House O' Sullivans

We spent the week before last doing some hard core "cousining." Yes, that's a verb that spontaneously surfaced in the White family to describe what the cousins do when they are together. The home base was a cabin up above Heber in the mountain subdivision of Timberlakes. After weeks of heinously hot weather down in the valley, we got the ultimate reprieve with cooler temperatures and daily rain showers. My mom, Kristen, Karen, Mary, and all attendant cousins came up. Newel and Casey were intermittent visitors. There were 5 adults and 18 kids on site all week. It was a lot of fun, but the noise was deafening at times. Did I mention there were 18 kids in one modest-sized cabin? By the end of the week, Lindy was so sleep-deprived. She'd spent the entire week going to bed at 10 pm or later, waking up early, and with maybe 2 daytime naps (total) because of the cousin energy. We had a great time, but I was so relieved to come home to my quiet little house and tone down to...

Friday was crazy. The morning started with some impromptu apricot picking, followed by a flurry of jam production and canning. A guy in our neighborhood had apricots falling to the ground and as the grand daughter of Thyrza and Viola, who both passed on the depression era mentality of "let nothing go to waste," I felt morally obligated to do something with those apricots.  That night, Casey and I met Mary and Phil and my friends Sarah and Carlynn on Antelope Island for the annual 24 mile moonlight ride from White Rock Bay out to the Fielding Garr Ranch and back. It starts at 10 pm under the full moon and is a blast. My mom watched the kids to make the excursion possible. Casey and I with the DeLorean on Antelope Island. (This year's theme was "Back to the Future.") Casey's expression is classic. Phil and Mar, ready to ride! Carlynn, Sarah, and I at the Fielding Garr Ranch, which was built by Carlynn's great great great grandfathe...

This little girl is such a doll. Loo sitting in her makeshift play yard--a cardboard box--last Monday at the Phoebe's birthday picnic up Millcreek Canyon with the extended family. Hallee is training Loo in the fine art of tramp jumping. Zeke is an adoring brother for sure. Zeke, Lindy, and Soph hanging out together in the backyard. Yesterday we hiked up to the waterfall in Rocky Mouth Canyon with our friends the Scotts. It's been so stinkin' hot in the valley, that we had no choice but to evacuate to the hills for survival. It's been in the 100s the past few days. Ugh and more ugh!! Hallee and Zeke cooling off. This was such a dreamy place to be during the heat of the day. Fie on 100+ degree weather! Even Lindy got into the water. In fact she did a header and dove right in. Luckily I was right there to rescue her. Catherine with Lindy. Lindy loved the water and especially enjoyed tasting the rocks.

Growing up, the pea patch was always my favorite. I love peas straight from the garden. This year we soaked our peas in an inoculant--nitrogen fixing bacteria--before we planted them and wow! We harvested more than we ever have. Bags and bags and bags. We had planned to go camping in Maple Canyon with some friends just two days after we got home from goat packing, so time was limited for harvesting. I ended up pulling up all off the pea plants the Thursday morning that we planned on leaving, piling them in the shade and setting up a sweat shop to keep the kids occupied while I finished packing (or re-packing I should say) our camping gear. Some of the kids from the neighborhood came over to play and I employed them too. Ha, ha! They had great fun and even made up their own pea harvesting song! Neighbor kid sweat shop payment was a giant bag of peas. Our fridge was entirely full of peas!! Pea pickin' with the neighbors. Once she woke up from her morning nap, Lindy got a...