Wormy Apples

I have a big 

(very big. Too Big.)

apple tree in my yard.

Since we moved here after spring had passed, we didn't do any spraying.

so all of the apples are wormy.

(although I really do like the concept of being pesticide free)

They are falling on the ground and rotting there.

They are filled with little black bugs

(But I think those come after they have fallen and begun to rot)

Carter and I have spent quite a bit of time picking up all of the fruit off of the ground.

But the tree is still very full of fruit.

Such a waste.

When Frank's parents were here, his mom picked an apple

and cut off a piece from the side of the fruit that didn't have any holes

or signs of bugs.

The fruit inside was perfect.

tart and sweet

but not quite ripe yet.

It made me realize that I could potentially have some really delicious apples on that tree!

So today I googled

"using wormy apples"

and sure enough there are lots of frugal, smart people out there who are willing to overlook

a few bugs and worms in their fruit.

I'm toying with the idea of using the good part of the fruit to make applesauce.

I just have to figure out if it's possible for me to overcome

the heebie jeebies that I'm sure to get when I'm cutting open those

wormy wormy apples!

And then how to get my kid to eat it...

Isabelle's first outing

On Monday night we got brave and took Isabelle on her first outing

*without her parents*

Yep, just Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Carter and Isabelle.

We figured she would do ok since it involved food.

She has already learned that Grandma/Grandpa=food

so I imagine she was expecting a treat of some kind!

We went to a local ice cream shop that we noticed driving by

but hadn't tried.

I was hoping to get her a tiny cone that she could work on

but this place was totally different from any place we've ever been.

You choose your flavor(s)

and they use nitrogen to freeze it right there in front of you.

Pretty cool!

and tasty

but not really toddler friendly.

So I ended up getting a small for myself with an extra spoon.

Oh man!  

She loved it so much.

She would happily dip her spoon in over and over

(getting only a minuscule amount on it each time)

and then lick it off.

She started to realize that she wasn't getting as much on her spoon as anyone else

and she decided to use her hands.

Smart cookie.

But I'm smarter...so I gave her a second spoon.

Afterwards we went upstairs and played some arcade games.

She loved watching the lights and screens and pretending to drive.

Someday she'll learn that it's more fun when you actually turn the game ON

but we'll enjoy these simple times while we've got them!

Our first outing was a success!

Rock Hounding

Before Carter and I moved here to Utah,

Frank was here by himself for about a month.

He missed us terribly, of course, but he did use his singleness to go out and do a lot of exploring.

He hiked a lot.

But with the arrival of the furniture and family, real life set in.

Frank has spent most weekends doing house projects

or working in his garden.

So he decided he needed a fun weekend activity last weekend.

He chose it and set it all up.

We went out in to the middle of nowhere 

and went rock hounding!

The middle of nowhere

In other words, we hiked around the Utah dessert and looked at rocks.

Frank's goal was to find some cool petrified rocks,

preferably an animal fossil.

We found lots of petrified wood.

No animal fossils, much to Frank's dismay.

It was a perfect day.

Not too hot (thank heaven)

There was TONS of petrified wood and big tree trunks

 Carter and I were tasked with being on the lookout for an animal fossil

We found this for Frank...but he didn't want it.

Not quite a fossil...

It did make me wonder if I was going to happen across a mountain lion or something scary.

I still don't have my "real" camera.

So lame.

I loved all the flowers and other desert plants that grew between the rocks.

We climbed pretty high.

I was lucky enough to find several animal dens dug into the dirt...

by "found" I mean "fell into"

No one else had this problem.

I'd be walking along a perfectly normal looking area and the dirt would just give way to a hole underneath. 

Carter is higher than he appears here...and was actually standing on a rocky overhang.

 This whole side of the mountain was made of some kind of rock that was super weird.

It would just flake off in your hands.

I'm sure someone with a little knowledge would know right off what it was.

But it was cool.

My attempt to capture the layers of this rock

 We ate lunch 

fed some of the leftovers to the ants nearby

and then headed over to the geode digging site.

Carter got to do his first off road driving.

At the geode site, we were clueless.

How does one know where to dig?

But Frank gave it a valiant effort.

I found a tiny tiny geode

but not by digging.

Someone else had dug it up and left it on the ground...

where I found it!

 We finally gave up.

And headed home.

(when Frank got out of the car later, he discovered he had a pocket FULL of sand! hilarious)

We took a "shortcut" home which consisted of about 70 miles of dirt road.

Not a short shortcut.

A fun, memorable day in Utah.