1st day of school, hiking and salsa.

 Eric started 3rd grade this year and Aubrey started 1st grade!  They were so excited to go back to school and see all of their friends.  Eric was able to get one of his best friends in his class.

 Eric has Mrs. Jackson.  She has MS and has explained to the kids how they all need to be very patient with her. 

 Aubrey has 2 teachers this year.  She has Mr. Kingsford in the morning and Mrs. Larsen in the afternoon.  Mr. Kingsford used to be the Art teacher for the school, but they cut the funding for the extra programs.  He is such a good teacher though, so the school was able to have him teach 1st grade for the morning and art to the rest of the school in the afternoon.  When we met him at back to school night he had this HUGE beard.  Aubrey goes up to him and says, "Why do you have a beard?"  Apparently he is also an actor and is currently filming the latest Church film of the New Testament and he is suppose to look Jewish.  Every morning he claps his hands together and says, "Today is going to be a great day!"  Aubrey adores him.

 2 weekends ago I went up with Dad and Diane to cheer Amy on in the Jordanelle Triathlon.  On our way back we got to reminiscing about the last time we hiked to the top of Mt. Timp.  So I planned for last Friday for everyone to get together to hike it.  Unfortunately, for me, I either tore or pulled my calve muscles on Wednesday morning.  I couldn't walk.  I was crawling around on the floor and Jennifer kept on wanting to go on horsey rides.  There was no way I could hike to the top of Timp, let alone go up or down our stairs.  So I sent Zac off on his way with my Dad, Diane, Heidi and Amy.

 The first thing Zac says when he gets home is, "They had to take a picture of every stinkin waterfall!"  He only had one with a waterfall.

 They made it to the saddle.  So pretty.  That is Utah lake in the background.

 I am grateful that he got a couple of good pictures.  The majority of his pictures were of GOATS.  This is why I should never send Zac with the camera.

 

Zac and Amy at the top of Mt. Timp

 Zac wanted to be the tallest person in Utah - for a second.

 Since I am home for a month, I have been wanting to harvest my garden.  I started on Saturday by making salsa.  There is something so satisfying growing all of your vegetables.  My peppers have done amazing this year!  We have SO MANY more!  My bell peppers are huge!

 My 1st batch of salsa.

 

I know this doesn't look very appetizing.  Believe me though, it tastes like regular salsa.  Zac planted several "lemon boy" variety of tomatoes.  I have more yellow tomatoes than the red.  So I made a 1/2 batch of them to see how they would turn out.  I don't know if I can get over the color though.  

Every time I make a batch of salsa I always have 1-2 jars burst in the water bath.  It is so frustrating!  So much salsa gets wasted.  I pour the hot salsa in hot jars then put them in the boiling water bath.  I fill them up to just under the neck of the bottle.  Does anyone know why I have some bursting???? 

We went to Stephanie's house for dinner on Saturday night.  It was so much fun.  The kids loved the pool.  I honestly don't remember the last time I went swimming.  Lily loved splashing around in the pool.  We put her in a floaty and she would lean WAY over to dip her hair in the pool.  So cute!  Jennifer wanted us to hold her the entire time, but she had fun.  She keeps on asking me when we can go swimming again.  Aubrey was so mad when we got her out of the pool. It was so nice to have a private pool.  No weird strangers coming in while you were there.  Thanks again Steph for a great night!