Cryptography is fun!

James and I are taking an online cipher decrypting course together. I don't know who is enjoying it more. Today we learned about simple substitution ciphers and so I thought I'd have fun answering the inquiries from my previous post.

Here is the key: FLY TRAP shift 12

GQKP QLTH WYUC LWNV WUKY

Here is the clue just in case you have the time for it or you can pass it on to a young and curious little boy. If not I'll post it in a few days along with that recipe for the sweet and spicy pulled pork.

The Pocket Kite

Kite flying is fun....
The clouds are our friends
They want to dance, sing, and play
Hide n' seek,
Tug of war
So we free the line more.

Kite flying is liberating...
With feet firmly planted
We let go of troubles
Throw them up to the sky
Let hands greater than ours
Shrink them down in their size

Kites flying is soothing....
Our sights set high to the sky
A tiny string lifts us
An arm's reach to heaven
It rocks us and carries us
Craddled by sky

Yes kites are fun but so is playing with words. Especially for someone like me who is in need of some emotional purging. Change is a' brewing but more on that later. This post really started out regular but turned into a poem - and it felt good! What I meant to say though is I love kites and collect them like I do "wear your baby gear". The the pocket kite is one of the easiest ones to fly - even for kids. I suppose if I run out of words for blogging one may just find me flying it at the playground with my kids everyday before we move. Kite flying reallly is liberating, fun and soothing - kind of like blogging except instead of throwing my line out to the sky I just throw my thoughts out into cyper space.

Arts and Crafts at the Beach

10 am - 6:30 pm is a long time to spend at the beach so we literally "mixed things up a bit" with this activity. I think the original idea came from family fun but Emily was the one who planned and executed it, she is great at coming up with memorable activities for kids.

Here's the process:

Tell the kids to go on an adventure to collect things from the beach. We found bottle caps, shells, rocks, sticks, straws, ponytail holders, pens, pieces of plastic, and grass.

Dig out a small shape in the sand and decorate with found objects. We also did foot prints and hand prints. James wanted to be different and designed fruit - one apple and one banana.

Mix plaster - this was not an exact science at the beach. The mixture hardens up pretty quickly so you have to pour into your molds fast.

Wait...and play on the beach - we waited about 2 hours.

Dig them up and wash them off.

Carefully transport them home. I had a pile of footprints, hand prints, fruit, and faces sitting up top on my dashboard. We now have them resting in our front garden bed.

I'm sure my kids will be begging to do this again the next time we visit the beach. In the meantime though we maybe able to just do it in the back of our car because not only is it full of "found objects" but there are piles of sand!

Early Morning Adventures in Idaho

By William

Last week we went to Idaho and stayed at my Oma and Opa's farmhouse. One day we woke up early. Maryanna, mommy, and I went in the back fields looking for owls. There were no owls. I think the owls had somehow fallen to sleep. In the fields there were lots of animal sounds like cows and loons. We saw very long grass and it got us wet. There were a lot of mosquitos and we didn't want to get bitten by them. I told my mom I like exploring nature except for one thing, the misquitos. I also said I wished I had a farm house like this right on Bear Lake in Idaho.

Our "coolin' off" Adventure

Our a/c is still out! We are waiting on a part so instead of lagging around in the hot house I took the kids up to Bear Lake.Becca and Emily met us up there with their kids. It was a great sisters/cousins time! More pictures, stories, and details to soon follow.

Never go to the Garden Center on an Empty Stomach

We did not get our garden in until the first week of June. That's o.k. though because UT's spring was unusally cold. Paul worked hard on weeding out our back and preparing the soil. He even arranged for a small wall to be built across the back to create a second terrace that would allow for more crops. This increased our planting space to almost 300 sq feet! This was all I could have wished for - this was my "baby gift" from Paul after Henry was born.

Once the space was prepared I headed to the Garden Center and picked up several plants including zucchini, squash, watermelon, orange peppers, yellow peppers, red pepper, pumpkins, fresh herbs, and several types of tomatos. I even got a few bags of seeds hoping to enjoy some fresh corn, beans, beets, and carrots later in the summer. I was so hungry though that I couldn't resist the little tags that read "asian eggplant" and "armenian cucumbers". I have a thing for ethnic food and my mouth watered and stomach growled as I thought of the delicious spicy fried eggplant I use to eat during the six months I lived in China. I also couldn't help but think of my favorite falafel complete with armenian pickles from Mazza. I grabbed a few of these plants and added it to my cart. I thought "what the heck- I do have the space for it, why not experiment".

It was a great week of the big and little working together when we planted our garden. The girls digged in the garden like it was a massive sandbox. The boys talked to their little seeds and plants like babies and watered them faithfully. They even illustrated little plastic signs where their "babies" rested peacefully. We memorized the scripture D&C 6:33 and talked about the great reward we would enjoy for all our hard work. I repeated the scripture over and over to my children as they began to complain about the weeding. The garden was sure to be all I had hoped it to be.

Unfortunately we have some issues with our soil and apparently there are several hungry birds and rodents around. All that has survived is 4 stalks of corn, a few tomato plants, and a handful of pepper plants. But that is not to say that they are thriving - what is thriving though is one watermelon plant, my asian eggplant, and armenian cucumber! How random! I don't know even how to prepare them, I don't know if anyone will like them let alone eat them. Any ideas? Any recipes? Anybody want some? I've got more than I know how to consume.

In the meantime I have plans for a super compost pile that should solve the problem for next year's crop. Im also glad we didn't invest up to $70,000 on our garden as other families have. Besides the money spent on the soil, plants, and retaining wall, I am only reporting a $20 loss on a pair of light up sandals that Peter thought to "plant". I don't suppose they will yield up any reward but I believe the real reward was the time we enjoyed working together as a family.

Ensign Peak

"This is the place" to go when your a/c is broken. Yes, it has almost been a week that we have been enduring intierior temps reaching mid - to high 80's. It's so hot that I don't want to cook...James made some quesidillas for lunch and spilled a bit during the process. The poor cheese was melted on the floor before I could sweep it up. The boys have now offered to help me build that solar oven I've been talking about.

We also had plans to meet up with some out of town friends and thought to spare them from the heat so we met up at Ensign Peak. Both the view and the breeze were refreshing. Maryanna's soaking it up and licking it in -the girl is full of life and looks as if she's ready to take flight. This was her very first hike free from Daddy's back and though it slowed us down a bit she enjoyed the freedom as well as filling her pockets with rocks. The boys played "I Spy" up top the peak and said the city looked like an ant village. They also laughed in the wind as my haircut took on new life.

The hike itself was actually very quick and easy but I still couldn't help but think of the pioneers because 1. they never had a/c and 2. they navigated up these rocky paths with several young children as well. We also encountered one snake along the way and I thought that may have been a frequent occurance for those brave pioneers.

As we headed down the sun began to set and we passed several young couples on their way up. I was quite amused by a hopeless young boy carrying his date up on his back....all because she chose to wear a pair of red hot stilettos like these. But I'm not one to mock the silly things one does in the name of teenaged love. I think my Paul is still just as love stricken because he was quick to run back up to the top of the peak when I told him Maryanna left her Sigg there. Free from the baby backpack he was quite quick. Infact, it took me almost as long to load up and buckle all the kids in the car.

We finished the night off with a quick 7-11 stop and offered Maryanna her first slurpee as a reward for good hiking. Unfortuantely she dumped it into Henry's infant carseat. I think we'll stick to just hiking and Siggs full of water next time.