Welcome to my Garden

I (Diana) have found a new hobby and that is gardening. Before we moved into the Hatch's home almost a year ago they had a well established garden. After it died off, I had hopes of one day bringing it back to life. So, a few months ago, my dad came over and rototilled the long stretch of dirt between the grass and fence in preparation for the new garden. Then I started planting seeds and seedlings and now months later, I have a full blown garden! I wanted to do as many different crops as I could squeeze in so here's what I have: cucumbers, radishes, tomato, zucchini, turnips, romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, carrots, beets, green onions, green beans, sugar snap peas, honeydew melon, yellow squash and green peppers- whew! We've already been enjoying some of the harvest too! The coolest part about having a veggie garden is like last night for example I was making a chinese chicken salad with home grown lettuce and I needed green onions which I normally buy occasionally if I have a recipe in mind but didn't have any in the fridge. So I just walked out the back door and pulled a couple of stalks. It's like having your own produce section in the backyard! The garden is on a self sprinkler system which is very convenient. It has been a lot of work lately as I had forgotten to stay on top of pulling weeds, but I am learning about how much effort goes into a good garden. I definitely want to keep up this hobby as long as we're here and for sure when we move into our next home!

Splish Splash

This last week has been a very warm one. The highs all week were in the mid to upper 90's. So, we have been getting the kiddie pool out a lot as well as turning on the sprinkler. Here's some cute pictures of Audrey and Caden enjoying a little H2O fun.

Caden and the Ice Cream cone

Caden is a big fan of ice cream cones and we took some cute videos of him enjoying one. I love how entertained Audrey was during the whole thing too. It's so fun to see the kids get a kick out of each other. We love them!

Carlsbad Beach Camping

For Memorial weekend we had a wonderful opportunity to camp at South Carlsbad State Beach with some good friends of ours, the Dixons, for 3 nights. My parents let us borrow their motorhome to make the stay very comfortable and easy with the kids. RV's are THE way to go for camping in my opinion. Maybe someday I'll buckle down and tent camp with our family. When we arrived on Friday afternoon we experienced some cool, cloudy weather and even a hard rain shower right when the Dixon's were scrambling to get their tent up. Did I mention RV's are wonderful? The weather did clear up though and throughout the weekend it was occasionally cloudy and cool but the sun did make it's appearance later each day making for some beautiful afternoons.

Saturday morning, Ethan did some surf fishing with no catches, but had fun trying. The shore was filled with smooth, round rocks that we collected then painted as a fun activity at the Dixon's camp. That afternoon we hung out down at the beach when the sun came out.

Sunday we had a relaxing morning then drove down in our car back to our house to shower and get ready for church at 1pm. We left after sacrament meeting then headed back to the beach for a quiet and peaceful afternoon.

Monday, Ethan attempted fishing again with no luck and then after breakfast we drove 5 minutes away to the U-Pick Strawberry fields. We paid $11 for a big bucket then were turned loose in the rows and rows of big juicy red strawberries. The kids had a great messy time having access to all the strawberries they could eat. We came back with a huge mound of strawberries in our bucket. Definitely worth the experience. After hanging out at the beach again Monday afternoon, my parents drove up to spend the evening with us. Dad whipped up his delicious dutch oven specialty dinner and the Dixons made some outstanding cherry cobbler. Then it was time to pack up and head home so that my Dad could drive the motorhome back. It was sad to leave but nice to be back home as well. We had a blast and will hopefully make this a new yearly tradition!

Where a kid can be a kid

Who doesn't love good old Chuck E Cheese's? We took the kids last month for fun and pizza. Caden loved the basketball games and little rides. Audrey had fun collecting tickets and then getting a little prize at the end. Caden really had a great time despite his bored expression on the rides. It was serious fun!

Laguna Mountain getaway

Ok, time to play catchup. In April after Ethan's very busy tax season, we decided we needed a little getaway with the kids for some R&R. We took about an hour drive up to the beautiful Laguna Mountains where we rented a little cabin for a night. The perfect weather, fresh mountain air, soaring pine trees and singing birds were very theraputic. We enjoyed a few family hikes, found several geocaches or "fairy treasures" as Audrey calls them, and did some exploring around the cabins. Nearby was a cool fort made of sticks that the kids had fun playing in. We had a great time staying in our cozy cabin in the woods and were very happy to see more of Daddy!