APRICOT OVERLOAD

I'm not sure why, but this year has been an amazing growing year for our fruit. Our apricot tree has never produced more than a half a dozen pieces of fruit until this year. The tree was in danger of broken limbs because it was so loaded with apricots. Big C was so happy! He loves them. I don't like them so they were a irritation to me. More work- cleaning up the dropping fruit every day, making bags and bags of dehydrated fruit and dozens of pints of jam. It is safe to say we are done with them!

Family Night drying.

We got together for a combined family night and filled my in-laws' industrial sized dehydrator with every piece of fruit we could get to. It's actually pretty tall for a fruit tree.

My new niece and her mommy.

Who's going to eat all these? Not me!

TRAIL GROOMERS UNITE

I'm not sure how your family is about wanting to go work on their time off, but it's not a very popular choice around our house. Big C is helping his brother with the Scandinavian Days Vike on a Bike race this Saturday and felt like the course needed some maintenance. The kids were not excited about it AT ALL, but went anyway...

The happy workers!

A beautiful Sanpete scene. I think I might just have to paint this...

Working the trail. Many hands make light work.

Successful end of the job. We ended up having fun together and found it wasn't bad at all.

PIANO GIRL

Princess P is my last hope as a pianist in my family. All of my kids have been pretty good at it, but have whined and complained so much that I let them quit by the time they got any good. I am sad about that, but sometimes you have to pick your battles...

Princess P and her amazing teacher- A!

Princess P is different. She will go in and practice without me even asking her, let alone fighting with her about it. She seems to be at a place where it is clicking with her and now that she's playing the cello too, her talent is just flourishing. I am so proud of her and how hard she works to learn her songs and do a good job at Festival every year.

WORK & 3V3 SOCCER

C Man's obsession continues. The latest is his team taking 2nd out of 9 teams at the 3 v 3 tournament yesterday. He  was kind of sad they didn't win, but I am so impressed with him and his friends. They even played in the cold rain. 

The Team! C Man in the middle.

 Also in the news, Big C has Elder D right back at work. He hasn't been this dirty for two years. He says he has forgotten some things, but overall, he's glad to be back to work.

Form oil makes everything a mess!

REMODEL- PART 4

Here's another remodel update. Our lives are consumed with it. This is Big C's job right now. He is literally not working except on our house. I have mixed feelings about that- on one hand, I love his dedication to the project, but on the other hand, he expects the same dedication out of me and that is exhausting! I now know why he sleeps so well. I try to keep up with him in the day and physically cannot. I am so spent at night that I read a paragraph of my book and am zonked. No more insomnia for me.

Little C helping Big C build shelves.

 Big C can do anything. I am not kidding. He has built me an entertainment center for our new little TV/family room and a built in computer desk to hide the pipes in the wall.

Princess P being his go-fer.

Big c and the entertainment center (minus the crown molding). 

I'll post more photos as it gets painted, etc...

We also are getting all our trim and woodwork done. I LOVE IT!

Board and batten wainscot and pediment trim on the windows.

REMODEL- PART 2

The house carnage continues! Our house is torn apart! Big C has cut out parts of the ceiling, floor, and walls to rewire. Our floors are particle board and the kitchen is completely disassembled.

Big C and Awesome A take out the pantry.

Grandpa G and Big C putting drywall back in place.

This WAS my kitchen. Now it's just a workroom with a sink and a stove. 

Our open area is going to be so nice!

The kitchen still functions, at least.

Grandma G came and helped us paint the ceiling. I love our new recessed lighting!

REMODEL- PART ONE

We are making some huge changes at our house and I am still trying to come to grips with it. Last month Big C announced, out of the blue, that he was going to take off work over the winter (January/February) and remodel our kitchen. I was very surprised, to put it mildly, because I've been asking for new cabinets for years now and all of a sudden he says, 'YES.' I married the least predictable man on earth- haha! I am SOOO EXCITED!

As we got talking, we decided to do even more than just the kitchen. We are doing most of our upstairs. We are taking out a wall and creating a small family room/TV room out of an old bedroom. We had to move Princess P downstairs, but she's fine with it so far.

BEFORE- You can see by the garbage bags that I'd already started cleaning out.

I can't believe it, but we tore out my favorite wall in the house. I had just talked Big C into putting up wainscot in the kitchen two years before and now we have to get rid of it? Sad day, but worth it in the end, right?? Here's to hoping...

Last view of our old kitchen- Sister S and Princess P packing up the cabinet contents.

Upper cabinets gone...

I came home from teaching yesterday and this is what I saw! Bye bye wall...

Demolition is NOT fun.

Huge mess and lots of back-breaking work hauling all that junk out.

The wall is gone! Our first taste of the new, big, open space.

We are going full force now!

THE GORDONS DO SUMMER

Our summertime activities are usually pretty similar to the previous summer. They are always full of hard work building houses in the hot summer sun, running as many rivers as we can fit in, and some other fun little activities along the way.

Big C and Little C forming a basement.

 This is the first year that Little C has worked full time for Big C and it has been an adjustment. Little C is a great worker, but hasn't always been happy about the whole set up. It has taken a serious toll on his play time, but already has added a substantial amount to his bank account.

A plethora of boats.

 My husband seriously might need an intervention about his boats. He does love his river rafting!  It sure is a fun family thing for us to do though and one of them that our kids actually like doing all together. You can't beat that.

Workshop Wednesday at the Granary Art Center. (Princess P and Miss B to the very left).

I taught a cute little class how to make spinning pinwheels last Wednesday and it was a lot of fun. They turned out really cute and were quick and easy to make.

Cousins and friends! M, M, Little C and J.

Little C got to go stay with cousins for the weekend and had a fabulous time. He went to M's championship baseball game and watched them take the title! He also got to go long boarding and stay up late watching movies and playing video games all night long.

IT'S A DIRTY JOB

That's my boy!

A just started working for Big C last week. It was baptism by fire! They formed a basement for cement all week and he ended up with a lot of oil and dirt all over him.  He's already showing me his big muscles from his job. At least there are a few benefits from working with Dad.

SPRING BREAK GORDON STYLE

We do a lot of cool stuff in our family, but I would have to say that Spring Break wins the prize for the lamest holiday/vacation in the Gordon household. Big C never wants to take time off work to go anywhere ('It's not Spring Break for me.') and S and I still have classes at the college, so all of our schedules just don't match up.

This year we have older, more independent kids who took off on their own. D and A went with a friend to stay in Southern Utah with his grandparents. They shopped in St. George and hiked in Zions and are having a great teenage road trip according to their texts.

Not to be outdone by her 'little brothers' (that are taller than her), S took off for Brigham City to hang with her best buddy up at their family cabin for Conference Weekend. She's texted me a few times and is having a great time too.

So, Princess P, Little C and I took off on Wednesday and went 'Up North.' We shopped for lots of summer clothes and shoes, went out to lunch and saw a dollar movie. It was a fun day and a good break.

Today we are cleaning though, so it's not as fun. Princess P and I washed all the windows in our house (inside and out) and Big C cleaned out his garage. Gotta get on that spring cleaning. Housework never has been my strong suit, but I was in the groove today. Glad some of it's done!

YARD PROJECTS

Our family night took place out in our yard again last night. The hole our trampoline is in is collapsing thanks to termites in the wood.

So, of course we need to brick it. Big C is worried that the ground is just going to cave under the sidewalk, so here he is starting the brick. My two older boys helped him...

... while the two younger kids helped me with the tomatoes and peppers. I hope we even get any it is so late, but it has just been so cold I haven't been motivated to do much in the garden. Our peas are coming nicely though...

SPRING CLEANING THE YARD

Every spring we have a clean-up-the-yard Family Night. Last night was that night. It was the first nice Monday night we've had all year. My kids groan, but it always ends up being pretty fun.

S has moved back home now and was thrilled to be back and participate in our family work activities again. She did a great job on the rose bed.

Princess P helped me weed and clean out flower beds. She stayed with it the entire time (even though she kept asking how much longer). Here she is resting after her hard work. She decided Kevin the cat was cold and zipped him up in her jacket.

Meanwhile, the boys got all the junk and made a big fire to burn it all (I'm sure we were popular with the neighbors). This is actually after it had burned down a bit. It took a little while until you could get close to it, but then they roasted marshmallows. We even had scriptures and prayer around the fire. It was a fun night and our yard looks LOTS better!

SANDBAGGING

We filled sandbags for family night last night. It was a good experience, but I do have to say my back hurts today. Those sandbags are HEAVY! Our snow pack levels are at 165% of normal in Utah. My husband says he has never seen as much snow up Fairview Canyon as there is now and it is still there. He says there is still 8 to 10 FEET up on top.

When the snow comes down (if it ever stops raining) we are going to see some serious water. That is why we were sandbagging last night. 'The best defense is a good offense.'- Jack Dempsey, prizefighter. We ended up doing about 200 bags, in the rain. I was proud of my kids, they worked hard.

It really only took us 2 hours and some of that was spent eating cake and ice cream for my brother-in-law's birthday. (What a guy to sandbag for his birthday - of course, it was his house we were barricading :)

Doesn't that look nice? Hope it works and hope its enough... The family that sandbags together, stays together!