Canning Peaches

We have 2 peach trees in our backyard and they were super loaded this year. In fact the neighbor that lives behind said she has never seen our trees so full in the 7 years they have lived there. She wanted to know what we were doing. Ummmm...... We paid $50 for someone to come trim them the previous fall and we watered the trees every week? 

We had so many peaches we couldn't give them away quick enough. We made peach jam, froze several bags to be used in smoothies, ate some and bottled the rest. 

This is just the beginning. We ended up bottling more than 60 quart jars. Wow! 

                  That was quite the Saturday. In between our bottling we discovered that Hunter is 
                                            officially taller than me. When did that happen?

Summer Is Over

And like that our summer is over!

Oh how I wish I could bottle up my kids and keep them at their current ages. 

I love these kids!

This young man is a Sophmore this year. How did this happen?

He gets to go to a new school this year, the ol' highschool!

He's not sure what he wants to be when he grows up. But he's leaning towards the medical field. He doesn't want to be a doctor that see's sick (coughing and throwing up) people and he'd prefer not to be a kid only doctor.  He enjoys working with his hands! He's thinking maybe something like Sports Medicine. 

This girl is a Freshman this year!

She loves to read and draw. It was no surprise to hear her say she wanted to be an author one day. She's talking about designing homes like an architect. But after all the work we've been doing on our house shes decided shed probably rather decorate than design houses for people to build. 

Emily is officially out of elementary school. 

She is our pet lover although we don't own any. 

She would love to take care of animals. She gets to attend a diferent school this year, the Intermediate School.

This young man is going to be in 4th grade. He loves little kids. He loves playing with his younger cousins and is drawn to babies. He wants to be a baby doctor! He is also going to a new elementary school this year. His new school is a STEM school and so focuses more on science, technology, engineering and math. I hope he is going to love it!

When we were discussing what everyone wants to be when they grow up this young man piped up that he wanted to be the Prophet too! Wow! What an aspiring goal... can we call this a goal? When we talked about all the responsibilities that the Prohet has he said, "Well, maybe I need to be a seminary teacher first, then a Bishop and then I'll know if I still want to be the Prophet". I love this young man of mine. He obviously doesn't completely understand how our Prophet is chosen. But I love that he has the desire to aspire to be a future Prophet. President Monson passed away this January and now President Nelson is our latter day Prophet. We've had lots of discussions about Prophets around our house this year. 

 My baby girl is going to be gone all day long! She absolutely loved her kindergarten teacher last year and so wants to be one when she grows up. This little girl is going to go to the same school as Brayden this year. She's a little nervous to be gone all day and be at a new school but she is going to be great!

 Hoping for an awesome new school year!

Bear Lake Trip

The weekend before school started we had our last family reunion.

The Christensens went to Bear Lake!

Knowing it would be quite the drive we drove as far as Salt Lake the first day to help break up the trip. Our hotel had a swimming pool which of course was a highlight for the kids. 

The next morning we went to a taffy candy factory. We were given a short tour and watched a short video on how the taffy was made. Afterwards we got to walk around their little store and fill bags full of all sorts of different flavors of taffy. We had fun and were all on a sugar high. Fresh taffy is so, so yummy! The best part was that the tour was free. Yippee!

After our taffy tour we drove to downtown Salt Lake to visit the Clark Planetarium. It also had free admittion.  

They had some pretty cool ineractive games. This game the kids were trying to blow up floating asteroids aiming towards a planet. You controled your shooter by moving your arm. So fun! 

This interactive game controlled the lights in the sky. Something to do with our energy!

There was a section that all sorts of different gases could be smelled. Some were sweet smelling while others were horrible!

More interactive games. 

Maddie and Kyli landed on Mars!

 The games and interactiveness at this place was absolutely amazing. And it was free! After 2.5 hours the big kids were ready to leave but the  younger ones could have stayed longer.

Unfortunately at this point in our trip my camera battery died. And for whatever reason my back up battery wouldn't hold a charge. Ughhhhh...

After leaving the Planetarium we drove up towards Logan and was able to stop and see Kory's Mission President and his wife, The Brenchley's. We sat and visited while the kiddo's jumped on their trampoline and played on their swing set. It was a great visit!

When we left their home we finished our drive to Bear Lake where our cabin was. We spent the next 2 days playing at the lake, walking around Raspberry Days and just hanging with the family. It was a great few days to get away from our chaotic house and to be able to spend some time together before school starts next week. Eeek! I am so NOT ready. 

Kolob

We have had and still have one more family reunion to go to this summer. It seems like we have something going on every single week. Between the reunions, our own family vacations, volleyball and working on our house it's been a bit CRAZY this summer.  This particular Saturday we needed a litte bit of a break from working on the house. So when Kory said he needed to go to Kolob Saturday afternoon to meet with a potential client I loaded up our kayaks and we went with him.  

The water, the laughter and pure joy is what I needed to re-juvenate my soul!

I love that these kayaks are small enough that the kiddo's can navigate them all by themselves. 

When others were on the kayaks there was plenty of sand to play in. I forgot to throw in our sand toys but it didn't stop this young lady from playing. 

Hunter got a little car sick and so chose to stay on the side watching everyone else play. 

Don't mind his funny face. He wasn't thrilled I was taking his picture. 

I love how gentle and smooth the water is. These kayaks have a weight limit of 85 pounds. But....Kylie and I did NOT sink completely. 

Maddie trying to push off the shore without getting wet. 

Silly girl.....You are in water!

We weren't there long. But it was long enough to enjoy the great outdoors and make some impromptu memories. I love my family!