I canned jam!!!

Last year I made peach raspberry freezer jam for the first time ever and it was fantastic!  This year I decided to try my hand at canning some apricot jam.  One of the sisters that I visit teach in the ward has 4 apricot trees that are very much laden down with apricots.  She invited us to pick some so we did. :)  I have never canned anything so I must admit, I was a little nervous, but 2 of my 3 batches worked out well. :)  The first batch gave me some learning experience and I'm sure we'll find a way to use the first batch....I can't quite call it jam....but at least the jars sealed properly.

Take a look, don't they look great? :)

This is the 3rd and final batch. :)

I can already hear the lids pop as they seal!

This is one of the jars from the ill-fated 1st batch....I'm thinking we'll either try putting it in the blender or using it in a pie or cobbler, or ... something ... :)

A wonderful fun day

Yesterday Dan took the day off work and we had an awesome family day. :) We started the day by going up to Hogle Zoo.  After a near miss with a stopped semi on the freeway, we arrived at the zoo as the rain continued to fall.  I was actually kind of happy with the rain because it kept the temperatures nice and cool. :)  This was the first trip to the Hogle Zoo for both James and Dan.  James didn't seem to interested at first, but when he could actually see the animals we were looking at, he watched intently. :)  Below are a few pictures:

Momma elephant and her baby...at least I think that one's her mom...

Who doesn't want to see (and smell) an elephant poop?

I love this baby boy!

We got to watch an elephant show. :)  This is the baby elephant's Mom.

James had a lot of fun watching the Sea Lion. I think this particular Sea Lion is blind.

:) James decided that he'd been in enough pictures for the day.

After the zoo, we went to Costco to buy our first new car battery for the Rav because it was as dead as a doornail.  Dan got to help my Dad install it in the Rav later that night.  That was a first for him, he'd never installed a car battery before.  Now the Rav works again!  This is wonderful, anyone who has been in or driven Dan's Honda will understand how wonderful this is. :)

After Costco, we took James to see the movie Brave at the SCERA theater.  For those of you in Utah County, matinee's at the SCERA are awesome, they are cheaper than any of the big theaters and they didn't say anything about my diaper bag full of snacks for James. :)  Also, James was free because he is under age 2 and it wasn't crowded at all so we didn't worry too much about him disturbing other people.  James had never been to a movie theater before, I don't think he's ever watched an entire movie before.  He was antsy and pretty restless before the movie started.  However, once they turned on the movie, he was completely fascinated.  He watched most of the movie before the novelty began to wear off, and even then he did pretty good.  The only time he got a little loud was when he was trying to feed his half eaten fruit snack to Dan.  James thought it was hilarious and giggled as he tried to feed his Dad. :)

By the end of the day, James was exhausted.  We made a late night run to Smith's and James fell asleep in the car, slept in Dan's arms in the grocery store, stayed asleep while Dan put him back in his car seat, slept while I changed his diaper and put pajama's on, and then didn't wake up until around 8am this morning. :)