The last of our Summer festivities...

Last month I reported that we blessed Gracie while Jed's mom was here visiting. I always love to have Jed's mom here. She is SO terrific about playing with the kids and looks for ways to lighten my load. Last Christmas I told her that she could move in and be my nanny, but she informed me that Jed couldn't afford her. Oh well. Anyway, we had a nice visit with her. Kate had her first real tea party with Grandma, the boys loved doing art, reading Magic Treehouse books and playing legos with her, I loved hearing her memories of Jed as a child while walking the track together at the elementary school and we FINALLY made it to see Crater Lake. Nila pumped the boys up by telling them a very dramatic story about how a volcano EXPLODED creating this huge crater. After that they really didn't mind too much that we had to drive two hours to see the crater. You should have seen how captivated they were by it all. Amazing.




This is the amazing quilt that my mom made Davis!

At the end of the month we ventured down to my parents for an action packed reunion with my siblings' families, grandparents and Auntie J. We visited Columbia, an old Cowboy town in the foothills of CA and the Jelly Belly Factory. We swam, shot paintballs, rebuilt a "spy fort" for the kids and ate and ate and ate. The things I loved the most about this time were watching the kids play together, visiting with my family and the luxury of being able to take kid-free morning walks with Jed. We all had some really good laughs and did I mention that we ate well?

Then back home we came to tackle the last few weeks of summer and the bountiful fruit from our trees. With the prompting and help of some friends I canned pears and peaches (the peaches were not from our yard) and grape juice. Then we made and froze plum pies and Jed took the lead on drying yet some more pears and plums. I have to admit that I never thought that I would be one who would can anything, but there is something really satisfying about the whole process.