gardening= FUN times!

Gardening... it's just what I love to do while the kids are playing outside.  I don't mind getting all dirty when mowing, weeding or planting because the end result is so satisfying!  

This happened to be a rainy summer which meant my dahlias bloomed super late and I only got to enjoy 3 flowers before the early freeze wilted the other 20 some blooms that were getting ready to open.  Bummer!  But as with anything in life... it is what it is!  I am so thankful for this amazing dahlia that did open before the freeze.  It was about 10 inches in diameter and it took about 10 days to fully open!  It was crazy~ only one layer of petals would open each day.  Seeing this flower is one of the reasons I love gardening... to be amazed by the beauty and uniqueness of God's creation.

Vegetable gardening was a first for our family and it was such a family hobby.  All 3 kids loved helping me plant, tend and harvest!  We were all hoping we were gonna have a bumper crop of potatoes as we had 5 tires stacked... but when the day came to (Ninja) kick those tires over, there were only 3 tiny potatoes down in the very bottom tire!  Ha!  All of us were in shock!  We'll definitely be trying something different next year!

Here's our garden towards the end of summer with a fresh batch of leaf lettuce and the snap peas toppled over~ they got too tall and I didn't have a fence high enough for them to climb!

Our potato garden was not successful but the summer squash and snap peas were our bumper crops!  The kids would graze on the peas all day~ yummy!  Next year, I will plant zucchini, instead of summer squash!

All summer Parker kept asking if we could pull the carrots!  My answer was always... on your birthday!  Another gardening mistake I made was I planted the carrots in only 4 inches of soil so I was a little scared about how tiny our carrots would be BUT we were surprised that we actually had a few 4 inch carrots and there were more than I imagined!  Next year, we will add more soil to the carrot area and plant a ton more!  There is nothing like home~grown carrots!

Gardening~ love everything about it and I especially loved having my children's help with the vegetable garden!

family bike rides

 Thanks to our friends, the DuHads, who loaned us this awesome trailer bike... we LOVE our family bike rides.  I don't know if Savannah will ever want to ride a 2~wheeler as she gets such a thrill out of coasting behind her dad, who wouldn't!?!  On this gorgeous afternoon, we rode around the Butte with Momo and Popeye.  Noah amazed us all, as his little legs biked hard for 15 miles!

 2012 summer bike rides have taken us into the mountains!  All 3 kids are loving the thrill of... biking over roots, splashing through the streams and bumping over rocks!

blueberries galore!

Blueberries~ another thing we love about Hatcher's!  As the kids get older, we get more blueberries!  And, having a puppy along keeps them more entertained so Kep and I can keep picking~ bonus!  This year was our best harvest yet... 2 trips to Hatchers= 4 gallons of blueberries!

 2nd trip to Hatchers, the boys found it fun to jump and roll down the slippery hillside!  We were fine with this as long as they didn't trample any blueberry bushes!

hiking with a pup

Hatcher's Pass is our favorite place to play... we love all our spring, summer and fall hikes and we adore all the winter fun it provides!  Now, all our hikes are even more entertaining as we have a pup to chase through the tundra!

Noah was Rosco's li'l hiking buddy~ he stuck by this guy as he scratched and sniffed every weasel's hole!

our 10 week old pup was worn out once we reached Gold Cord Lake.  We thought it was so cute that he settled in for a nap next to all our packs!  I was trying to get a pic of our tuckered~out pup while Savannah kept photo~bombing!

this photo~bomb is my fav... Savannah, our li'l tease,  you keep us laughing!

Parker and his dog!  It's sure been fun to watch Parker become more responsible as he takes care of Rosco~ he's been a HUGE help and it's so sweet to watch him truly enjoy his new puppy!

Marmots!!! We often hear these marmots but it's rare to actually see them.   But on this particular day, this big guy let Parker get within 2 feet of him.  We always call Parker our "mountain goat" as he can dash across these boulders without stopping, so it was no surprise that he was able to sneak up on this marmot!  We were all shocked to learn that they are about 2-3 feet tall!

these shots are rather fuzzy but that's because I am NOT a "mountain goat" and I had to zoom all the way out!

Another one of Parker's fun finds was this rusty old shovel!

Rosco is a hit!

Rosco Fritschi Kona Kroon is his name!  Ha~ what a crazy name!  The kids had all sorts of silly ideas for his name but when Kep mentioned "Rosco" they were convinced that was the best name.  "Fritschi" is the name of backcountry ski bindings and "Kona" is a brand name of bikes, so both were perfect middle names for a Kroon puppy!

After the initial shock wore off, the kids were completely in LOVE with their new puppy.  Their only complaint was that he slept too much!

I love puppies~ they are just so perfectly cute.  It's just too bad that they can't stay this little!

  

Rosco Rosco~ what a klutzy and mellow puppy!  This position had us all roaring, he got himself stuck and he was mellow enough to not even care! 

What a great li'l guy... from the beginning, Rosco didn't mind hanging out in his kennel and continues to be very good about only staying in the entryway of our house!

1st bath!

We are convinced (and biased) that Rosco is the best dog ever!  He is a hit!

Rosco's Scavenger Hunt

Kep really wanted the kids to be surprised by our new puppy and he also had the great idea of sending our kids on a scavenger hunt to find him!  Oh my goodness, that was a hit!  At each clue, they found a puppy item and got more excited as they came to the realization that they were getting a puppy!

This video is pretty cute of Parker finding the dog book and all of them understanding that THEY were gonna get a lab!

The boys hopped on their bikes to ride to the final clue, while we drove Savannah over to Mo-mo's home!

And they meet, in this cute video!  Kep and I were cracking up that all 3 of them were totally pumped to be getting a puppy, they were jumping up and down at home, and then when they saw him... they were stunned, wouldn't even touch him!  

But, that didn't last long... once they realized that puppy was THEIR puppy... they were all about hugging and chasing their new li'l buddy around!  What a fun day!