overheard

Brian (trying to give Amy a pep talk): You can do anything you want to.

Amy: But I don't want to get up!

Yeah, it was a struggle to get out of bed this morning. Methinks we need to go to bed earlier.

******

Brian (complimenting Amy): You're cuter than a baby skunk.
In his defense, we saw a baby skunk a few weeks ago, and it was pretty cute.

 (Stolen from http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridapfe/4041568530/)

overheard

I've been helping in Sunbeams (the 3-year-old class at church) for a few weeks here and there. This interaction made me giggle.

*at the end of class, the kids were coloring and eating small snacks*
P (3-year-old): I need 4 more animal crackers.
E (substitute teacher and mother of one of the children): Everyone can have 2 more or none at all.
P: I think I'll have none.
*E hands more animal crackers to some of the other kids*
P: I decided I need 3 more. No, 4.
*E hands her 2 more animal crackers*
P: Is this 4?
E: Yes.

I'm sure P could have figured out that it wasn't 4 if she had thought about it (she obviously knows numbers). But she seemed content with E's answer and happily ate the extra animal crackers. I cracked up in the corner. :)

garden version 2.012

Warning: Lots of pictures of green things to follow.

We planted our garden a bit late(r) this year. I don't know exactly when it was, but maybe May or June instead of on our anniversary, like last year. Although our plot is small, we decided we wanted to expand. So naturally, we asked our neighbor if we could use his plot too. ;) He wasn't planning on using it, and was more than willing to oblige. We did told him that he can have some of the produce if he ever wants it.

 This was all picked in one day. Two decent cucumbers, with more still on the vines; delicious cherry tomatoes (I often eat them right off the plant, without even washing them); cayenne peppers, not quite ripe but still with plenty of kick; sage (bottom right); lemon basil (right). We used a lot of this for dinner that night.

When we planted, we still had the onions and garlic from last year (that didn't turn out so well...), as well as the ice plant, Rose of Sharon, and honeysuckle. There were also some grapes and blueberries we planted last year as an experiment, and they haven't died yet (the grapes are currently flourishing, although the blueberries seem to be trying to die). We had to pull out all the overgrown weeds and ended up getting rid of the garlic and onions too. This year, we planted:

• one strawberry plant
• one cilantro plant
• one lemon basil plant (inspired by someone in our ward - it's wonderful!)
• one sage plant
• one catawba plant (some sort of flowering shrub, I think)

 

Our side of the garden.

 

 Sage (left) and lemon basil (right). Top left is the catawba Brian planted.

 

  You may not be able to pick these out as well, I wish there was a better way to describe it. Bottom left is cilantro. Top left is the catawba. Top middle is the honeysuckle from last year. Bottom middle is our happy little ice plant. Right is the Rose of Sharon. It's hard to see, but between the honeysuckle and the Rose of Sharon is our sad little strawberry plant. It hasn't died, but it hasn't grown much either (certainly no fruit).

Rose of Sharon. This picture is mostly to make Brian's family jealous, since we bought it as a one gallon plant in April 2011. :) It has grown much better (and bigger) than it would have in the same amount of time in UT. I guess this also gives a fairly good view of the honeysuckle.

Blossoms - we didn't want double blossoms, and the tag said they weren't, but when it grew, that's what bloomed. I guess it's still pretty, and believe me, this bush/tree is Brian's pride and joy. ;)

The other side of the garden:

• three cherry tomato plants
• three long red cayenne pepper plants
• three green/red bell pepper plants
• three cucumber plants
• a packet of flower seeds (don't remember what kind, they haven't grown)

  Our neighbor's side of the garden, which he so graciously let us use. The tomatoes (along the fence) have somewhat taken over, which I guess we should have expected. Some of that along the fence is also honeysuckle creeping over from the other side.

 Can you see the little bell pepper hiding?

 Long red cayenne peppers - not terribly long or red.

 I can't figure out why Blogger insists on rotating this picture, so I'll just have to leave it and be frustrated. This is our lovely cucumber patch.

overheard

*Brian smiles mischievously*
Amy: What?
Brian: I'm just cute.


Amy: So many words, and all they say is blah.
Brian: It's a history book.
*I'm pretty sure I've turned back into a 2-year-old who needs to have lots of pictures and very few words in her books.*

Europe

Brian: original post 7/1/12 - pictures and sentence at the end
Amy: edited 7/19/12 - captions under pictures

View from the Bella Sky Hotel (walkway between the two towers). Lots of wind turbines.

Classic canal in Copenhagen. Commonly shown in postcards.

The original Christus, sculpted by Thorvaldsen.

Brian in front of the Bella Sky Hotel.

Guards in front of one of the buildings at Amalienborg Palace.

Changing of the guards. This apparently happens on the even hours, which we didn't know. We were literally wandering around the city and happened upon this place, and the guards changed while we were there.

The Little Mermaid. Major tourist trap, it's really not that cool.

I don't remember for sure, but I think this was taken on the cruise. I believe we were sailing past wind turbines placed in the water near Denmark (those white lines behind us).

Brian in front of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn, Estonia. We were happy to see onion domes. :)

One of the "joke fountains" at Peterhof (which is easier to say than Petrodvorets). It was a tree with several flowers surrounding it. Cute.

Brian and me in front of the main fountain at Peterhof. They had this awesome sort of ceremony to start all the fountains in the morning. (It wasn't really a ceremony, but there were thousands of people gathered to watch as a loud anthem played when the fountains turned on.)

Brian in front of the Copenhagen Temple. We took the metro to the right part of town and had a nice little jog to get the rest of the way there. It seems to be right in the middle of a neighborhood. We had a good chat with a member who came up to talk to us when we were wandering around the grounds. This was apparently his stake center before they renovated it to be the temple.

 
These are pictures from our trip. We enjoyed it.