While we were there we toured Arlington Cemetary, The Capitol, The Library of Congress, The Natural History Museum, The Air and Space Museum, The National Botanical Gardens, The American History Museum, The American Indian Museum, and walked around The White House. It was a much needed vacation for me and it was also nice to have a bit of time to reconnect with Kyle before being thrown back into work and team parenthood again.
Having our family back together for Christmas was truly the best gift of all. The girls' only words for a few days were "daddydaddydaddydaddydaddy" and they didn't even have to steal the laptop and beg me to open it to be able to see him.
We had a very quiet and relaxing New Years which was a pleasant change from the busy party ones we are used to. Kyle and I lit a few fireworks for the girls and then put them to bed and built a fire in the desert behind our house. We sat around it and talked for a long time, burned our regrets (well I did, he didn't have any), looked at the stars, sipped hot cocoa, and then did a little bit of ice-blocking down the grassy hill in our backyard.
2012 brings a lot to look forward to. My youngest brother is starting Marine Corps bootcamp tomorrow and will finish and be able to come home for one week in April before a four-year-or-more tour somewhere else. I started back into school at DSC with a Plant Taxonomy class and lab. I'm going to be working on the last half of my Bachelors which will still take me several more years with the rate I'll be taking classes. It seems that the girls are getting bored more easily now that they are getting older. Since we chose not to make TV part of our daily life (don't get me wrong, I still switch on their signing video every now and then when I must get something done), I have to actually find things for them to do.
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| So we paint |
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| A lot. Like every couple of days. |
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| We take nature walks when its not too cold and find pretty rocks and pinecones. |
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| We play with random things like old, outdated wheat flour and spoons |
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| We go on hikes and find Geocaches |
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| We go to the store and look at flowers |
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| And smell them |
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| We go to the fishing pond and touch fish - ick! |
Kyle is still in Young Mens and goes on activities with them frequently. At home he's been working on getting a new garden spot tilled and amended so it will be ready for me to plant come springtime. This is the very ugly before-shot. The wall on the left side of the garden is the old wall and will need to come down this spring since we built another wall about 20 feet in front of it to enlage our backyard. We'll also be terracing it so that it doesn't slope and building raised beds. Big plans? Always. Might take 10 years but I'll be as patient as possible.
On a side note, I've been doing lots of research on using biosolids, which is treated human waste and is one of the standard ingredients in the compost that many landfills (including our own Washington County Landfill) sell. Biosolid compost is rich stuff and its cheap. Kyle can fill up his whole truck bed for $13.00. The problem is (and this is very debatable), I don't believe that its compleeeetely safe for growing food in. Even though they treat it and heat it to a super-high temperature, there are viruses that can still survive and reactivate up to a year after being treated. Not likely, but possible. Also, biosolids contain very high levels of heavy metals and PCB's, which plants can uptake and store in their fruits (the part we eat). Here are some of the solid research studies I've found on Biosolids and I'll add more as I find more, just for my own future
reference.
http://thewatchers.us/myths/Myth-2-compost.pdf
So we're looking for another source of soil amendment that is comparable in price. Bagged cow manure is still way too expensive for the amount we'd need to improve the caliche clay we're on. Western Rock has a yard out near the landfill and they sell composted horse and cow manure that is pretty cheap BUT they mix it in with a lot of topsoil and sticks. So you're not really getting the most for your money. Still a better option though. Ok enough blathering about poop.
Kyle has also got a chicken coop and a compost tumbler on the honey-do list. We'll be siting the chicken coop in the too-shady part of the old garden where nothing grew. On the sunny half I'm not sure whether I'll be planting vegetables or flowers.
The downstairs half of the house has been repainted but it still needs some updates. I've started running and have decided to run the St. George Marathon this next fall. As far as summer plans go, we've decided to skip the beach this year and camp somewhere different; Bear Lake in July. But of course we will also be camping at LeBaron Reservoir too. I could not survive a summer without it. Literally. That place is in my blood. We will backpack PineValley in June. Possibly a new route from Forsyth TH to Browns Point TH but maybe Whipple TH to Mill Canyon TH because it was so darn beautiful the last time we did that one.
I also have a list of twelve new outdoor places I want to trail run, hike, or bike this year, and those are kind of solitary adventures. The girls will be turning TWO in February and I want to get a non-formal preschool curriculum set up for them starting soon afterward. Those are the main goals for 2012. I feel like my plate is full but I want to do more because there is so much to do! You ever feel that way? I am so thankful. Life is good to us.
