Summer Vacation!!

We are not going out of town on some sort of vacation.  I just mean that Oma is in town...has been  in town...for three weeks, and will be here until the end of July.  Yahoo!!  This means that this mama feels like she has time to...

stop and smell the flowers.  Keeping these two safe, healthy, and reasonably happy in addition to making sure our household doesn't fall apart, is a FULL time job that keeps me in overdrive most days from dawn till bed.  Oma is amazing though.  She knows our routines in and out, does most of the dishes, picks up and puts away things faster than even this mom can get to them.  She makes dinner many nights, does extra projects around the house that we would NEVER get to, but LOVE to have done, and somehow manages to help with Ruby and Owen on top of all that.  So, as a result, I get to downshift, take things a little slower, kinda like summer vacation used to be.

As per the usual, food dominates our lives.  Owen can not get enough of watching, participating, and, of course, sampling any cooking that goes on.  I love this picture because you can see Owen making the "more" sign.  He obviously loves Oma's refried noodles...we all do.

...And her salad.  I have a few beggars for children.  This is Owen sitting up on the chair next to Oma to get some bites of her salad. I guess I am glad it is salad.  Lately he loves raw red onions and tomatoes (with dressing of course).  Ruby and Owen will hover whenever you are eating anything and say, "bites, bites".  It is one of their more clear words.  I guess it has a function.  One of their other clear words (for Ruby it is spoken and for Owen in sign) is, "please"....which is great accept that it is so cute that none of us are able to say "no" when they use it.  I think they have caught on to this and they use it to their advantage for sure. We are in trouble.

We joined a CSA this summer- Copper Moose Farm.  It is AWESOME.  One of my best friends runs the farm, which makes it even better for us.  Ru and OT love going to see "Farmer Daisy" every Thursday to get our food.  They say her name all the way there and talk about her on the way home.  The highlight is getting to walk around with the chickens and the rooster in their big run and having them eat grass out of their hands.  Owen squeals in delight.  Ruby acts like she has been feeding chickens her whole life.

Pac Choi lettuce wraps- a yummy dish we would never have thought to make without the motivation of the CSA food behind us.

Daisy really grows some beautiful radishes.

Owen would not eat his avocado one night.  Ruby decided to give it a try herself...and she was successful.  He ate at least a half a dozen bites from her.  She really is his keeper.  She says his name probably 500 times a day.  "Owie".  She wants to make sure he has his shoes, that he saw the bird outside, that he knows how cool this toy is, that there are snacks being served in the kitchen...and it goes on and on.  "Owie, owie, owie".

Our neighbor was putting in some stone stairs that required the use of a digger.  Owen was smitten.  We visited it every day for about two weeks.  And, he happens to have one that looks just like it, so that is convenient.

There are so many hilarious things that go on here throughout the weeks.  I want to record them all.  I am not sure they will be just as funny later, but I can't help myself.  So, this is Oma and Owen looking for flies, or "birdies" as he calls them.  Any bug, is a "birdie".  Anything with feathers, is a "duck".  Both Ruby and Owen have adopted these two generalizations.  Anyway, Owen  is OBSESSED with checking out the flies and bees (sometimes living, but mostly dead) in our window sills.

Oma was cleaning windows...one of those extra jobs I was mentioning...and it became the coolest activity of the day.  Ru and OT took their cleaning supplies and proceeded to "clean", not only the windows, but EVERYTHING in the house.  

Oma and daddy took Ruby and Owen to check out the train in Heber.  Good times.

Hola, from the zoo.  The new polar bear is hyper and really fun to watch.

A family hike.  We are gettin ready...!!!