The New Flowers and the .22 Caliber Shells

So here's the story of my flower boxes. One day we were trying to return a pear tree to Wasatch Shadow's Nursery. You see, we had wanted a peach tree, but the peach trees that they had didn't look so good, so we decided to get a pear tree. Well, we were told that pear trees are not very good to have in the yard, and the fruit is hard to can. So we decided to trade that pear tree in for a peach tree. But, they didn't have any new peach trees in, and they wouldn't give us back our money for the pear tree. So we were looking around trying to find something else.

I rounded the corner, and there they were, my new flower boxes!!! I just couldn't pass them up. So I got with the local horticulturist there at the nursery, and together we picked some lovely flowers to go in my new flower boxes. Well, 3 bags of soil, and about 20 plants later, me and my new flower boxes were off for home.

Now, it was up to Tom to get them hooked to the front of our house (this is where the .22 caliber shells come in). As you know, if you have been down Winter Wheat way lately, all of the houses have stone fronts. Well as it turns out (despite me asking Tom to make sure that he had all of the mounting hardware he would need) the fronts of the houses are not totally even, and so the screws he had were not long enough for the window in front of Megan's room.

So he started with hanging the one in front of Max's room. Apparently those stones are more even, so the screws that Tom had were long enough for the three attachment points for that planter box.

Well, the one in front of Megan's window was different. After Tom hung the first one, and filled that with dirt for me, I dutifully started planting all of my new lovely plants. I heard Tom drilling the first hole, and the hanging of the 2nd planter was under way. Well, just about as I was finished with the flowers in the first one, I hear this BANG!!! - sounded like a bullet being fired, about scared me out of my pants! - Well, turns out, it was a bullet being fired. Because he didn't have a long enough screw, he used his 'Hilti' nailer, an just shot 2 nails into the wall to hold up the planter. Well, after I finished cleaning myself up inside, I went back out, and sure enough, there was the planter box, all hung on the wall. (Only time will tell if it will stay there or not!! Tom assures me it will)

Well, there is the story of my new planter boxes and the .22 caliber shells - hope we don't have to do those again anytime soon!

Memorial Day Tradition

Every year on Memorial Day the Dobson family gets together to visit the graves of relatives who have passed away. We all gather together and put Mums on graves. In the cemetery where most of the Dobson, Eberly, and Carbis families are buried lives a very large herd of deer. It is always exciting for the kids to see the deer. Here are a few photos of the deer having a feast on all the flowers.

Mmm, tastes like candy "Mums" the word.

Our House

Shot this picture of our house the other night just before

the storm hit. The sky was amazing.

Golf lessons for Max

Max has been taking golf lessons from the golf pro at a local golf course. He loves playing, and has a great time playing with Grandpa, Bokah, and Dad.

Megan's gymnastics

Megan doing a flip on the trampoline.



Flying on the rings.

Megan now thinks that all of our furniture is gym equipment.

Megan's Special Day

Today was Megan's special day...she graduated from 4 yr. old preschool! This is a picture of her with her teacher Mrs. Rodabaugh.

She had a great time learning her ABC's, numbers, colors and shapes. She especially excelled in "communicating"with her friends in class.

Boys vs. "the men"!

I'm sure it was the boys who won.

I didn't know I had married such an athlete.

Maybe Tom should have been in the NBA? Sorry Tom, they play on 10' hoops not 8'. Too bad.

Our Neighbors

We have the absolute best neighbors in the entire world! It is fun to get together during the warm evenings and enjoy each others company. Here are a few pictures of some of our neighbors and us having fun.

Southern Utah

Our family has made a goal this year to become a more active family. We bought bicycles for everyone in the family and decided to go for it. Megan has a trailer bike that hooks to Toms bike, Max of course rides his own bike, and Mya rides very comfortably on the back of my bike. We decided to take a biking vacation to Southern Utah. It actually turned out to be one of the best vacations we have ever had...lots of fun, and lots of sore muscles.

We biked up Zions Canyon 10 miles. It was a little interesting because the wind kicked up to 60 mph as we were riding back down the canyon. One would think that it would be easier to ride down the canyon...not true with 60 mph winds. It was actually harder. We all looked at each other and said "this is just wrong; we shouldn't have to pedal so hard going down the canyon"! If you stopped pedaling, you stopped moving. It just didn't seem right.

We then rode to Snow Canyon in St. George...again very windy. Actually, we drove to the top and Max and Tom rode down the canyon first, then we shuttled each other up again to the top of the canyon and Max and I rode down. We just couldn't bare the thought of riding against the wind again.

On the way home we stopped at Red Canyon. This is the canyon that leads to Bryce National Park. It was a great ride. All in all we rode 25 miles on our trip. We had the best time, and we were accomplishing our goal to become a more physically active family.

Adventures on Mt. Timpanogos

With the theme of physical activity this year for our family, we were invited to Hike to Timpanogos Cave with our neighbors. Wow!!! It is very steep. We had a fun time, yet again feeling muscles that we didn't know we had. Megan was a trooper. She walked the entire 3 1/2 miles without one complaint. Having lived in Utah 36 yrs. I had never hiked to Timpanogos Cave. I couldn't believe I was daring enough to take the kids. The path is not very wide, but the side of the mountain is cliff. The kids were great. They stayed on the inside of the path the entire hike. We kept telling them "just keep your hand agains the rock wall!" The hike was all worth it to see the inside of the cave.