Final AeroGarden report, more flowers and spring is here!

The final verdict- AeroGarden works! It was exactly 15 weeks 2 days before we started picking our first ripe tomatoes. I'm so excited that this project worked out and I can't wait to start growing herbs once my tomatoes are done (and eaten).


Here is my first "harvest", pretty exciting!


And I made a yummy lemon shrimp salad out of it! The family will attest, it disappeared before anyone could say "tomato".

On Friday we spent one of the first warm days this year out in the backyard. It was so nice to warm our frozen bones in the sun.


Alex introduced his BFF Ava to his jumper and they had a blast.

But then she decided to play baseball instead.

Alex has discovered his Mickey Mouse hat from 2 years ago and he hasn't parted with it for the last 2 days :))

I absolutely love spring flowers. Look at these beautiful crocuses. I think there is absolutely no excuse for not growing spring bulbs. They're the "plant and forget" variety. You plant them once and you will never have to think about them again (except when you look at them in full bloom and admire their beauty). They will multiply so much every year that it's amazing to see the results of your "un"labor when they flower every spring.


Zarochka, this is for you! Look at my beautiful orange Hibiscus flowers that started flowering this week. Now I can definitely tell that spring is in the air!

Deer Valley celebrity encounter

On Saturday we went skiing (once again, I know) with our friends the Hendersons. We scored some amazingly cheap tickets to Deer Valley (thanks to Carine and Randall) and decided to take the last chance to ski this season. It was an amazing day despite the winds in the first part of it and slushy snow towards the end. What made this day out of ordinary is that we've come across Dr. Rey, his wife Hayley and their kids!!! Anybody who watches Dr. 90210 knows exactly who Dr. Rey is.

This was so cool! I've noticed that almost every time we go to Deer Valley we see a celebrity. Wow! We actually had to chase them around before we've built up the courage to ask them for a picture. We first saw Hayley out the window while we were having lunch in the Silver Lake Lodge and we ran outside to ask her for a picture. She disappeared into the store and we stood outside for good 15 min before actually realizing she came out of a different exit. Then Randall saw her in another store and to our surprise Dr. Rey was there too! Poor Dave stayed behind in the lodge watching our stuff while Carine and I, like a couple of 15 year-olds, were running from store to store trying to take a picture with celebrities and Randall was our cameramen. It was worth it though. They happened to be very nice people and even had a conversation with us.
The rest of the day went smoothly on the slopes. The winds calmed down and the view of beautiful Deer Valley down below was breathtaking.


What a fun day!

Alex likes to have fun!

My AeroGarden experience

For Christmas I received AeroGarden from Dave. If you know me at all, this was the best gift I could possibly get (well, actually I can think of a couple more...). So I planted tomatoes, dill and cilantro on the 25th of December and 1 week later this is what I had. Tomatoes (and dill) actually sprouted!

3 weeks old. They're growing fast! Who knew? Cilantro didn't ever grow...

Seedlings are 4 weeks old. I planted some dill with the tomatoes although I wasn't supposed to. I figured we'll eat it before tomatoes choke it out because they're going to get big it seems.


About 7 weeks old, tomatoes are flowering. Seems like so far this "garden" is working.

This is 8 weeks from the planting date. Tomatoes are really starting to show up and flowering like crazy.

Apparently, it works! This is my tomatoes 12 weeks after planting. So now I'm just waiting for them to ripen. If anyone doubts the validity of this expensive toy, look at my results! I think anyone who is capable of adding water to a container can grow these. No green thumb required!

Alex's first skiing experience. Believe it!

On a beautiful sunny holiday Monday we all went skiing at Solitude. Well, Babushka didn't exactly ski but sat on the warm, sunny patio enjoying the great weather and watching Alex during times when he didn't want to ski and the parents went off to have a great day on the slopes. Actually, I have to go back an hour and explain how this trip happened. Dave and I planned on going skiing on that day for a while. So when the day came, we got up early, got ready and loaded the car. Suddenly, Alex started crying and saying that he wanted to go skiing too! Well, we didn't exactly plan on that! Being the good parents that we are, we felt bad and decided to take him with us. Along came Babushka to help us watch Alex in case he hated skiing. Fortunately, we rented Alex's skis very fast at the Lift House rental shop at the base of the Big Cottonwood canyon (by the way, great place for rentals AND winter gear. They have literally EVERYTHING you can think of). And off we went expecting a great day on the slopes, considering it was a bright sunny day, around 30 degrees F. Let's just hope that Sandy Cheeks does well while we're gone!

Alex was very excited to get on top of the mountain and start skiing.


But his skiing was off to a rough start... He actually told us he didn't like skiing and wanted to go sit with Babushka at the lodge.

So Dave and I had to go for a couple of hours just by ourselves to do some real skiing!!! Check it out!


After lunch papa bought Alex some very cool goggles so Alex of course wanted to give skiing another try.

Another try on the slopes...



It took some time for Alex to figure out how to stay balanced on his two feet.

By the end of the day Alex actually got pretty good at going down the mountain... by himself! Believe it or not- it only took 1 day to teach a 3-year-old how to fly down the mountain. Why is everything so much easier for little kids?


The end of the last run- time to go home. Sandy is waiting for us all alone.

Tired and happy we waited by the lodge while Dave was getting the car (if anyone has skied on a perfect holiday day in Utah, you'd know how FAR you have to park if you don't get there by 0830am...).


I have to mention, if there are skiers out there reading this blog... You HAVE to come and experience the best snow on earth in Utah. Don't believe me? Come out and try! I guarantee you won't find lightest, driest powder anywhere! I'm a believer in skiing in Utah (and it comes from somebody that is NOT a local :))!
When we came home the doggie left us a surprise... a big mess she created out of boredom. Mo-o-om! The dog made a mess! O well, she is after all just a puppy and I'm sure she did her best...

Ice skating outing

Last thursday we decided to go free skiing at Alta again, so we got together with our friends, got all dressed up, skis and all and headed up to the Little Cottonwood canyon. It promised to be a great evening on the slopes and we were in a cheerful mood. As soon as we got to the canyon we realized that something was wrong... There were police cars everywhere blocking the entrance to the canyon. Well, we found out that there was an avalanche in the canyon and they were working on cleaning it up and making sure that no more avalanches happen. After waiting for good 20 min we learned that the canyon wasn't going to be open any time soon and, disappointed, we headed back home. The only relief was that at least we didn't get stuck on the mountain unable to come back home or even worse, stuck in the avalanche. So I guess in a way we were lucky.
Being creative and adventurous people that we are we decided to go ice skating at the Gallivan center instead. And so we did!



Our friends the Hendricksons came with us.

I had to help Alex quite a bit at first. He seems to enjoy skating (wonder where he gets that from).

When Alex got a little more comfortable he actually "skated" on his own! He mostly walked on ice but it was an improvement from last year when he just hung off of me while I dragged him around the ice. Well, I need to mention that he fell on his bum and didn't want to skate after that.

The kids got tired quickly so they stood on the side just looking and learning from the parents.

The evening ended with us relaxing in the hot tub at the Henderson's house (nakonets-to). When we finally came home that evening I've never slept better. This evening might have convinced Dave that we also need a hot tub :)))

The beginning of 2008

I just realized that this is my first post this year and it's already the end of January! Wow school really does take a toll on me, I don't even notice how fast time goes by. Nevertheless we have actually been having a lot of fun lately. We have been partying with our friends The Hendersons and The Amoros's almost every weekend. It just happens to be that one of us thinks of something fun to do and we all drop everything and dive right in.
This last Friday we all went skiing for free at Alta. It was out first time on the slopes this season. I had a great time but Dave really did suffer. Poor thing, he broke in his new boots and they almost killed his feet. Apparently he got the wrong size (after exchanging them once he still somehow ended up with the wrong size). If only he would listen to the Woman and actually try things on a little bit more thorough while still at the store... It's ok though because he already went back and exchanged the boots once again under my supervision so this time he got the right kind :)) Now he can't wait to hit the slopes again and try out his newest purchase. And if all goes according to plan, he'll get to do it in less than 2 weeks.
Alex also wanted to go skiing with us and when we left the house he was crying. We felt so bad so next time we'll have to take him with us. He even wanted us to get him ski boots when we were shopping for Dave. He calls them "skiding boots".

Here are some of our Friday pictures:



Ok, now I can't hold back and not share with everybody my "off season" gardening experience. This thing is called AeroGarden and you can grow herbs, tomatoes, even flowers in it. It is all organic so there are no harsh chemicals involved (yeah, this is what's it's all about). I am growing cherry tomatoes (red and yellow), dill and basil. If there was more room I'd grow more!

Believe it or not but these tomato plants grew this big from seeds in only 5 weeks! I'm excited to see them actually produce little tomatoes. I'll keep you posted.