trying to take a picture of his hair for Grandma(s), and this is what I got. He's so silly. "Rraaaarrr!!!"
He did sit still for one picture. There are a few spare hairs I need to go back and trim, but I'd say it went pretty well.
Oh yes, and I just had to show you all this beautiful pie. I picked the cherries, pitted the cherries (by HAND--no pitter, just a knife and fingers--took me over 2 hours...), made the pie filling, made the crust and did it all by myself. I was rather satisfied. And the best part--it was delicious and we got to share with the missionaries!!

And last, but definitely not least, I finally finished the quilt for my friend Sarah back in Bishop who had her baby at the end of May. It took me a while to finish it, but I was thrilled with the way it turned out. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Just a little close-up detail of the fabric...the fabric was so cute!

The Garden

Well, since we have talked about our garden I figured I should add some pictures of our little garden. So far, Phillipe hasn't bothered the garden, but something else is eating all my plants! The little buggers...stripping the leaves to nothing. We've tried a soap/oil spray, but they are still getting eaten. We've also tried some Sevin, but it keeps raining. We've got to find something to get rid of the little pests. In my little herb garden, my basil had just sprouted and had these tiny little leaves--but no more--they've all been stripped to the stem! I've never really liked bugs...now I know why.

Anyways, pictures of our little garden. These were taken a while ago...probably 10 days ago. It's grown a lot since then and we have about 3-4 little tomatoes and 3 yellow squash growing!Adam loves to help in the garden. Good thing he was digging with one of Daddy's taffy pieces and not a trowel or we wouldn't have any pepper left!

These are our little sugar snap peas. Only about half came up, but that's ok. They are now also starting to get eaten by some bug, and they haven't bloomed or anything yet. We'll see. It was so exciting to watch them grow! At least, the ones I didn't pull up, mistaking them for weeds.

And this would be two zucchini plants, nasturtium (flowers that help with squash bugs--eww), and a mixture of bush beans and corn. We'll see how it goes. These are in our "top box."

This is our "bottom box" and it is growing the most so far. There are labels of the plants on the picture. I'm so excited to have fruit from the garden! I've already been able to cut some "chives" off the tops of the onions for our burrito skillet and other meals. It's great!

And of course we always have to have a picture of Adam. He was helping Daddy with the dishes last week and he was just so cute, I had to get a picture. He's getting so big!!