Searcy Gardeners

The kids love to pick their gardens, but I have a hard time getting them to eat the fresh vegetables. Good thing Mike & I love them. Kids have helped with grape juice and spaghetti sauce. Reminds me of sorting and cutting all that fruit when we were kids.

Hey, Betsy. If Nathalee can't get on the blog, can you take some pictures of the kids and post them?

A Taste of Home

Sadie and I went up to the mountains this weekend. We wandered around by Lake Alexander on Grand Mesa. Sadie had a blast - so many new smells! As for me, I almost cried I was so glad to be back in the mountains, by a lake. Mountains with rocks and trees and flowers, not dirt and cactus. Man, I hate cactus.



Sadie ran all over smelling stuff. We didn't stay long because it started to rain. Good thing,
because apparantly she wore herself out. She slept all the way home.



It's like having a kid.
(I know, I'm a total dork, but I love my dog. What can I say?)


I took a bunch of pictures - here's a taste of Colorado for those of you who might be missing it as much as I was.










Dad - I tried to take a picture so you could see for 50 miles, but none of them really turned out. Sorry, I guess you'll have to come home and see it for yourself!

The Big 3-0!

Happy Birthday, Sara!

Sorry about rubbing it in. I couldn't help it.

New England and Canada Adventure - Part I

Ok, here is the long overdue report on our vacation. We did a lot of driving. First we went north through NYC and all the bad traffic, even on a Saturday. We stopped in New Haven, Connecticut for some pizza at a Pepe's, a famous east coast spot that's been around forever. Everyone we encountered in Connecticut was extremely friendly. The next day we attended church at a really interesting and culturally diverse ward in western Mass., which surprised us considering it was not exactly a booming metropolis. After church we continued north and visited Joseph Smith's birthplace in Sharon, VT. It is a pretty site and very peaceful. The most intriguing thing was a family tree they had posted. This one man, Henry Howland, who came over on the Mayflower had three sons. His posterity through his sons includes Winston Churchill, Joseph Smith, Emma Hale, FDR, the Bushes, Nixon, and Gerald Ford! Talk about good genes. He was probably just some guy that considered himself average. If anyone is interested, I can email you the family chart.

We spent the next couple of nights camping outside of Stowe, Vt. It was so refreshing to see some mountains. They aren't as spectacular as Colorado mountains, but they are mountains. We went on a great hike to the top of Mt. Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont. Up until then we thought all east coast hikes were pretty lame, but this hike was challenging and had a great rewarding view at the top. It was a total stair master routine all the way up, but with really high steps. At the top it was cold and had been foggy most of the morning, but it was fairly clear when we got there. We could see across Lake Champlain into New York and north into Canada. Supposedly on a clear day you can see New Hampshire also.

Mount Mansfield, Vermont. Lake Champlain is in the background.

Of course we couldn't go to Vermont without visiting my good friends Ben and Jerry, so we rewarded ourselves for our good hike by visiting their original factory. The tour isn't much, but they rewarded us with free ice cream at the end. Everyone has got to try their new Cinnabon flavor. It's amazing.

Our first weekday of vacation was filled up with a great hike, lunch, a nap, ice cream, miniature golf (I won a free round with an impossible hole in one) and a movie. It's amazing how much playing you can do when you don't have to work! Next up was Quebec, then Maine, but this blog will have to be done in multiple installments.

Sara's Vacation

Sara? When are you going to put up stuff about your cool vacation? I want to see!!

Photography

Okay, everyone. I would like to take this opportunity to brag about my amazingly talented friend Jessie. She's an amateur photographer, and she recently took some shots at a farmers market that are incredible! Here's a link to her photography blog. Go take a look - and be prepared to be impressed.

A Thousand Words

(I came up with that title. Clever, huh?)

Happy Birthday Betsy

Have a very happy birthday Be-bop.

Puppies, Puppies Everywhere!

I had the most interesting experience on Saturday. I've had this sinus infection that totally kicked my butt, so Saturday was the first day I'd been out of bed for a while. I went to Walmart to replenish my food supplies, and as I was walking in, I passed some people with a puppy in a cardboard box.

I love puppies. I mean, I love puppies. I've been wanting a dog for ages, but I've never been able to justify the expense. But I love them! So of course, I stopped to see and pet the puppy in the box. And I swear, this sweet little thing just looked up at me and said, "Take me home with you."

I melted. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a cute face. So now I am the proud puppy-mother of Sadie, a boxer mix/whatever (her mom is a boxer mix, but they don't know what her dad was. I'm thinking lab, maybe?). She's adorable and sweet, pretty shy and kind of a coward; I'm in love.

I'm not the only one around Delta Animal Health that has fallen prey to big brown puppy eyes lately. Lee Cook recently got a puppy himself. His name is Buddy, and he follows Lee everywhere. Lee pretends to think he's a pain in the rear, but it's obvious Cook adores his new dog.

Buddy and Sadie seem to get along pretty well; meaning they bite at each other all the time. Jodie (Dale's dog) is suspicious of them both and generally stays out of the way. Poor guy, he's just not a fan of all these young 'uns. If Dale tries to leave him at home, he'll walk 10 miles from her house down to the store.

Lee also got a new truck, which he promptly got stuck in the mud while hauling hay.

Delta Animal Health is just overrun with puppies! No one seems to mind, though. For a dog lover, it's just about the best place to work. Plus, we get food and vaccines for cheap.

Angela riding Chauncey

Dad said I had to . . .

Dad asked me why there weren't any pictures of me on the blog, and I said, "Because I'm boring. I don't have any cute little kids. I didn't make a cool quilt." And he told me I had to put up a picture. So here's a picture of me at my friend Jessie's wedding. She's one of the coolest people I know.



Coming soon, and another request by Dad . . . Lee Cook and his new puppy. As soon as I unpack and find my camera.

P-Day for Hardworking Missionaries

A Florida storm is brewing and the breeze is refreshing, so off to a good food place for oysters.