welcome, Pepe' le Prius

hooray !
our trusty Subaru, Bobbie Jean, was donated to the Salvation Army today, and the newest member of our family, a 2007 Prius named Pepe', came home.

saying goodbye to the subaru marked the end of an era ~ we bought her in Utah right after we got married.

we test drove the Prius on our 10th anniversary, and now, two weeks later, she is ours !

hooray for a super efficient car!

basil

the deer got the beets and and bunnies got the green beans
but the basil, oh the basil, we get the basil

so much basil that every time I gather the ingredients to make pesto, I run out of nuts or oil or garlic long before I make it to the bottom of the basket of harvested basil.

these days, it's all about pesto, chevre, and tomatoes from the vine

self portraits

two girls, one camara
two totally awesome self portraits on a rainy saturday

Playing in the river is fun!

Catching up

What a crazy month July was! We spent the first half on vacation in Utah and the second half remodeling the upstairs. The upstairs is done (phew) or, at least, done enough. The kids are all moved into their new rooms after a whirlwind 10 days of construction which displaced 2 of the 3 kids into a tent in the dining room. It was totally worth it (but totally crazy!) and it really feels nice upstairs. I have neglected all tasks other than the basics ~ so I have not even thought about sorting through the pictures of the construction project ~

Here is just a little more fun from our Utah trip. One of the neatest parts for me was watching the kids explore and enjoy the neighborhood I grew up in. This was especially true for the Avenues library. They loved scooting over to look at books and thought it was so neat that we didn't need to drive there !

Camping in Utah

We were so excited to spend the first few days of our Utah vacation camping with my dad and his girlfriend. They set up camp the day before we got there so by the time we arrived, after a lovely drive through northern Utah into Wyoming, all we had to do was roll out our sleeping bags and get down to business (hiking, fishing, exploring). The weather was cool and crisp (it even snowed on us one day!) and felt wonderful to our bodies so used to the humidity of the southeast. We had such a wonderful time ~ it was so special to be with my family at the lake that we used to visit when we were kids. We took tons of pictures ~ here's some faves...

Cousins!

We returned from our wonderful and full-of-fun vacation to Salt Lake City Monday night but this is the first chance I have had to even look at the photos we took. Here are a few from a fun evening in Sugarhouse Park with my kids and my sisters boys (the Bird cousins). More pictures to come soon......