Friday, August 26, 2011

Peach Canning Marathon

Since our stop at an orchard on the way back from Nauvoo failed we decided to try another one a few days later.  We came back with 1 and 1/4 bushels of peaches and then spent the next few days canning and eating them.  It was wonderful.  The end result: 19 quarts of just peaches, 5 quarts and 16 pints of peach syrup, 8 pints of  peach salsa, 8 containers of freezer jam, 7 quarts of peach pie filling, and a delicious peach pie. Yum!
Everything we canned, minus the jam

Ryan made the pie, it says "Fruit of the Gods" with a picture of a peach :)

It was good...

Really good

We Love Peaches!!!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

End of the Summer Fun



    So as part of our celebration at having Ryan back we went on a little family trip to Nauvoo, Illinois.  What seemed like such a trek when we lived out in Utah is now only 6 hours away. We drove out first thing on Tuesday and the six hour drive turned into eight with all the potty and snack/nursing stops.  It was a good drive though and the girls were great.  Ryan and I racked our brains for stories and fun songs to sing to entertained when they got sick of their other books and toys.  We stayed in at a great place called Camp Nauvoo in a bunk house style one room cabin.  It was perfect for us, just a set above camping in a tent (which did not go well the last time we tried), we all got to sleep in a bed and it had air conditioning.   I think they mostly rent out to large family and youth groups during the really busy season, but we had the place almost to ourselves the first night (the only other people were our friends the Clark's who happened to want to come the same week!) and then a soccer team was there the second night but they were pretty quiet.  It was so nice to have a cool place to come back to for naps and in the evening.



 The first night we got there we went to check out the temple.  It was so cool to see it in person, I really wish Ryan and I had had time to go through, hopefully next time we go.  The next day we just took things at pretty easy pace, which was a must with the girls.  We went on a wagon ride around "Old Nauvoo" and checked out the visitor's center.  Then since we only had that one day we tried to pick a few things that the girls would really enjoy and other "must see" things.  The Family Learning Center was one of our favorites.  They had several little stations the taught you various things that the pioneers did: weaving, baking, candle making, rope making, pottery.  It was really fun to learn how they lived.  Lauren also really enjoyed the Pioneer Children Pass Times.  They had pioneer clothes to dress up in and little games that pioneer children used to play. Ryan and I thought the tours of the homes and other buildings would have been really cool but Lauren ran around trying to touch everything, so we only made it through one.  While the girls were taking naps Ryan and I read through some pioneer journals and the Our Heritage book that the Church put out. it was so amazing to learn about what our ancestors went though and their lives and journey to Salt Lake. It made it so much more real to be there and walk the places that they walked.  We didn't get to spend near as much time as we would have liked, at our pace it probably would have taken at least 3 or 4 days. But now we better know how to plan our next trip out there. We had a great time and it was so nice just to spend it all together without any other distractions.  I hope we can go again soon.

Lauren loved riding the sheep
Ryan making us a rope

 
Lauren with our completed  rope

Lauren playing the pioneer games

Rachel the trooper

Lauren loved dressing up in the pioneer clothes


                                    

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Daddy on the Weekends

So Ryan moved back home last night. YAY! For the past nine weeks he has been doing an internship up in Indianapolis. We initially had planned on all of us moving up there for the summer, but in light of various issues and all things considered the best situation for us turned out to be Ryan living up in Indy in a hotel during the week and then coming home on the weekends.  Quite honestly when we were looking at all our options this was the very last one on my list of desirable options.  I remember telling Ryan at least a couple times, after very rough days with the girls, that I did not think that I could handle that all day with the only help from him being Saturday and Sunday for nine weeks.  But I am happy to say that I have not gone completely crazy and both children are alive and well.

We've been so blessed all summer, so many things that may seem insignificant but made the world of difference to me and were an answer to many prayers.
  • Our Neon lasted the entire time, which is amazing, we didn't think it would make it past May which would have meant no car all week for the girls and me
  • Our neighbors loaned us their double jogging stroller for the summer (a stroller may seem like an odd thing to pray about but it was one of the top things on my list, especially with the possibility of not having a car)
  • Our Garden : it got us out of the house several times a week, we would walk over about every other day and Lauren would help me by pulling the tops off the yucky weeds and Rachel would hopefully take her nap
  • One crazy day when we were out I found a surprise little bag of cookies in our diaper bag (apparently from someone at church) 
  • Great friends that would either invite us over to play or come over to our place
  • Mother's group - a very welcome activity once a week
Hugs for Rachel
The biggest thing that saved me this summer was Lauren and Rachel. I was so worried about how things would go with both of them, especially at dinner and bed time which is the craziest time of day.  There were lots of times that were pretty crazy but for the most part the girls were really good.  They adore each other, which was a huge help, and they even kind of play together.  Lauren is always so excited for Rachel to wake up and always asks to play dishes with her or read her a story.  I really enjoyed all our time together this summer I feel like we learned and grew a lot.  I, for one, feel very capable at handling things on my own, it's definitely not my favorite way to go but I know that I can handle it when needed.

We are so grateful that Ryan was able to get this internship (especially the paid aspect of it), we think it will help open more doors for him along the way to finding a job.  But most of all we're grateful to have him back home on more than just the weekends!

Ballerina Lauren
The girls playing blocks


I love my girls!

Princess Lauren
Rachel kicking back and reading