Like father, like daughter

If you know Nate (or his mom), this picture almost needs no explanation.

Isn't this what Sunday morning is for?

Okay, so maybe she's not reading the paper yet.  But Morgan really loves story time!  She usually got one story before nap time.  But apparently this wasn't enough and she would scream and scream.  So now she gets two, or three stories, twice a day!  I love hearing her talk back to the books and focus on each page.  Nate and I are both big readers, so I hope to teach her a love of books and stories as well.

 Loves hats like her daddy too

 Enjoying Baby Einstein

Obviously, dad shaking the tray cover is hysterical!

Self-feeding

Thus far I have loved meal times with Morgan.  I've enjoyed making an array of home made baby foods and watching her gobble them up.  But then something changed.  Morgan decided the only thing she wanted to eat was what she could pick up and get into her own mouth.  Which for a while was nothing.  It was really frustrating for me to watch meal time after meal time and see her get virtually nothing to eat.  But slowly those fingers started learning what to do, and voila, she can now successfully get food into her own mouth. 

And onto her lap. 

And in her hair. 

And all over her face. 

And in her clothes. 

And on the floor. 

Boog loves that part.

Which one should I pick?

Crunch, crunch.  That's what those sharp teeth are for.

Hey, where'd it go?

Fun With Veggies

On my last post there are pictures of the huge veggies we are getting from our garden.  I swear, if you don't check those zucchini and squash plants every day, you end up with some monster veggies.  Which of course, we did get.  The question is, what in the world do you do with a zucchini the size of a watermelon?  As always, Nate has the answer for everything!

Apparently when Nate was a kid they had zucchini boat races.  That sounded exciting so off we went.  First, you carve the zucchini into a type of canoe or boat and scrape out the seeds.  Then you go to the closest body of water and off they go.  Nate and Georgia did all of the racing.

 The U.S.S. Veggie with proud owner Georgia

 U.S.S. Spear with goofy owner Nate

 Argh....the race is on

 The Very Cute Inspector

 Whoa, the water is cold.  Come on Georgia.

 Ready, set, go!

 And they're off

 There they go...neck and neck

 It's a bumpy ride for these zucchini

 Trying to keep up

 Morgan is loving this action!

 Yay!  The Winner!

P.S.  My favorite thing with zucchini....carpaccio of zucchini.  Slice the zucchini super thin using a mandolin or vegetable peeler.  I just used the peeler.  Slice into nice long ribbons.  Dress with olive oil and fresh lemon juice.  Toss with fresh herbs (I used rosemary and basil which we also have an abundance of).  Top with halved cherry tomatoes and sprinkles of ricotta cheese.  Let it sit and marinate for about a half hour.  Enjoy!  Nice and crunchy vegetables.

Hanging out with our visitors from NC

We have been so excited for the past few weeks to have special visitors from Harkers Island.  We've had my mom and dad visit before, but for the first time my niece Georgia was allowed to come as well.  It was her first flight and therefore her first visit to Utah.  We've been really busy, mostly just hanging out at the pool at the rec center, but have also done some sight seeing as well.  11 year olds aren't too interested in sight seeing, but we've done a few things that even Georgia has enjoyed.

Growing up on Harkers Island, the highest elevation you ever see is literally about 5 feet above sea level.  That's a hill for us!  Utah is blessed with beautiful sights in the mountains, so mostly we've been enjoying some of those.

One of our first adventures was to see Bridal Veil Falls.  It's one of the things I remember from visiting here when I was just 13.  I knew there was a lot of water in the rivers this year, but it was still surprising to see the rapids there.

Another fun adventure was to Antelope Island.  Even though I think the Great Salt Lake isn't really all that "great" when you've grown up by the ocean, it's an interesting place to see.  I love how Antelope Island is so close to a city, yet it feels like it belongs in a different era of time.  It's so quiet and peaceful.

 A nice volunteer gave us a ride around in a big golf cart at the ranch

 Morgan loves spending time with her Granny and Papa

Go cowgirl!

We really wanted to see the big Days of '47 parade in Salt Lake, but then we heard how people camp out the night before, so that was out for us.  Instead, we went to a parade float preview at the Southtowne Expo Center.  So much better!  In air conditioning and free!  The floats were so impressive!  Working waterfalls, "Wildford Woodruff" fly fishing, it was hard to pick a favorite.

 This simple float was one of my favorites, based on the movie Up, which I think was an instant classic.

How cool is this dog!  Don't you just want to pet him.

For Pioneer Day, my sweet mountain-grown husband took Georgia and I on a "simple" hike.  He said, "Don't worry.  It's pretty flat."  Has he met me?  Remember how I said a hill to me was 5 feet above sea level!  However, this hike was totally worth it, although the blisters at the end made the last mile pretty nasty.  We hiked to Stewart Falls, which quite frankly, put Bridal Veil Falls to shame.

Sorry this photo is blurry.  People actually stood under the falls, but the water was so cold, this was as close as I could get!  The sound of the powerful water coming down was amazing.

Last note to this long blog:  Nate and I are trying our hand at gardening again this year.  I didn't check the summer squash and zucchini for maybe 3 days and this is what I got:

The zucchini especially were huge.  I've been making lots of zucchini bread, which when you add in some chocolate chips, even 11 year olds will eat!