The Honey Harvest

For those of you that don't know, Barry is now a beekeeper. He got his first colony of honey bees last year, and he is absolutely enamored with the whole endeavor. Through trial and error, and hours of reading about the ins and outs of honey bees, he learned a lot last year, and expanded to two colonies this year. We harvested the honey the end of August. I've given him a pretty hard time about the "bee experiement" but I must admit that harvesting the honey turned out to be really interesting. For about an hour, that is. Then it got pretty boring, and really sticky. For those of you not familiar with honey harvesting (and I'm assuming that's all of you) here is how it works. We bought a honey extractor, into which you put three frames of honey. You then turn a crank and it spins the frames around fast enough to pull out all of the honey. The honey accumulates in the drum and slowly drips through the spout at the bottom. Barry double strained it, then poured it into quart jars. It was really pretty golden honey, much lighter than last year. From what I've gathered, the color and taste of the honey is dependent on the types of plants the bees pollinate, so it varies from year to year, even in the same location. We got about eighteen quarts of honey, so that is one item we can check off our food storage list!

The next progression in this set of shots is missing, since I had to drop the camera and go de-honey Landon. He put the frame of honey on his head. Maybe a buzz cut wouldn't be such a bad idea--lately he sticks everything in his hair--jam, pizza, you name it.

Look out preschool, here he comes!

Josh started preschool this year, and he loves it! He is surprisingly serious about it. He is an absolute perfectionist on his homework, and counts down the days until preschool days. I love it when I get to drive the preschool carpool, he and his buddies are so fun to listen to! He's getting really grown up, and I, of course, have a love/hate response to that. But I'm so proud of him. He is really excited because tomorrow is his "VIP" day and I get to go to class with him.

A Very Long Day

Did you know you could cram a lot of fun into one day?? Well, you can. Especially if you start around 4:30 am. BEWARE: Long day= lots of pictures.

First, my sisters and I ran the top of Utah half marathon. It was a lot of fun. But guess what? It was also very scary because you know what? I did not have thirteen MORE miles in me. Nope, no way. I am really doubting my ability to finish the full marathon in a couple of weeks. Since Kate and Karlee were already in Cache Valley, we had planned to go over to Bear Lake after the race. So, we went to Grandma Johnson's in Logan and took a quick shower before heading over the mountain.
Savannah is still in that 'strike a pose' phase. She is going to look back on these years and be soo grateful! I'm just glad that at least one child will allow her picture to be taken.

See, in every photo of Landon he's got this dazed and confused look. That's because we have to sneak up on him. If he has any inkling that we're taking his picture, he'll studiously ignore us.

And Josh, well Josh will do anything if the price is right. He hates his picture taken, but he loves, loves, loves rewards. And hey, I'm not above bribery.

Sand. Yum, yum. It must taste similar to garden dirt and sandbox sand at home, two more of Landon's favorites. He was actually the discriminating eater of the toddlers on the trip, though. Annie definitely took home the prize for the sand-eating contest.
Just one more of Savannah--like I said, she's just so easy to photograph right now! We had a great time at the beach, building sand castles and riding jet skis. And then, since no trip to Bear Lake is complete until you've been to La Beau's, we stopped for a burger and fries on the way back to Logan. And then, since we were so close, we went to one of my all-time favorite places, Tony Grove.

There's our cover girl again.

And no, the kids hadn't gotten enough of the water back at the Lake, they decided to take a dip in Tony Grove Lake as well. And really, is Bear Lake any warmer than a glacial lake??

Grandma and Grandpa had the privilege of riding home in the Myers' van since Jake and Karlee both had other plans. (can you imagine anything better than this??) The kids are always thrilled for company, especially when the company plays games and brings treats.

So after starting out at 4:30 am, we finally got home around 8:30. After herding exhausted children into bed, unloading all of our gear plus half the sand at Bear Lake, Barry and I collapsed on the couch. He then tried to cajole me into finding a sitter and going out to dinner. Umm-no. Way too much effort!