After several weeks of peaceful growth in the garden, the deer executed a bold daytime attack! Sometime after I watered this morning, and before I watered this evening, at least one deer tramped through the corn and pumpkins and ate the tops off the tomato plants. AAaaargh!!!!

We had lunch today with Charlie, Casey's wife, and truly one of the nicest people I've ever met. Coral and India love her and wish we saw her more. Leith was his usual impish self, but I could tell he liked her. Although he wouldn't sit with her or let her hug him, he kept getting her attention and telling her stories.
Both my brothers married smart, fun, and generally amazing women. Who knew they had such good taste? JK ;) But, seriously, I am impressed with their wives and I, too, wish we saw them all more.

Coral has had 24 hours to learn how to drive a 'stick' and master the intricacies of Kevin's truck and the local terrain. She will be alone tomorrow with it as her only transportation to Seminary make-up class and work. Kevin was helping her last night and she ended up stuck trying to turn uphill. A police officer stopped to check on them-how embarrassing! Today, with my superior teaching methods, she really came up to speed- so to speak- in skills and confidence. We drove the roads she will drive tomorrow a number of times. She'll be fine - I hope...

Just catching up a little- Here are some cool photos Diana O'Conner took on the 4th of July:

India with our favorite plump baby, Adrian McGill & Niall doing light stick performance art.

Good Things About Draper Days 2008:

Scoring a great spot to watch Coral in the parade without setting out chairs the night before.

Watching the boys collect parade candy- Kevin told them at first to smile and wave at the people on the floats so they would throw candy to them. Niall was reminded of the Madagascar Penguins saying, "Just smile and wave, boys, smile & wave." He and Leith kept saying that to themselves to stay motivated. Pretty soon, Niall's pockets were so full, his pants were slipping down. They scored candy, toys, frisbees, pencils, popsicles, etc.

Seeing a Ford F650 truck. We had never seen a truck that big, not even in Texas.

People watching.

Dog watching- why do people take pets to large gatherings?

Finding a fabulous jewelry vendor. It was hard to ditch Kevin and the boys in order to shop in peace, but I managed. They went off to enjoy the inflatable slides and bungee activities.

Visiting the Reptile Rescue tent. These guys are weird, but cool. They are the 'go to crowd' when police find inappropriate pets, often ill or hurt, and they house and care for them properly. The huge African tortoise with a damaged shell eats $80 of produce a week-we made a small donation. I didn't asked what the enormous python eats.

Listening to Peter Noone and the Herman's Hermits live in concert.

Watching fireworks.

But, I think the highlight of the weekend for me was watching Kevin enjoy Lee Greenwood singing his most famous patriotic song for perhaps the last time this year. He only heard it about 20 times on the 4th of July, which just wasn't enough. It warmed my heart to see him enjoy it one more time.

This is the first year since we moved here that we have really clued on to this event. India wasn't interested, and we didn't take the kids to the concerts, but next year I hope we can all go and enjoy more of the festivities together- all we need to add is a dog.

I hitched a ride to Idaho Falls with Kevin- who was traveling on business- so I could visit Grandpa Allred. We stopped in Chubbuck to pick up Aunt Karen, visited briefly with Aunts Nyla and Janice, along with Sherri, and then spent the afternoon at Grandpa's nursing home. I hooked my camera up to his television and showed him photos of the kids at the beach. He seemed to enjoy the pics, but kept worrying that the beach looked dangerous for children. I thought it ironic that the dangers my children face are not rocks and waves. The isolation of the beach and separation we feel there from the pressures of life make us feel quite safe- it is a respite from worry.

Grandpa seems to be weakening and losing some mobility. Although he knew me, he wasn't entirely clear on time and chronology. He talked about missing Grandma, and asked if I had known her. He asked how long she had been gone and said he couldn't believe it had only been 2+ years. He said it felt like at least 15 years. That just broke my heart.

It was good to see him. I caught up on family news from Karen and really enjoyed visiting with her. We had just heard of the safe rescue of a lost Boy Scout on our drive and I was stunned when Karen told us that my cousin Trevar had had that experience as a young teen. I had never heard the story before, and I was amazed.

Kevin has virtually no extended family, which seems bizarre to me. I have always enjoyed mine and wished I were closer to them.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

-Ferris Bueller

This is how I feel about life these days. It seems that all we do is rush from one thing to the next without time to savour our experiences. Perhaps I need a 'day off'- a la Ferris Bueller.

I had some reward points to use and gave Kevin a gift card to Ruth's Chris Steak House for Valentine's Day this year. He finally got around to using it over the weekend. I was concerned that I might not be the most enthusiastic dining partner at such an establishment and had assured him that he was welcome to take one of his carnivorous buddies instead of me. He wanted me to go, but while we were there, he began to talk about Shawn- thinking that he might be jealous and wondering if he had told him where we were going to eat. I told Kevin to make sure Shawn knew that he could have invited him, but that he picked me instead:)
As far as the eating of wildly expensive meat went- Kevin really liked it, but the texture made me wonder if it is so tender because it is partially digested already. Kevin finished mine. The chocolate dessert with berries was fabulous, though.

We saw the trailer for this movie recently and were struck by how much the lead Chihuahua looks like Miguel. Does anyone know if Miguel has been moonlighting at Disney? Are my parents really the 'stage parents' of this pampered pooch? Miguel, I thought you were more dignified than this.

Check out the trailer at http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/beverlyhillschihuahua/

Well, I survived YW Camp! The camp is just outside of Park City in Tollgate Canyon. We went on a bit of a joy ride on a Rhino ATV and found this beautiful meadow filled with wild flowers.

Before I left for camp, Leith gave me one of his stuffed dragons and a special pillow. When I returned, his only question for me was whether I had used the stuff he sent with me. Sweet guy. The boys hung out with Kevin and went to the zoo with Denna.
Mysteriously, the garden made significant progress while I was gone. It is sad that I may be the biggest problem with the plants' growth.

Coral won tickets on the radio and saw Good Charlotte and Boys Like Girls Saturday night. She was pretty happy and is sporting concert-wear around the house.

Summer fun!













We are still working in the evenings to landscape the back yard. Last week we removed the gross bark around the play set and replaced it with 5 yards of nice rocks- and when I say "we", I mean that Kevin moved the rock. Leith was not happy using a bucket to help and insisted on a few turns with the wheel barrow. He is a little worker bee. He shoveled two small loads of rock into it, wheeled them from the driveway to the backyard, and dumped them. Niall made many, many trips with a bucket before becoming exhausted from the heat. Way to go guys!

The girls and I are off to YW Camp in the morning. This is not my favorite activity. I am hoping to survive and move on to something I enjoy more next week.

I ended up in charge of a presentation we are doing based on Pres. Monson's New Era article on David and Goliath. Here is Kevin in the inevitable Goliath costume. I made the sword and shield- we borrowed the rest. It is made to be more effective with a beefier guy inside to balance out the platform sandals.

Niall was a bit put out when he saw that I had constructed and painted his favorite snow saucer into the shield. Oops.

Perhaps the time away will give the deer a chance to just finish off the garden, so I won't have to deal with it anymore this summer. They have nibbled down my tomatoes again and eaten ALL the cherries the day before the boys were going to pick them. I am afraid we will soon be in full defensive mode-spending inordinate amounts of time and money to try to inefficiently grow and protect our meager crops. I'm thinking of putting on my gardening clogs and spending time 'harvesting' veg from the amazing Harmon's produce department. Or perhaps we should plant some zucchini higher up the rock wall as a decoy to satisfy the deer before they come down into the yard. Or maybe it's time to erect a 'game' fence- tall enough that they can't jump it, for anyone not from TX.