Happiness is an Organized Closet

Well - that is what the Container Store bag says on the front of it.

Evan installed our closet organizers today.

Yay Evan. Now onto the organizing. :-/

Keeping Busy

Evan and I went to Santana Row this afternoon to go to the Container Store. We're thinking of putting closet organizers in the kids bedrooms - making better use of the space in the closets so as not to have to use storage in the room - we're putting in bigger beds. Evan was very helpful. He did the measuring and shared his opinions about what would work best. And when we get the organizer stuff he is going to install it. Thanks Evan!

We grabbed a bite to eat afterward. Was a productive afternoon.

Nice day in Utah

Monday was our last day in Utah - that is Greg's, Evan's and mine. We went to the Brigham City Temple open house tour. It is a beautiful temple.

We finished the day by having dinner at Yellowfinn in Salt Lake with Wally and Judy, Ryan's roommate/friend Nathan, Ryan and Eric. Was great company and very tasty.

You'll notice Claire was not there. And that's OK. Was a weekend of "firsts" for her and we understand that. From all reports, everyone is doing well and off to a good start. I must say I am so happy to have Evan home for the next several days. I'd be so so lonely otherwise. Sept 8th he heads back to school.

not quite ready for an empty nest

Wednesday evening, we dropped Claire off at her dorm - Helaman Halls Chipman Hall.

Thursday, we stalked her on campus.

(she's the one with the green purse on her hip)

Gizdich Ranch

We did something fun on Saturday - we picked berries at Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville. I've done this once before with my sisters but this time Greg, Ryan, Claire and friends Abby and Alexa came along.

At first, we pulled into the apple place - a fun place but not the place we needed to be.

This is where we needed to be, just a few streets away from the apple place.

Greg is ready to go with one of the little buckets the Ranch lets patrons use for free. Nice.

The rest of us used bowls from home to carry our harvest.

Ryan working hard at tossing trail mix peanuts at his sister.

First round of picking was for the boysenberries. That's a big berry, don't you think? I did think until I kept picking and realized boysenberries are just really big.

This is our first round - and yes, that is one of those huge mixing bowls and the other bowls behind it are from our pickers as well but we did let Abby and Alexa keep their harvest. But yeah - I know - that's a lot of berries.

Abby, Claire and Alexa - ready for a second round of picking. This time olallieberries.

Yeah, I know...

The happy harvesters ready to go back to the apple place for pies and pastries. Was a very fun outing. Now to figure out what to do with all the berries!

She's always wanted to do that

This is what she was playing - Deux Arabesque by Debussy People applauded when she was done. :-)

It always seems like a good idea...

Another reason why Claire "loves" convertibles.

Smores

Sitting around the firepit - a fun way to end our week of other fun things.

Always a spot of sunshine

Breakfast Surprise

Ryan and Cara provided breakfast for us Friday morning. We didn't know they were gone and we got a call from them - asking what we'd like from Ruby's for breakfast. YUM!

Fishing off the Newport Pier

Claire "loves" convertibles.

Greg and Eric [Eric arrived on Monday] fished off the Newport Pier on Wednesday. Greg caught two fish, little fish that he tossed back in.

Tuesday afternoon around the pool

When you see a giant chess set do you think "That would be fun to play if I knew how to play chess." Well, Eric knows how to play chess and Claire, well she didn't want to but Eric made her [she would have rather played checkers, which they did have checker pieces as well].