additional photos for last post

Lizzy in her own tent, and picking cherries

The last 5 weeks

Below are pictures of our family since the 4th of July. I will give the details in more of less or a chronological order. No such promise for the pictures. We went camping twice. We learned that strapping Elizabeth's high chair to a picnic bench works well. On the second trip we learned that Elizabeth does well..or I should say, her parents do best, when she has her own tent. Elizabeth enjoyed reading her own books for about an hour in her tent after waking up: good baby. Near the Dells we went to a deer park where we had a great time feeding and petting dear. We also found canoeing to be quite successful with a small child. Next, you will see that our raspberries and giant black berries became ripe. I made quite a deal of freezer jam, not shown. I got my hair cut and highlighted which you may or may not notice from the picture. We went swimming at a local but very crowded and annoying beach (about 1 life gaurd for every six children). Our cabbage is gettting big. I hope they tastes good. We BBQ'd pork ribs a couple of times in the back yard which we discovered is easier and cheaper than we thought. Another event of note was Elizabeth getting Roseola and then an allergic reaction to amoxacillin (hives shown). Our next camping trip was to Door county. The high light was picking sweet cherries. I will have to upload those pictures from Ben's camera. I made 4 batches of freezer jam and 6.5 quarts of canned, and 2 pints of frozen cherries. Also we picked some for others. I was over whelmed with the cherries until I canned them and that was quick. I wish I got more. We also went to the Door county fair. The best parts were watching an awesome juggler and Lizzy got to pet giant and baby cows. You will also see a picture of Ben and Elizabeth on top of a tower 225 feet above lake level. We were the highest point in many miles. On the way home we stopped at another state park on the beach. Ben had fun burying Elizabeth in sand. Elizabeth's level of fun is questionable. At home I made a large batch of cumber and squash and hot pepper pickles with all the fresh produce shown from our garden. I made 8 quarts of pickles! LAter Also I made several batches of freezer raspberry jam and three batches cooked blackberry jam. And last of all, Monday, after a long bout of frustration with and effort to fix our old car, we bought a new-to-us hatchback.

cliff dive

Trip to Utah

Sophie's Kitchen was much more fun that Liizy's. Chilling at Lake Powel. Lizzy fell asleep while hiking at little Cotton wood canyon, but before that she enjoying seeing a real forest and pretty river.



































































We also spent time in St. George and saw the massive temple there. Incredible how they built it without machines or gasoline! Uncle Bob hosted a fun BBQ in Hurricane, UT.









































































We went to the Hoggle zoo with the Perhsons and enjoyed playing with their cat at home.

































Heather hosted a nice dinner with all of my UT siblings. The three girls had fun eatting together. Sophie likes to make sure Elizabeth is getting enough to eat.













Mary took me to the U2 concert at Rice Eccles statdium which was pretty wild.

















































And don't forget the Ekstrom cousins. Did you know that Elizabeth has 13 cousins in UTAH!. Elizabeth showed Leah how to bang rocks together and enjoyed playing at Emily's house.

My garden

I was surprised to see my flowers had grown quite a bit while I was away in Utah. Mary showed me how to plant flowers in Utah further apart, but now I already have a very full baskets. Also a picture of the vegetable garden. From the left to right: the squash and cumbers are out of view, then my flowering radishes, onions, carrots, lettuce, cabbages, board, tomatoes and weeds, more oinions, and peas. My peppers are still small, so I didn't show them.

Trip to Missouri and such

In March, Ben's parents came for a short trip. these pictures were loaded backwards, so see the very bottom for pictures of Scott and Cheryl. Next is a picture of one day i caught Elizabeth swinging her teddy bear in her swing. Aww. In early April Elizabeth and I drove to Missouri to see my parents and my dad's siblings. I had a nice time getting acquainted with them. We spent the first couple days at my Aunt Elizabeth (Betsy's) house where Elizabeth had a good time walking around the yard with her walker and the dog zippy following after. We visited my Dad's Aunt Stella who just celebrated her 90th birthday and lives alone doing her own shopping, laundry, cooking, and cleaning. We took a picture of Elizabeth 1 and Stella 90. We visited my grandmother and grandfather's graves in Fristat Missouri where my grandma Hamm grew up. Then we visited the farm where Grandma Hamm's parents lived. My dad said that he lived there when he was Elizabeth's age. There were of course other owners there and the house of different, but dad remembered the hills and the trees and the streams where he would go fishing and hunting. Elizabeth and my mother liked the farm cat, that the owner said that no one ever picked up till my mother got there of course. The owners now raise cockers paniels I think they were and herded sheep for fun. Most of the land was used for cows. Later I went fishing once on Table Rock Lake or watched my parents fish, rather, with my dad's cousin Steve. Elizabeth slept most of the time. I think it's the over sized snug life jacket that puts her to sleep because she fell asleep on the paddle boat as well. My cousin Emily was there with her recent husband Matt. We caught up on the last 15 years. Elizabeth watched Sesame street on the I pod during the long drive. For Elizabeth and Ben's birthday, we had a few families over and ate cake. Elizabeth got a cute dress from Grandma Ekstrom for her birthday.