I love sunflowers! It was incredible to watch these beauties grow! They reached 10-12 feet tall!! Several times, we cut them to make flower bouquets for our table. 
I really enjoyed going out and cutting them, even though they were so tall that I could barely reach them--believe it or not!
Jason with his grandparents - they are holding two cucumbers we brought from our garden.
He's growing like a little weed--and lots of fun to play with and watch. He's so smart, and so observant. I was really amazed about how much a 1 1/2 year-old knows, understands, and is able to do. Heather has him helping her with chores like unloading the dish washer, laundry, putting away toys, fetching his shoes to go outside, and more--and he loves to "help Mommy". Justin and Brady have father-son time out in the yard a lot --throwing rocks, and picking up sticks, etc. He even has his own "pond" on the back patio--a kiddie pool where he loves to toss rocks. 
A couple evenings were spent hanging out with Jason's friend, Danny and his wife Anna. We had a great time playing video games (guitars, drums, singing, etc. for this one game). And, just catching up on their lives was great--we hadn't see them since their wedding last year --7/7/07.
Lately, we have been hearing a variety of frogs singing--which is really interesting, beautiful, and sometimes comical. On our most recent trip, we were surprised to see wild lilies dotting the embankment. It was quite unusual, a really nice treat. There were also hundreds of blackberry bushes...but none were ripe yet. We saw jumping fish--the ones that seem to part fly and part swim down the bayou.
Crape Myrtle trees are very beautiful when they are blooming! I love the bright, deep pink of the two in our front flower bed. The light pink of the bigger tree is nice too, although Jason doesn't like the color very much. It is a really light pink, so they almost look white. Plus, it's gotten so big that it's difficult to trim. If Crape Myrtle's are not trimmed they get kind of shaggy, and don't produce thick blooms.
As gorgeous as the Crape Myrtles looked in our front yard recently, they really are a bit of a nuisance to have. They are constantly trying to sprout more trees. I found some shoots popping up in the yard the other day, and they were at least 4-5 feet away from the main tree. They also have shoots that will come up right at the base of the tree, and eventually all of these will grow into big trees if they are not trimmed regularly. I have heard Crape Myrtles are nearly impossible to get rid of too. We haven't tried getting rid of our three, but we surely have been careful to keep the constantly growing shoots and sprouts trimmed, so they don't get to be mature and over run the place!
because their root systems (besides being fertile as mentioned above) infiltrate the soil--using almost every spare piece of dirt. So, when I want to plant some ground cover or some cute little flowers in the front flower beds, the roots usually choke out whatever I plant. They also make it difficult to dig in the soil to even plant anything additional. Plus, we have these pretty ferns in the front flower bed that have the weirdest roots. The roots look like they have little balls on them. Anytime I dig in that flower bed, I usually unearth a few of these roots--hasn't harmed the plant either (whew!). So, when I dug one up one time, I poked at the ball on the roots and it had liquid in it. So, this must be the way it keeps itself from getting too dry--conservationist! Cool! --Kind of like a camel conserving extra water in its hump(s). 
