Our Trip to Utah

We went to Utah last week, the 24th to the 29th. The main attraction - my nephew Peter's marriage to Whitney Padilla. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on Thursday morning. Was a beautiful day full of fun and family. We were so glad to be there.

Our trip included two events that seem to becoming traditions for our children.

One - Claire caught Whitney's bouquet! It is beautiful.

Claire is now at BYU Provo EFY - we stayed the weekend in Tremonton so that we could deliver her to her friends on Monday morning.

Two - Evan got his wisdome teeth out.

And no - we did not have this planned before we left. If you recall, when we were in Utah after Christmas Greg arranged to have Ryan's wisdom teeth out in the American Fork area. That was planned, all went well. This go around, Greg had thought about doing the same for Evan but forgot. On Thursday morning he remembered he had wanted to arrange it and asked if it was a good idea - should we try to make an appointment. I figured an oral surgeon wouldn't be able to take a patient on such short notice. Surprise surprise, the doctor did have space for Evan the next morning. Next was to get Evan on board. That took about half the day but by late afternoon he agreed. (I have to admit that doing it this way for Evan really is the best way. Had he known about it before hand he would have been nervous for days). So we got another motel room for Thursday night and on Friday morning around 7:00 Evan and Greg were off to the oral surgeon. A text Claire and I received about 2 hours later read "I'm done! I did it!" All went well and he continues to be doing fine. We're proud of you for going through with it Evan! Good for you. And good for our pocket books, it is about $1,000 less for us than San Jose.

What's going on?

I have two Peter Pan Agapanthus that are doing horribly - and Agapanthus is a "grow on the side of the highway" plant - they should be doing splendidly. So, my gardening friends and family, can you tell me what is going on? Parasite? Bug? Disease? It is not a test. I don't know what's up and I'd like to save the plants but I don't know what to do for them. And if they look too far gone, (really I've just got a picture of one), then I'll take them out and start again. But is it something in the soil? Will it just happen again? Give me some help. I've looked in my books and didn't find anything that looks like this but I'm sure it is common. Really, I'm convinced it is a common problem. Or maybe it is multiple problems...

There are little dirt piles (not high, you can see they're not high hardly even piles) along the edge where these plants are - I see tiny ants around but when I water - no ants come scurrying out like you'd expect.

Claire's 15!

Claire has a birthday on Flag Day. She always reminds us of that, but even so, we never do anything very "flaggish" and this year we even forgot to put out a flag. Oh well - Happy Birthday Claire!


Ryan ready at the piano to play "Happy Birthday!"



Claire thinking about the wish she is going to make - we waited much longer than usual - wonder what her wish was...




Noooo - she didn't get a cell phone for her birthday - she'll have to wait another year for that.

After the festivities were over she was off and running to a youth choir practice and then the performance. She says she had a great birthday!

Evan's 17!

Evan's birthday was June 9th. Was also a day of finals - so not a perfect birthday at least not until that day of finals was over. What did Evan want for birthday dinner? Burger King - so he could get Pokemon cards in Kid's Meals!


We all participated by ordering a Kid's Meal and handing over our own cards.





A simple cake - and he tried to blow out the candles from the other side of the table.



And he was successful! Well, after a few tries...

A big package came for Evan and Claire a week before, from Grandma and Grandpa Hardester.


What is it? A soda pop maker! And are they excited about it? Yes! And did they start playing with it right away? Yes! And did Kathy warn them "I am not cleaning up any mess made by this thing..."? Yes! And within the next 5 seconds was there a big mess? Yes!






Go figure - the little liter bottle has to be screwed in tight before you press the button to put the CO2 in. Thank goodness, it was only water.