First Harvest

This was our first little "salad" from our garden. The potatoes are still a bit small, but Tyler couldn't wait to try some. Also, the orange cherry tomatoes are like candy! YUM! We already have too many peppers than we can eat, but we're going to freeze some of them. The onions are small too, but I can't wait to use them. We are so excited for our produce, but by the end of the season, I think we'll be sick of vegetables.

Fun Fact:

Fresca contains vegtable oil. Mmmmmm.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

Like Crazy:


Who wants tomatoes? We're going to have more than we could possibly eat in a lifetime.

Mamma Mia!

Tori's Review-

Fantastic!

The plot was fun and different, and the music had me swinging my hips in my chair. Who could not love it? There were a few suggestive comments which were annoying. They could always be deleted, but the show itself was really fun. It made me laugh and want to sing. It is a very Girl's Night Out type of show. The two people that I thought about through the whole show were my sister Robyn and my college Fab Five Friend Carlie. It would be fun to watch this movie again with them.
If you like a girly plot, good acting, and a story with music, I think you'll enjoy Mamma Mia!

Tyler's Review-

Oh, boy. I can't say that I am nearly as enthusiastic about Mamma Mia as Tori was.

If you're really interested, click here for a comprehensive review of the film by someone else which pretty much sums up how I felt about Mamma Mia.

Otherwise guys, this is all you really need to know:

Unless you are a woman, gay, or have some unnatural taste for ABBA music - you should not see this film. That is, unless you are seeing it with your wife, in which case you will earn some real brownie points. I'm talking about "visit a craft fair"/"attend a bridal show"/"go antiquing" level brownie points. Yeah, its that bad.

California Trip:

We made it back late last night from a much needed vacation to California with the whole Lloyd family. The following is a pictoral summary of our adventure:

Thursday:
Met everyone at the airport after work, flew to San Diego, and picked up rental car. We got a Chevy Uplander, which is a terrible van-type vehicle with such features as seats without armrests and rear vents that fall out of the ceiling if you touch them :-(
After taking kids to hotel, filled the Uplander with $300 of groceries at midnight to feed 10 people for a week. (We Lloyds are cheap, and the hotel had a kitchen, so we bought food to cook instead of eating out everyday.)

Friday:
We went to Universal Studios in Hollywood:

Took the studio tour: (We didn't see a single celebrity, except for Deron Williams at the airport in SLC)

They showed us the portion of the backlot that burned down last month:

Rachel fell asleep:
Plane crash scene from War of the Worlds:
Saturday:
Went to SeaWorld in San Diego:

Where, despite all of the sunscreen, we all managed to become terribly sunburned.

Sunday:
Went to church somewhere in Oceanside, then went to see the new temple in Newport Beach:

Tori and Rachel walking at the Temple:
Later, we went to the beach:
Rachel and I built a killer sand pile:
Then, we buried the kids in the sand:
Monday:
Ray sporting her Minnie ears at Disneyland:

Riding the spinning teacups:
Waiting in line for something (We did a lot of this):
Rachel in Toontown:

Tuesday:
Went to California Adventure. 'R' is for Rachel:

Rachel loved the stuffed animal store:
The Hollywood backlot at California Adventure:

Wednesday:
Went to the San Diego Zoo and saw lots of animals.
Koala Bears:

Elephants:
Giraffes:
Camels:
We were there in the middle of the day, so we also saw a lot of this:
It seems that most zoo animals don't spend their time on hot California afternoons parading about for tourists, instead prefering to hide in the shade:
At the petting zoo, Rachel tried to pick up a goat:
After the zoo, we got lunch at In-N-Out Burger and headed to the airport for our flight home. We had a lot of fun, but it is nice to be back to normal life after a week on the road.

On Vacation...

We're thoroughly enjoying a vacation in S. California this week. We went to the temple in Newport Beach after church this morning. We'll post more pics when we return on Thursday.

Happy 4th of July!!!

By the end of our busy 4th, Rachel was really too tired to watch the big show. Daddy held her most of the time while she tried to fall asleep between booms.

The day started with Tori running the Clearfield 5K. Then, we drove up to Pocatello, ID to celebrate with the Dietz family. We watched a parade, played games, played in water, had a Bar-B-Q, eat watermelon, and watched fireworks. Rachel loved eating the watermelon best. We sat out in the front yard to fire off some of our own noise making fireworks.

Here are the cousins enjoying some roman candles, bumble bees, and strobe light fireworks.

Tori and Tyler set the fireworks off this year. It was really fun.

They say that corn is supposed to be "knee-high by the fourth of July."
Well, ours was waist high by the 30th of June:

Not nearly as catchy, but a signal that things are going well in the family garden.
( We've got to remember to bring an actual camera with us one of these days. The cell phone cam seems to be getting worse and worse. It doesn't help that the screen on the Samsung Juke is no larger than a postage stamp, making it impossible to see what you are actually taking a picture of.)