August 2011

The summer always goes by way too quickly, but I think we do pack in quite a bit!

I don't have a great picture of the fun time we had with our great friends, but we thoroughly enjoyed their visit.  Since they live in Missouri, we were lucky this summer to be able to visit them in their home and then later have them visit us in our home. 

Jared missed out on their visit because he was at Scout Camp.  However, he had a great time there and was able to earn several merit badges. 

I taught a neighborhood class on how to can meat and believe it or not people actually came!  I'm thankful to Todd's parents for teaching me how wonderful canned meat is in our food storage and in many, many meals.  Information from that class is on my new Developing Self-Reliance blog.

Before the summer ended, the kids and I made a trip to South Dakota.  Todd stayed home because of a little thing called a job--but we sure are grateful for that job!  The kids all loved every minute of our stay.  Mom and I had a good time too while visiting as we went through all the storage boxes in the basement.  I also had a treat seeing my good friend, Marci, who I hadn't seen for about ten years.

Ethan and Joshua love all the big tractors . . .

 

 

and trucks.

 

 

Joshua loved all the space to ride a bike.  Thanks Rachel for letting him use yours!

 

Jared loved driving.  He gave a lot of rides on the Rhino . . .

mowed. . .

 

and best of all, drove the tractor pulling the grain cart.

(He also got to drive the semi-truck, but I don't have a picture of that.)

Driving the grain cart became Jared's job once his cousin began sports practices and school. 

Jared's job was to drive alongside the combines when they got full so they could unload the wheat into the grain cart while continuing to harvest wheat.  I took this picture from within the cab when riding with Jared.

Jared would then unload the grain cart into a truck that would take the wheat to the grain bins.

Ethan and Joshua were excited to get a ride in the combine with Grandpa.  Amanda, Megan, Rebecca and I also took our turn riding in the big combines.

Unfortunately while we there, a horrible hail storm hit.  It devastated thousands of acres of sunflowers.

This isn't actually the "before" picture of the same field, but you get the idea of the severe destruction.

While we were there, it was the county fair.  Seth, Sam, Rachel and Weston all showed 4-H calves.  Here Weston's calf is being auctioned.

Grandma has the best Play-Doh and cookie cutters . .

and dolls with furniture.

She especially has the best dress-up!

Grandma received a present of various artwork drawn by the kids.

Rachel and Grandma made cookie dough and then waited for Amanda and Megan to visit for baking.

Ethan spent most of his time collecting bugs, nests, antlers, and rocks.  Check out the size of that grasshopper!

The kids had a fun time with a sprinkler on the inner tubes from tractor tires.

Everyone loved playing with their cousin's new puppy.

Joshua got stung three times on his face when he and his cousin broke down in the winrower next to some beehives.  Fortunately, he still has no trepidation towards the honeybees in our backyard.

Ethan loves sports and took his mitt so he could practice baseball.  He is now on a competitive baseball team, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of Ethan and baseball.

We got home from South Dakota in time to enjoy the weekend with Todd before starting school.

 

Jared is in 8th grade and leaves earlier than the others.

Ethan (3rd grade), Amanda (6th grade), Joshua (1st grade) and Megan (6th grade) all ready for the new school year to start. 

We got tickets from US Synthetic to go to a Bees baseball game (minor league baseball).  It was a fun evening and the end to a fun month!

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July 2011

Since Father's Day hit while we were on our trip in Missouri for the family reunion, we surprised Todd one day after work with our own celebration for him.

We went to our newest nephew's blessing.  Cutie!

The kids have spent countless hours this summer in our little backyard pool. 

I always take the token garden picture when the plants are not a jungle yet and it is freshly weeded. 

I know I shared pictures of Megan and Amanda's creative play with their dolls in May's post, but I thought this was also cute.  For well over a year, half of their closet has been turned into a doll house.  This shows the bedroom and kitchen.

Todd's rabbit plan totally backfired on him.  Now instead of having a provident living meat source, we have two new pets--leashes and all!  Meet Bob and Fred! 

Along with the rabbit pets, the kids enjoyed a few of our chickens as pets.  The White Silkies are bantam (small) chickens that have feathers that look and feel more like fur.  They are also very friendly and content to sit on your lap while being pet.  Unfortunately, we got rid of the Silkies when we got rid of a few other hens because the chickens were being noisy during the mid-morning.  Mid-morning is when most of our chickens lay their eggs and some of them were squawking when they couldn't have the nest they wanted even though other nests were empty.  We found a nice farm for the noisy chickens.  We also found a new home for the Silkies so there would be fewer hens laying eggs at the same time.  Even though the Silkies were fun to have, it was hard justifying the additional birds when their eggs are so small.  (Remember the picture from June's post?) 

 

Jared and his cousin, Nathan, flew to Michigan and spent almost two weeks with Grandma and Grandpa along with their new cousin Gabe.  The three boys had a wonderful time together and were spoiled with vacation-type activities almost every day.  What great memories!

Our big event was a camping trip for a few days in July.  We went up Payson Canyon and had the best time! 

Pretty much the whole time, the kids were all entertained with wood in some way or another.  They went on several expeditions to find dead trees for firewood and then took turns cutting the dead trees into firewood.  (Thankfully we came home with all their fingers, but at times I wondered.)

They carved their names.  (Notice also Jared's braces that I forgot to mention he got in June.)

They used sticks to draw pictures in the dirt.

They played in the trees.

 

Jared brought his remote-controlled truck and had fun with it on the rough terrain.

 

Megan did an impromptu puppet show for Joshua and Rebecca through the tent window.

 

Of course, we went fishing.

We also went on an easy hike to The Grotto.  Ethan stood under the waterfall.  He was the only one brave (or crazy) enough to stand under the melted snow water.

This was Rebecca's first real camping trip and she was so happy to be outside all day. 

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