Angel's 50th birthday bowl.......

For my sister Angel's 50th birthday my brother Charles' wife Debbie planned a bowling party.  We had it the Saturday after Angel's birthday at Orchard Lanes in Bountiful.  To start out our adventure I drove to Jamie's and then we went together from her house.  We weren't sure how to get there so I punched it in to my phone's GPS.  Well the 'girlfriend' took us to the wrong place.  We had to call for directions from Debbie, but we finally made it.

A friend of mine made the comment, "Nothin' says fashion like a snazzy pair of bowling shoes", thanks Becky.  That being said this place had the wildest bowling shoes I have ever seen.  Here is a picture of Cambria and me showing off our matching shoes.....

Leslie and Paul..

The bowling alley gave us a bowling pin for everyone to sign to give to Angel..

Jax..

Braxton ready to bowl...(love his face)

Trev enjoying his pizza...

Paul helping Gunner, Gunner would pick up the heaviest ball on the rack to use..

Leslie taking her turn..

Miss Cambria...

Angel giving some pointers to her friends son....

Charles helping Trevon....

Angel's friend Roxanne....

Jax, he had this shuffle that he would do going up to the line, it was great....

Charles and his wife Debbie (and baby) who planned it all.....

Roxanne and her husband..

Some of Angel's friend..

I love how everyone manages to look everywhere but at the camera except Debbie that looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

Les, Angel, Debbie and Jamie..

Cambria 'patiently' waiting for her next turn.  By the last game Gunner and Braxton had quit playing and Cambria was very happy because she would take their turns too..

More of Angel's friends...

This is Master Davis and his wife. He is Angel's Sensei...

Roxanne's family..

This is a picture of how the bowling ally spelled mine (Junati) and Jax's (Jay) names.  The kids started calling me grandma Junati (ju-na-tee).  It sounded like an anime name...

Cambria and Braxton......

Jamie sporting Jax's hat....

Me... (check out Leslie's neon shoes...)

This was my favorite moment of the afternoon.  Charles was taking his turn and was going to go over the line so to avoid that from happening this is how he ended up.....at least he didn't foal :)

Mmmmmm, birthday cakes.....

Everyone singing to the birthday girl..

Blowing out the candles...

Me and my sister..

  I was beat by pretty much all of my grandchildren, who all loved to rub it in.  It was a very fun afternoon.  Thanks Debbie for making it happen

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

So my first vegetable garden went from looking like this......

to THIS..... 

I have 5 tomato plants, 1 zucchini, 1 summer squash, 1 spaghetti squash, 2 cucumbers, 3 green peppers, 1 jalapeno, 5 red potato mounds, a small strawberry patch and 8 raspberry starts of which only 3 survived, and 2 rows of green beans.

here is a picture of the first harvest I made from it.... 

Since that first pickings I have continually been reaping the benefits of growing my own veggies.  It is true what they say, NOTHING tastes better than vegetable picked right from the garden. It has been fun watching everything grow and going out daily to see what veggies are ready to pick. There is something very satisfying in eating what you have grown yourself.

Besides the new adventures in gardening I have now for the first time in my life tried my hand at putting up veggies to eat later.  My first attempt was Dilly Beans.  My friend LeAnn had me try hers and they were so yummy.  I love dill and I had a ton (well maybe not a ton, but still a lot) of green beans so I thought why not try it?  LeAnn came over and coached me through my first try at canning.  It was fun having her there and it wasn't hard at all. 

Here is the finished product, 12 jars of dilly beans...... 

Every jar sealed, now the wait.  For the best tasting beans you need to let them age so the flavors soak in.  So around Thanksgiving I should be able to taste my work.  I can't wait.

My tomato plants have so many tomatoes on them that the plants have bent the tomato cages so badly that I can't get them to stand up.  I have already given tomatoes to my niece Heather and Dave from my carpool. I have broken off two branches trying to move the plants around to harvest the ripe tomatoes they are so heavy with fruit. I now have a bowl of green tomatoes because I didn't want to throw them out.  I will have to find a recipe that calls for green tomatoes so I can use them.

I'm sure my next try at preserving vegetables will be with tomatoes.  I'm thinking salsa and my own tomato sauce.....we'll see.