producing produce

Our garden is officially out of control. We might have to invite all of you over for corn soon because we'll be in trouble if all those ears ripen at once. Don't get me wrong... we love corn, but there's going to be a lot.

The beans (peas? beans?) are officially done for the year. We got approximately 10,000 and ended up composting a bunch because we were so sick of eating them. On the flip side, we got a total of 2 strawberries, but we were told by a trustworthy source that you just leave the plants 'til next year and that's when you'll get a bunch of them. (That better be true or I know 3 kids who are gonna be pissed.)

We're still waiting patiently for the tomatoes to turn red. It's a little daunting to see how many there are. Tomatoes, anyone?

And last but not least, today Cayden got to pick our very first cucumber. He & Josie scarfed it down in about 3 seconds flat (gardening is a very good way to get your kids to eat their veggies) and proclaimed it was the best snack ever.



But seriously, what is up with the hat? He's had it on all day.

privatization of swim lessons

Once again, we've spent quite a bit of time at the pool so far this summer. Josie kept up with her lessons all through the school year, and advanced leaps and bounds from where she was last summer. But her last lesson was a total bust. There were 5 other kids in her class (do the math: 30 minutes/6 kids=FIVE minutes each!) and the teacher didn't push her at all to move out of her comfort zone. As a result, she regressed quite a bit and was getting more hesitant in the water.

I almost opted to keep her out of lessons this time around, but instead I had the brilliant (if I do say so myself) idea of signing her up for a semi-private lesson with her one of her bestest buddies. As a huge, coincidental bonus, they were assigned to a young woman who used to dance at Avery's studio, so they already knew (and adored!) her. After 4 days of lessons with this set-up, take a look at her now:

school tote

As badly as I want to cling to the delusional notion that summer will in fact last forever, I buckled down last weekend and knocked out a school tote bag for Avery. She's going into middle school, after all, and surely every middle schooler needs a custom bag with hand-picked fabric choices, yes?

Okay, so probably not, but I got the idea a couple months ago and was immediately determined to make it happen. She knew right away that she wanted zebra fabric for the interior (the pattern I used is for a reversible bag, but since I added some pockets, it became not-so-reversible). The other fabric was slightly tougher to decide upon. There were a few that she wanted, a few that I wanted and exactly one that we both agreed on:

It's not that I didn't *want* to let her choose whichever fabric her little heart desired. But the practical side of me couldn't let her pick something too light, the protective side of me couldn't let her pick something too childish... and the overbearing, nit-picky side of me couldn't let her pick something that I hated.

The inside of the bag has three pockets; one for her small calendar, one for her cell phone, and one for a pen & pencil. There is also an elastic band to keep her water bottle in place.

It took me three trips to the fabric store to make this bag. I really think at my core I'm a fairly smart person but I become dumb as a brick when I look at these patterns and try to visualize exactly what supplies I will need. I totally underestimated the amount of fabric to buy because for some crazy reason, I was thinking that I would only need one side for each design. When I finally wrapped my head around the fact that I was basically sewing two bags (one just laid inside the other), I had better luck. Someday I will actually follow my own advice and make a mock-up out of paper or super cheap fabric, because a couple of small errors made this a pretty spendy endeavor. But it was fun to make, and goodness knows, I love a project!

the great salt lake1

On Tuesday we decided that it wouldn't be right to visit the Salt Lake area without actually dipping a toe in the Great Salt Lake², itself. We didn't have any shovels or buckets, but were hoping for a nice afternoon at the beach. We were not disappointed³.

The area was beautiful⁴, and with the fragrant lake air, you could close your eyes and swear you were standing at a fish market on the Pacific Coast⁵. Unlike the sandy beaches we're used to, the ground around the Lake featured hardened mud and visibly salty puddles⁶, all of which left Josie absolutely tickled⁷. The dry area around the Lake was quite large and left us with ample time for a pleasant family conversation⁸.

When we reached the Lake⁹, we were surprised to see it teeming with life¹⁰. The gentle waves lapped at the beach with a surprising little flourish at the end¹¹. Given the heat and the fact that we were already tired from a long day¹², we decided to head back after taking in the view.

We had parked next to a majestic-looking building with a gift shop, and decided to stop in before heading back home. The building is a live entertainment venue, cleverly dubbed the Saltair¹³. Inside, we discovered the history of the Saltair, which was originally a gigantic venue called the Coney Island of the West¹⁵ but that sadly caught fire in 1925 and 1931¹⁶.

The new Saltair was built in 1981 with a look all its own¹⁷. The building has a Middle-Eastern feel, with some distinctly Western touches¹⁸. The building has been renovated¹⁹ and apparently still hosts concerts today. The signs in the bathroom warns people that cleaning one's clothes after swimming is prohibited as it would damage the plumbing²⁰.

After buying some trinkets for the children, we decided to head out. That visit to the Great Salt Lake will always be a vivid memory²¹ for our family. It makes us look forward to our next visit to our local salty body of water, the Pacific Ocean.



¹ It would be a real shame to let our visit to the Great Salt Lake go unblogged, and since Amber looks unlikely to cover it I will step in and blog.

² To avoid giving visitors the wrong impression in the future, I would support any movement aimed at renaming the lake to the Big Salt Lake.

³ The children were, though.

⁴ More specifically, it was beautiful if you turned your back on the lake. Like everywhere else we went in Utah, if you just turn the other direction you will find a breathtaking mountain view. The Lake, itself, not so beautiful.

⁵ Unfortunately, it smelled as though the fish market had been shut down by health inspectors three days earlier, and all of the fish had been left to rot in the summer heat. To be fair, though, the smell could have been rotting seagulls rather than rotting fish. I stepped over at least four of them on the trek toward the water.

⁶ And dead seagulls.

⁷ At one point, Josie stopped and said, in a panicked voice, "Something is wrong! It's tickling my legs! Pick me up!" The ground literally made her skin crawl.

⁸ Some snippets of that conversation...
"Is this a toxic dumping site or something?"
"Should we even be here?"
"Why does it smell like this?"

⁹ We didn't actually reach the Lake before getting so disgusted that we had to leave with great haste, but we got close enough to see (and be disgusted) by it.

¹⁰ Gnats.

¹¹ As the waves reached dry, hardened, rotten-fish-smelling land, thousands of gnats jumped a couple of feet in the air, producing a bizarre cloud of black dots that rose and fell in a wave across the horizon. It was much like you would see in a human wave in a baseball game, with everyone standing and raising their arms, one after the other, around the stadium. Only it was gnats. Tens of thousands of them. And probably rather than watching a baseball game, they were just sitting around, smelling the rotten fish.

¹² And the fact that we would have to wade through tens of thousands of gnats to get to the water. And the knowledge that the rotten fish smell had to be coming from somewhere, and the Lake was a likely candidate, being a lake and all.

¹³ Presumably they chose Saltair because RottenFishBreeze would attract the wrong kind of crowd¹⁴.

¹⁴ Gnats.

¹⁵ From which I can only infer that Coney Island smells strongly of rotten hot dogs and is crawling with small insects.

¹⁶ It also suffered from a receding lake, and the new building was promptly flooded upon being rebuilt in 1981. You get the feeling someone was trying to tell them something.

¹⁷ If I had to describe that look in one word, I would choose the word "abandoned".

¹⁸ Hornet nests covering 75% of the south wall.

¹⁹ Sprayed for gnats. The gift shop cashier assured us that the place would be crawling with them otherwise. He also enlightened us about the nature of gnats, saying that, "The more you sweat, the more they'll be on you." Ah, Big Salt Lake and your charming gnats. We will never forget you.

²⁰ I mean, seriously. People swim in that thing. And presumably come out of the water covered in gnats. And then can't wash up without damaging the plumbing.

²¹ And the gnats will live on in our nightmares.

hidden falls

for the one person I know who's not on Facebook...

park city

We started out the day with a fabulous brunch at Alta Lodge in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We starved the children in the morning so we were sure to get our money's worth... and it worked! Even Josie ate 2 plates, which is a record for her lately.

From there, we headed back out to Park City, a super cool ski town and home of the 2002 Winter Olympic games. The town has a very casual, laid-back atmosphere so it felt a lot like home.

Despite the fact that it was blazing hot again, we had a great time wandering up and down the historic Main Street, and the kids each found some souvenirs to bring home. Cayden even did some birthday shopping for his sister, but don't tell Josie because she'll spill the beans in 2 seconds flat if she finds out.

Once we ran out of spending money and got a bit of food, we made our way up the mountain to the Park City Mountain Resort for their summer rides, quite possibly the best part of the whole trip. Avery wasn't so sure about the ski lift that brought us up to the Alpine Slide, but she was a total trooper. Her hands were red and sweaty from clutching the bar. Surprisingly, Josie had no trouble with the lift. She took in the amazing views and didn't even mind the fact that I was holding onto her for dear life.



It all made for a long day and a late night, so our plan is to lay low tomorrow. I think the thin air and high temps are starting to take their toll.

a day for hiking

We went on two hikes today, despite the fact that it was too hot for sane people to be doing any such activity. It was forecast to be 100 degrees in the city, but since each of these hikes is at 8000+ feet, we assumed it would be significantly cooler. While it didn't reach 100, I would guess it was at least 90 by the time we were done with the second hike. Blech.

We started out at Silver Lake, which sits right at the top of Cottonwood Canyon, conveniently located about 2 miles from our house. The hike was easy-peasy (most of the way around the lake even has a boardwalk so it's wheelchair accessible) and the scenery was quite picturesque. There were a number of snow patches in the shade, but the sunny parts were already getting toasty by 11am.




After a break for lunch and re-hydration, we headed down the mountain a bit to Donut Falls. This hike was listed as easy, with a total of 3/4 of a mile to the top of the waterfall. I'm not even almost convinced about that measurement--granted, it was H-O-T, but we gave up once we reached a nice little look-out point, over an hour in. We saw lots of folks walking around the top of the falls, but it would have taken a great deal of convincing to get any of us to follow.

salt lake city: not for walking

Sometimes I forget how awesome Portland is for getting around on foot. It has good signage and great sidewalks (at least in our neck of the woods and downtown), the street names make a good amount of sense, and most importantly, the blocks are a uniform & predictable distance apart. I never fully understood how important that last point was until today. On our first full day in Utah, we decided to explore Salt Lake City, which is about 40 minutes from the "cabin" (I feel silly calling this place a cabin because it's ginormous) that we're staying at.

Many things looked close on my cell phone map, so I'd tell the kids that it was just "a couple of blocks." By the end of the day that phrase became a joke because a couple of blocks in SLC could easily be a mile and a half. When you're tired, hungry and/or 4 years old, a mile and a half is a helluva long way to walk. Anyway, I digress. We did happen upon some beautiful buildings... the Utah State Capitol above, and the SLC Temple below.

I felt like people kept staring at us as we walked around downtown, especially near Temple Square. At first I thought it was because they could somehow tell we weren't Mormon, then I decided that was silly and thought they must simply have known we were tourists. Thinking back, I think it's because we were walking. Not a lot of that going on around here.

The best find of the day without a doubt was Liberty Park. A full square block (one of the long ones) of playgrounds, ponds, fountains, amusement park rides, etc. We took out two paddle boats (boys' boat above and girls' boat below) and a great time was had by all.

Say what you like about Salt Lake City, but it's most definitely family-friendly. If you've got a car.