Kansas Vacation Part 1

Here are some of the photos I took while we were away in our hometown.


Adam plays the drums.


So does Josh. He also takes pictures of people taking pictures.


All of our hands lined up. Which hand belongs to which brother?


The family dog, James (Jamie) Brown.


Hi Kathleen.


Hey Khanh.


While Kathleen drove me and Bec and Khanh around we saw a van with this sign on the side of it. Which was really convenient because I was looking for some wireless service and Kathleen was looking for some fragrance products. It really worked out perfectly.


Josh thinned my hair a bit. Afterwards I trimmed his and we both felt refreshed and light headed.


Right before I took this picture (we were at a drive-thru restaurant), a kid rode by on his bike and called out to his friends, "Let's ride around and look for change! I just found a penny!"


When I got home I went to eat a bowl of cereal and was blown away by the super size of this freaking bag! By the way: 'Scooters' are small o's, similar to Cheerios.


My aunt and uncle recently (like a month ago) had this baby, Emma. Bec and I got to spend some time with it. She was amazing and adorable, and pretty quiet for a baby. She pooped in her pants when it was my turn to hold her. She was all red and squirmy, but she never cried, just stuck her tongue out and made faces.






Adam's band played at Borders while we were in town so we went to watch. They were pretty great, and surprisingly loud for a bookstore crowd, which was nice.


Tubbs keeping it steady.



Becca will post more pictures of the trip later.

Gardening

I keep almost posting about my garden but then it grows and I want to get more up-to-date pictures. So I just got back from taking the latest batch of pictures and I'm posting them now before the garden has time to grow again.



Here is the garden near the begining. I guess I don't have a more recent picture of the whole garden but it doesn't look quite so empty anymore.



Here is the baby corn just one week after it was planted and it had just sprouted. It was about as tall as my thumbnail.



Here it is just one week later. My family grew corn in our garden every year I was growing up but somehow I am still shocked at how fast it grows. Here it is almost as tall as my hand.



And here it is today, about two weeks after that last one. It's at least a foot or a foot and a half.



And now to break up the boring string of plant pictures, here is one of Joseph waiting for me to finish taking pictures of the garden so we could go get ice cream.



Here is one of our two sweet potato vines about a week after we transplanted it.



Here it is today. Look how happy it is, even though it lives in New England. Hopefully it's happy under the dirt too.



Here is Amanda Ann lovingly watering the marigold seeds she had just planted.



Here I am admiring the baby marigolds tonight.



So far, after we planted everything we haven't had much work to do so whenever I go over to garden, we drag it out as long as possible and sit around by the garden chatting. One day this pretty butterfly came to visit us and pose for the camera.



And here are some cool flowers growing down a cool stone wall.



Back to the garden. When we set out on this little adventure, we really had no idea what to plant where. We'd both helped our parents with their gardens for years but didn't know what to put next to what but after asking around and doing a little research on the internet we decided to try companion planting. One thing everyone seemed to agree on was that tomotoes and basil like each other. So we planted basil in between our tomatoes. Here they are.



Another thing we decided to try is called Three Sisters. You make a little hill, plant some corn in the middle and then a couple weeks later you plant climbing beans around the corn and a vining plant like squash, cucumbers or melons around the beans. The beans climb the corn and the vines keep pests out and everybody is happier. So here are the bean seeds about to be planted.



Here is a view of the hill from the top. We made three hills, two with crookneck yellow summer squash on them and one with cucumbers. So far the squash is coming up great but only one cucumber plant has come up. I think we are going to have way too much squash.



Here is a really cool flower Amanda Ann has in her house. It looks like it has to be fake. I love it.



Joseph and I both like a song called cherry bomb and have been listening to it a lot recently so it seemed fitting when we were picking out some hot peppers that we buy this one which is called a cherry bomb. We also got a habanero plant. So far the habanero only has a few buds but here is the cherry bomb with three babies. I believe they will turn red when they are ripe. Sorry the picture is blurry.



Last but not least, here are the carrots being adorable and taking their own sweet time to grow.



Here I am dreaming of all the fresh produce I will soon have for free.


In less than a week I get to go home for a little over a week and visit family and friends. I'm giddy with excitement. It's a good time to go home too. I get to celebrate both my Grandfathers' birthdays and meet Joseph's new cousin. I get to celebrate my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Plus, I get to see the newest Harry Potter movie with my 14 year old brother Tim, as that is our tradition and good traditions shouldn't be broken. I might even get to watch him learn to drive a little or at least see his brand new learner's permit. It's going to be a very good week.