Pictures of our Life

 If you are a blogger have you noticed how when things are quiet on your blog it is because life itself is far from quiet. That is the truth of our life lately. I have been wanting to blog but just haven't found the time. So this post is a little catch up one of some of the fun happenings in our life lately.

The picture above is one of Aaron playing the Ukulele and whistling. One night after church he was carrying his instrument and the bucket (with milk from my parents) out to the van and sat down a bit to rest and his aunts suggested he play for them and then they and others put some change in his case. He thought that was great fun.

The day that the kids got home from camp Ken's brother Daniel and his wife Julie came to visit us. They were moving from the West coast to the East coast and we were blessed to be a stop on their way. In honor of their visit we didn't work on the property the Sunday afternoon that they were here and instead Megan, Julie and I had naps and visited "Art in the Park" (where local vendors sold all sorts of art) while the rest went canoeing and swimming out at our property.

 Sunday evening Daniel and the kids and I had a fun little jam session.

 After many cool days this summer we had one that got us nice and hot. We were wanting to work over at the property that day so we decided to add in a little swimming too. That sure was nice for cooling us down. The neighbors that own a lot next door (that they are trying to sell) said that we were welcome to use the dock so we have enjoyed that for jumping off of.

 Through the Summer reading program at the library the kids were able to get free pizzas. We took them to eat on a picnic when we went to look for blueberries near our new property.

 We did find some blueberries and lots of ticks!

 Later that week my friend Christy and her 3 youngest (all boys) came up to visit us. We went blueberry picking for a little while in our tried and true spot. It was good picking and not so many ticks.

 They came out to the land with us and we made a push to get a lot more done. Here some of the boys had fun riding down the lane in the wagon.

 They went swimming and got cold so Megan and two of Christy's boys were all curled up and sunning themselves on the dock.They looked like the sea lions in San Fransisco. At least they weren't pushing each other off. :-)

 Mara and Christy (both of whom were just learning how to use drills) and I framed up the overhangs for the garage.

 Days at the land can sometimes get long. Here we girls wearily wait while Ken does some finishing up before we were able to leave for the night. Mara generally brings along her Ocarina, so we at least have music.

 Sunday afternoon we had a lot to get done as the electrician was coming on Monday and we needed to have all the sheeting on. It was such a blessing when my parents and brothers and a sister-in-law all showed up to help. We got a bunch done and realized we would have never managed to do all that on our own in one day.

My Dad, Megan and Mara

 All of our kids were up working on the roof. They thought it was fun to pound in nails. My Dad and brothers were up there working too while Ken was kept busy cutting and handing things up and I with my Mom and MollyBea worked on finishing putting up the wood on the sides. It wasn't until quite a bit later that Ken and I went up to lay out tar paper and realized how steep and slippery it was and were kicking ourselves a little for letting our kids go up there without checking it out ourselves.

Peter, Jonathan and Aaron

 It is so fun to see the progress!

 We went Berry picking again this week. Raspberries from my parents and blueberries from the state forest. We ended up with around 2 gallons of Raspberries and 1 of blueberries. Not bad for a little over an hour at each place. Jonathan wanted to make his blueberries into pie and Mara decided to make a 2 berry pie. It was Jonathan's first pie and it was fun to watch him receive big sisterly advice as he made it.

 This week it is the County Fair. We did not enter as much as normal since this summer has been busy (before we knew that we were going to move we set a goal to enter in every category but we had to postpone that goal for another year). We did still get quite a few things entered.

 Last night we used our family night to go to the fair. We were able to check out how we did and we were pretty please with the ribbons that we received.

 Aaron has been desperately wanting to ride a horse and though he would prefer one that wasn't all hooked up and went in a circle he still had fun with this pony ride.

Megan looked like she fit right in at the one room school house.

 That is a little piece of our life lately. What has been going on in your life. I would love to hear!