My little peach pie bakers!

Last weekend we made a peach pie with the last of our peaches from our tree. The boys really wanted to help out. They were great pie makers!

Cutting the peaches

Filling the pie

It's almost ready to go in the oven

Yum, pie! (And in the background are the peaches I canned)

Mmmmm. . . licking the bowl is the best part!

So happy we are able to eat from our yard

Dan, I am jealous of all your bountiful gardening, so I am showing off some of our stuff. I'm so happy our peaches came in. We got a good amount and they are big, sweet, and juicy. We also have had some artichokes and green beans from our garden in recent dinners. Now we're waiting on the grapes. Yum!

Yummy artichokes!

Peaches

Peaches!!!

Tristan likes to help

Green beans

Last trip of the summer

School starts next week, so this past weekend we had our last little mini vacation of the summer. We took off Friday and headed to Santa Cruz for a couple nights camping in the redwoods. The kids weren't excited about the three hour car ride so we stopped off at the Jelly Belly factory for a little tour (and some free samples, of course).

Jelly Belly Candy Co. - It's the Jelly Belly Slug Bug!

Jelly Belly funny mirror

We had to put on hats for our factory tour.

We got the tent up

The funny tree at our campsite

Hiking through the forest

My favorite trees - California Redwoods

The Mystery Spot

Tristan standing at the famous 17 degree lean

JR standing crooked at the Mystery Spot

Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. This skyglider ride was high and scary since Tristan, JR, and I could have easily slipped through the lap bar that was supposed to hold us in, but it was a great view.

JR and his carnival prize - "snaky"

The boys on the Tilt-a-Whirl

Tristan and me on the Starfish ride

Tristan getting his feet wet at the beach

The gorgeous view from just behind our campsite

Too much fun with Mimi and Grandad

Our 10th anniversary was this weekend so James' parents came to town for a visit. Since we were busy preparing for a party and celebrating our anniversary, they basically took the kids for 4 days and from the pictures it looks like they had a blast!

Fairytale Town!

Funderland!

Sleeping and swimming at the hotel

Trip to the movies

Trips to the parks

Bounceopolis and SO much more!

Thanks Mimi and GrandDad!!!

4th of July fun

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We have gone to the rodeo the past 3 years in a row and now it just feels like tradition so of course we had to go this year too. They added some motorcross in the show before the fireworks which the boys loved. We saw the rodeo show on the 3rd and then had friends and neighbors over for pool and bbq action on the 4th followed by $300 worth of fireworks display in the cul-de-sac.

The parachuter bringing down the flag at the rodeo

James and JR watching the rodeo

Me and Tristan watching the rodeo

The fireworks at the rodeo

Fun by the pool on the 4th

Enjoying a bbq dinner on the deck

Cul-de-sac fireworks

Cul-de-sac firework spectators

Some sparkler action

Outdoor fun and sun

We've been enjoying our backyard quite a bit so far with the pool, the garden, our great new deck, and family and friends.

Amanda, Jessica, Emilly, and Cassie

Tristan and Amanda

Dad and Flor

Sonia, Amanda, et al.

Tabitha, Tristan, and JR

Tabitha and JR

A great sunset on a great evening!

Things are growing

And it's not just the kids. We might actually get something out of our garden this year. So far we have eaten several tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, and basil.

My little garden

In my little garden I have peppers, basil, three kinds of sage, stevia, asparagus, artichokes, lavender, chives, cilantro, mint, oregano, rosemary and thyme. In the back we have green beans growing and off to the right we have a couple tomato plants.

We're getting some artichokes!

Our blueberries

The tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes

We have lots of grapes. Hopefully they will make it all the way this year.

I'm hoping the grapes make it. Last year we didn't get any. They didn't even make it to this point, I think it was a fungal infection. The year we moved in one of the grape vines gave us some grapes, the other grape vine gave us raisins.

It also looks like we won't get much from our apricot tree. We have a few apricots and I think they are finally ripening (it's been an odd late season). We also have plums growing on our apricot tree. It's the oddest thing because we have another tree growing out of the trunk of our apricot tree with different leaves and fruits. They look and taste like small plums. We didn't get a lot though.

I have a little bit more hope for our peaches this year although it's not going to be a good year for them. They had peach leaf curl and scabs and it rained so late we didn't have time to spray before the fruits came. I sprayed some but the fruits keep falling off so we definitely won't get as many as we did the first year. I'm just hoping I can keep it alive and we will still continue to get some peaches each year if not more.