I love the Olympics…
Actually, my entire family loves to watch them. We eagerly await the opening ceremony and then spend the next 2 weeks glued to our television sets, rooting for our favorite athletes.
Now, you may think that since we like the Olympics so much, that we must all be athletes ourselves.
While a few of us are quite athletic – most of us aren’t so much (including me).
But, that didn’t stop us from preparing for the ‘Smith Family Summer Olympic Games’.
Family Olympic Games
Our athletic event was to be held at Double S Farms, where my mom and sister (and her family) live.
My mother, who organizes this entire event, assigned to teams a few weeks ago and my sisters and I had fun making the t-shirts for our teams.
As we arrived for the big day, in our ‘nifty’ new Olympic t-shirts – it was time for face painting by my sister, Jennifer.
My nephew, opted for an American flag on his nose…
Now, it was time for the team pictures.
Team Great Britain
Team USA
(Channeling the 70’s)
Team China
(Four members of our extended family are adopted from China).
And…
Team France
To keep everyone ‘honest’, we had two Olympic judges (my daughter and my mom) and three ‘Official Observers’ (my granddaughter Lily and twin nephews Danny & Dean).
Now, it was time for the Olympic events!
Our first event was the ‘Mustache-Straw’ relay.
The photo below explains it all…
If you dropped the straw, you had to stop and put it back up, run to the end and then run back to your team. (I was terrible at this game).
Our next event was what my daughter referred to as the ‘SpongeBob’ relay. The goal was to take a yellow sponge full of water and run to an empty container and squeeze out the water.
The first team that filled up their container with water, won.
My mother, one of the judges, kept an eye on everyone, making sure we were following the rules.
My sister, Grace, had great form…
The third event was the ‘Water Balloon Shot-Put’.
My mom explained the rules. Whoever threw their water balloon furthest, won.
To make it fair – she broke up the competition into two parts; one for the kids and the other, for the adults.
My brother-in-law, gave his son, pointers on how to throw the balloon.
At this point, we heard thunder and saw storm clouds gathering fast. We only had a little while left before the monsoon storm hit.
I had so much fun taking pictures of this event because I was able to capture everyone’s great ‘form’ 😉
My sister, Grace, had a great throw.
My sister-in-law, Marisue, did great while my brother looked on.
My brother-in-law, Jason, decided to go with ‘granny-style’.
Now, it was the kid’s turn and we had to hurry, because it was beginning to rain and lightening wasn’t far off.
I love how my son, Kai, puts his all into his effort.
Next, it was my nephew, Oliver’s, turn.
(Can you see the Gatorade on his t-shirt 😉
We just barely finished the event and then it started to pour down rain. Thankfully, our last few events were indoors.
Now, it was time for Shooting.
My daughter, Rachele, was up first.
Then it was Gracie’s turn.
My brother gave my sister pointers on shooting.
Then it was my turn – I hit one of the targets.
Finally, it was my husband’s turn….
My husband is the expert shooter in the family.
But, I beat him! To be fair though, I taught me how to shoot years ago 😉
Our last event was Diving.
We had to throw a sponge ball into a container of water.
All too soon, the events were over and the scores tallied.
Now it was time to eat!
We had Cornish ‘pasties’ for dinner and English trifle for dessert – delicious!
Then it was time for our medal ceremony.
My mom had created our Olympic medals from ribbon and large metal washers from the hardware store.
We had to sing the national anthem from each country.
It was a fabulous day and I can hardly wait for the Smith Family Winter Olympic Games in 2 years!
**How about you? Do you find yourself glued to the television, watching the Olympics?
Have you ever had an Olympic party?
The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat
Landscape No-No’s
Landscape No-NoDo you ever wonder if you are doing things right in your landscape?
If a plant or tree doesn’t look too well, do you wonder if it is something you are doing wrong?
When I am called to do a landscape consultation, my client usually has a primary concern. But, part of my job is to also look at the landscape as a whole and point out other problems – hopefully before they affect the plant negatively.
So, I decided to start posting photos of problems I have spotted during consults in hopes that I can help you too.
Below, are two pictures of a very common landscape mistake that I see constantly. Usually the homeowner/client has no idea that they are doing anything wrong.
Can you tell what is wrong?
It isn’t always super obvious…
I’d love to hear what you think is wrong – just send me a comment, below.
I’ll post about this ‘landscape no-no’ and what problems it causes and how to correct it in my next post 🙂
Family Olympic Games
az plant lady familyI love the Olympics…
Actually, my entire family loves to watch them. We eagerly await the opening ceremony and then spend the next 2 weeks glued to our television sets, rooting for our favorite athletes.
Now, you may think that since we like the Olympics so much, that we must all be athletes ourselves.
While a few of us are quite athletic – most of us aren’t so much (including me).
But, that didn’t stop us from preparing for the ‘Smith Family Summer Olympic Games’.
Family Olympic Games
Our athletic event was to be held at Double S Farms, where my mom and sister (and her family) live.
My mother, who organizes this entire event, assigned to teams a few weeks ago and my sisters and I had fun making the t-shirts for our teams.
As we arrived for the big day, in our ‘nifty’ new Olympic t-shirts – it was time for face painting by my sister, Jennifer.
My nephew, opted for an American flag on his nose…
Now, it was time for the team pictures.
Team Great Britain
Team USA
(Channeling the 70’s)
Team China
(Four members of our extended family are adopted from China).
And…
Team France
To keep everyone ‘honest’, we had two Olympic judges (my daughter and my mom) and three ‘Official Observers’ (my granddaughter Lily and twin nephews Danny & Dean).
Now, it was time for the Olympic events!
Our first event was the ‘Mustache-Straw’ relay.
The photo below explains it all…
If you dropped the straw, you had to stop and put it back up, run to the end and then run back to your team. (I was terrible at this game).
Our next event was what my daughter referred to as the ‘SpongeBob’ relay. The goal was to take a yellow sponge full of water and run to an empty container and squeeze out the water.
The first team that filled up their container with water, won.
My mother, one of the judges, kept an eye on everyone, making sure we were following the rules.
My sister, Grace, had great form…
The third event was the ‘Water Balloon Shot-Put’.
My mom explained the rules. Whoever threw their water balloon furthest, won.
To make it fair – she broke up the competition into two parts; one for the kids and the other, for the adults.
My brother-in-law, gave his son, pointers on how to throw the balloon.
At this point, we heard thunder and saw storm clouds gathering fast. We only had a little while left before the monsoon storm hit.
I had so much fun taking pictures of this event because I was able to capture everyone’s great ‘form’ 😉
My sister, Grace, had a great throw.
My sister-in-law, Marisue, did great while my brother looked on.
My brother-in-law, Jason, decided to go with ‘granny-style’.
Now, it was the kid’s turn and we had to hurry, because it was beginning to rain and lightening wasn’t far off.
I love how my son, Kai, puts his all into his effort.
Next, it was my nephew, Oliver’s, turn.
(Can you see the Gatorade on his t-shirt 😉
We just barely finished the event and then it started to pour down rain. Thankfully, our last few events were indoors.
Now, it was time for Shooting.
My daughter, Rachele, was up first.
Then it was Gracie’s turn.
My brother gave my sister pointers on shooting.
Then it was my turn – I hit one of the targets.
Finally, it was my husband’s turn….
My husband is the expert shooter in the family.
But, I beat him! To be fair though, I taught me how to shoot years ago 😉
Our last event was Diving.
We had to throw a sponge ball into a container of water.
All too soon, the events were over and the scores tallied.
Now it was time to eat!
We had Cornish ‘pasties’ for dinner and English trifle for dessert – delicious!
Then it was time for our medal ceremony.
My mom had created our Olympic medals from ribbon and large metal washers from the hardware store.
We had to sing the national anthem from each country.
It was a fabulous day and I can hardly wait for the Smith Family Winter Olympic Games in 2 years!
**How about you? Do you find yourself glued to the television, watching the Olympics?
Have you ever had an Olympic party?
The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat
Guess What Came In the Mail?
AZ Plant LadyI have been waiting, rather impatiently I might add, for a certain item in the mail – a magazine with my published article!
And, I am happy to say that it arrived a couple of days ago….
Here it is!
Although, I have written articles for magazines before – but this is the first one that I wrote for a national magazine.
Last year, I was asked by the editor of Birds & Blooms magazine to write two articles for their magazine this year. (I do write twice a week for their blog).
This is the first article, which is about ‘companion gardening’.
I practice ‘companion gardening’ in my own garden and have written smaller articles about it, including posts on this blog.
But, I did do some additional research for this article and was pleasantly surprised to find out more combinations and practices that use combining certain plants together that benefit each other.
I wrote this article from a hotel room back in March, while we were temporarily evacuated from our house when it flooded.
The next article is due out next month and is about ‘drought-tolerant’ gardening.
**Birds & Blooms is a Reader’s Digest publication. I have found it at my local Kroger’s grocery store as well at Barnes & Noble.
Of course, you can always subscribe to it. It has lots of great gardening ideas and DIY projects.
**If you would like to order an individual issue, you can get one here 🙂
Get Away…
ArizonaWhen you get the opportunity to ‘get away’ for a few days – do you take it?
You would assume that most of us would reply with a resounding “YES!”
Well, unfortunately there are sometimes that you have to say “No”.
Every year, my husband heads up to Northern Arizona for a conference. And each time, he invites me to go with him.
Now, it isn’t that I didn’t want to go – but life has a habit of getting in the way of “getting away from it all”.
But not this year! I was determined to go. So last week, we headed up to Payson, which is a small mountain town just 1 1/2 hours away.
Northern Arizona
While my husband was busy at his conference – I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the scenery around me…
Most of my photo-taking opportunities occurred at sunset.
I love how the sun makes the clouds look rosy, don’t you?
Besides the beautiful skies, I enjoyed the cooler temperatures.
We spent two nights and days. It really was a wonderful time and a welcome ‘getaway’ from the daily stresses of life.
As we drove down the mountain towards home, I was refreshed and ready for the week to come.
Life is now officially crazy again because the kids have begun school. (Our school district has 8 week summers and extended fall and spring breaks).
You know what? Every year it seems that I have to buy more school supplies then the year before.
**I finally came to that realization on Monday after I had made three separate trips to Walmart and then one to Staples.
I hope you are all enjoying your summer and have had the opportunity to get away 🙂
Route 66 and Blue Corn
A New Addition to the ‘Family’
Double S FarmsSome of you may remember my “Goodbye to a Special Friend” post back in May, when we all said “goodbye” to my father’s dog, Addy.
She had lived a long life and was happy living on Double S Farms, where my mom, sister and her family live.
Now, there is a new resident living at Double S Farms….
Meet ‘Johnny’.
You might notice that he is missing a leg, but as you can see…that doesn’t slow him down 🙂
My sister has written a wonderful blog post about her new friend that you can read here:
“My New Friend”
A Unique Place to Stay and a Mystery
AZ Plant LadyMany of you have visited Williams, AZ along with us as I share the adventures of our annual vacations spent up there.
Besides being located along the historic Route 66 and being the gateway to the Grand Canyon – we also enjoy the cool weather, spending time with family and fishing.
Each year, we are fortunate to stay in cabins that are owned by my sister-in-law’s family. They are very generous and we are so thankful to have places to stay each year.
Typically, each family stays in an individual cabin. In the past, we have stayed in the ‘grandmother’s cabin and also in the ‘main’ cabin.
along the historic Route 66
However, this year, we were excited that we were to stay in what my youngest daughter, Gracie, calls the “Dead Animal Cabin”.
This cabin is owned by my sister-in-law’s cousin.
And, he is a hunter, who has decorated his cabin with some of his ‘trophies’…
There are a total of three large heads of elk mounted on the walls…
This one was so large, that he had to remove the blades from the ceiling fan to fit the head.
Now, we don’t hunt and so the culture of hunting is somewhat foreign to us.
But, the kids love the seeing all of the animals hanging off the wall.
In addition to the elk, there are also other animals as well…
Now for the ‘mystery’…
When we arrived in the cabin, it was a bit dirty. My sister-in-law, Marisue, who had arrived earlier did some cleaning and found the first clue of our ‘mystery’:
An empty condom wrapper
I promise it wasn’t used for what you think….this a ‘family appropriate’ blog after all 😉
We found the second clue to the mystery on the dining room table. It was a list.
Take a closer look at the third item on the list, which is the second clue to the mystery…
Box for testicles
Yes, it does say that.
I couldn’t imagine what these two clues pointed too. At first, we didn’t even know that they were connected and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to.
So, my sister-in-law, Marisue, called her cousin and got the entire story.
1. Hunter friends of her cousin had recently killed a Desert Bighorn Sheep while hunting.
Photo by: Andrew Barnes
2. So they contacted him so that he could collect the testicles.
3. He then put the testicles into a condom (remember the empty condom wrapper?)
4. Then he packed the testicles on ice in the box for testicles and drove them to the airport where they were shipped to a sheep farmer up in Montana.
Why? Well, farmers use the semen in the testicles to artificially inseminate their female sheep.
So, that is the story behind the empty condom wrapper and the list including a ‘box for testicles’.
I couldn’t have made this story up, even if I had wanted too.
An Icy “First” For Me…
Quirky and Iconic Discoveries Along Route 66
az plant lady familyHave you ever traveled through a part of Route 66?
Route 66 through Springfield, Illinois
For me, I love the pure sense of ‘Americana’ that seems to pervade this historic route that travels through Illinois all the way to California.
Every summer, my family and I spend a week up in Williams, Arizona. For those of you unfamiliar with this small town – it is the ‘Gateway to the Grand Canyon’ and is home to the ‘Grand Canyon Railway’, which brings people up to the Grand Canyon itself.
Williams, Arizona
Many tourists visit this little town on their way to the Grand Canyon. As you walk down the main street, you hear many different languages.
Williams, Arizona
Williams is up in the mountains and is approximately 3 hours north of Phoenix and a half-hour west of Flagstaff.
As you enter the town and cross the railroad tracks, you are greeted by the sight of the Red Garter and its ‘loose’ woman waving from the top window, above.
Both sides of the main street, which straddles Route 66 is contains a mixture of stores, restaurants and local businesses.
Each year, in preparation for our trip – my kids save up their allowance to spend in some of their favorite stores.
One of our first stops was at a new store called Alien Jerky. To be honest, I had no idea what was in store for us when we went through the door…
We met some resident aliens while we shopped their selection of specialty nuts, jerky, old-fashioned soda and candy…
Soda like ‘Sioux City’ Root Beer, ‘Brain Wash’ Carbonated Soda, ‘Death Valley’ Black Cherry were awfully tempting to try.
But, my daughter, Gracie, decided to buy some candy from their unique selection, which included Sonic, Pac-man, Hello Kitty and Betty Boop.
Gracie chose the Sonic candy.
On our way out of the store, we said goodbye to one of the aliens…
As you walk down the street, you expect to see examples of cool neon signs…
I would love to spend only $3.50 for a hotel room, wouldn’t you? Too bad I am over 50 years too late.
What you don’t always expect is another aspect of what makes traveling along Route 66 fun.
Here is a sampling of what we ran into…
Did you know that Elvis can be spotted on the main street?
You can also find an Indian with a headdress made out of feather-shaped lollipops.
One of the more popular restaurants is Cruisers Cafe.
They also have a pretty cool mural painted along the patio wall.
The kids met up with one of their favorite characters…
Gracie used to be terrified of him because he talks, moves and even ‘farts’. But now that she is older, she could handle standing next to him for me to take a picture 😉
There are of course, antiques that pop up now and then like the old gas pumps, above.
This old gas station has been turned into a museum that harkens back to the past of Route 66.
Of course, one of the fun things that we enjoy doing is eating on Route 66. So, we headed down to our favorite restaurant…
My son, Kai, was in charge of pushing Lily in her stroller (Lily is our granddaughter and Kai is her uncle).
On our way, we passed a hotel with a map of the entire Route 66. Someday, I would like to travel this route. So far, I have been to parts in Illinois, Missouri, Arizona and California.
On our way to the restaurant, we passed a few more shops, likes this one with the ‘largest Route 66 sign’. We were so hungry, that we didn’t go in.
This was where my husband spent his ‘allowance’ – on pie 😉
We actually came here a few times during the week. Besides pie, they have fabulous food – I loved their chili.
Lily ate some of my cornbread and a tiny bit of my chocolate cream pie.
Lily was determined to make sure she ate all the food that fell into her bib.
As we finish out tour of the Williams portion of Route 66, we see a couple parked in a old Buick…
You can’t see the couple that well in the photo, but he had a hairstyle that looked a lot like Elvis’s hair…
Thank you for taking the time to look through my Route 66 photos.
We had a great time and I have one more part of our trip that I can’t wait to share with you…
Believe me, you won’t believe the ‘story’ I have to tell you in my next post.
Route 66 and Blue Corn
AZ Plant LadyWe recently returned from our vacation in Northern Arizona.
It was a great week and as always, we spent some time along the historic Route 66.
Along the main road, I saw half-barrel planters with corn planted in them.
As I looked more closely at the corn, I discovered that it was blue corn that was growing.
Blue corn, or ‘Hopi’ corn has been grown in the Southwest for over 500 years.
It is used for making blue cornmeal, blue tortillas and chips.
I was also surprised to find that it also has a higher percentage of protein and iron then the more traditional yellow sweet corn.
I think that blue corn is rather pretty, don’t you?
To learn more about blue corn, check out this link.
I love the fun and interesting sights along the iconic Route 66. You can view some of the fun and quirky things we saw along Route 66 here.
Wet Weather and Two Races…
az plant lady familyOne of the things that I love about living in the Southwest, is the monsoon season that arrives every summer.
Sporadic, often violent storms come and dump a lot of rain in a short amount of time.
To deal with the large amount of water, you will see catchment basins in neighborhoods and also around businesses. These catchment basins help to keep areas from flooding.
monsoon season
In our neighborhood, we have a few catchment basins and when they fill up, it is time for fun…
My husband, our two youngest kids and our dogs came out to play in the water.
The dogs jumped right in….so did the kids.
Our two little dogs, Tobey and Max had to swim because the water was so deep.
I was surprised that they liked it as much as they did.
Gracie and Kai decided to race across the water.
Gracie won, but then I think that Kai fell on purpose because he wanted to get wet all the way. It’s funny how that seems to happen to Kai a lot.
Tobey took a break from the fun and watched Kai challenge Max to a race…
Max won….because Kai fell in the water again 😉
We had fun playing in the water, but soon it was time for the fun to end.
Kai needed a little help getting home….
From Blue Sky to Dust…
Family Vacation Getaway…
az plant lady familyDo you have a special place that you spend your vacation every year?
Our family is very blessed to have a special place to visit every summer.
Now, when I say ‘family’ – I mean my mother, sisters, brother and their families as well. It really helps that we all really like each other and get along.
Our special place is in Williams, AZ and is approximately 3 hours away and is up in the mountains.
My sister-in-law’s family owns a few cabins up there and they always make them available to all of us.
We look forward to this trip all year long.
Cousins play together during the day.
We go fishing…. a lot!
We play games.
We visit local attractions, such as the Deer Farm.
The Grand Canyon is close by too.
Our first year that we visited, we all came up along with my parents.
They treated us all to a trip on the Grand Canyon Railway for a train ride up to the Grand Canyon…
We were visited by some train robbers on the way though…Kai looks petrified doesn’t he?
Thankfully, the sheriff showed up and arrested them. He stopped to pose with Gracie too 😉
My parents had a great time too – although as soon as we arrived at the Grand Canyon – they ditched us kids and spent the day alone 😉
The next year, we decided not to go to our special place. The reason for this is that we had a huge family trip planned in my grandmother’s memory to Europe.
We were all very excited to go. But sadly, just 3 weeks before we were to go, my dad died suddenly. So, we cancelled our Europe vacation and decided to go to back to our special place to rest, grieve and have a little fun if possible…
Despite our grief, we did have fun. There was the treasure hunt (courtesy of my mom).
We followed our map to the treasure…
We found the treasure – $1 gold coins for everyone!
We spent time in town, which is on Route 66 and has some fun, quirky stores and ‘people’.
We saw some ‘loose women’ in town. Not really, just my sisters, sister-in-law and me 😉
We like to take lots of pictures on vacation since we are all together.
But this time, we could feel my dad’s absence.
We did all wear our matching track jackets that we had made for our Europe trip.*Even though it looks like there are quite a few people in our family – we have added 5 people since then.
The next year we visited, the kids had fun sailing boats that my husband had made for them.
My son, Kai, was so proud of his boat with his homemade sail.
Kai had just had surgery a few weeks before our trip, but it didn’t keep him from bowling and fishing.
In fact, his favorite superhero came up to see him…
‘Super-Duper’ made a surprise visit and challenged Kai’s cousins to a race. Kai in his wheelchair and his cousins had a go-kart.
Kai and ‘Super-Duper’ won.
In case you are wondering….’Super-Duper’ is actually Kai’s uncle, who is a children’s pastor who just happens to play many characters for the kids at his church.
*Believe it or not, Kai didn’t know Super-Duper’s secret identity when this happened 😉
The next year, Kai was back up on his feet and ready for fishing.
We had great luck fishing that day.
Every year, we also visit Twister’s for hamburgers, hot dogs and great ice-cream sundaes. Then we visit the nightly shootout with the cowboys downtown – strictly for the tourists, of course.
Each family takes turns making dinner for everyone and we get to taste each others delicious cooking. Then, in the evening, we walk from our cabins down to the road to see the deer and elk come down for the night.
The kids all pose for our annual family photos.
Sometimes, they get a bit silly.
This year, we will do much of the same including more fishing…
AND there is a new family member to come along…
It’s hard to believe that just a year ago she wasn’t even here yet.
**Thank you for letting me share some of our vacation photos from past years. I’m sure I will have more from this year to show you all – of course, you might have gotten your fill of seeing my vacation photos by now 😉
**Do you have a special place that you visit? Where do you go and what do you do?