Saturday

Riding the train at the park.

Picnic at Olympic Game Farm with the goats.
The bears.

The bison and the white rhino.

The deer, yak, chickens, zebra, peacocks, eagle and llamas.

The elk and the deer.

The caged animals.

I felt like one of the caged animals by the time we got home after all the driving we did. It was very worth it, though. We all enjoyed the outing out. Look closely at the bison pictures and you will see someone feeding them a piece of bread. You could purchase bread at the entrance to feed to the animals. Some of the bears begged for it, the elk came looking for it as well as the deer and the bison. The seagulls and other birds were close by to eat whatever the other animals didn't want. However, there were pieces of bread in the bear pens that weren't touched because they fell too close to the electric fence. Plus, who wants to wander into a bear pen to gather bread when you could end up being eaten yourself? There was a baby bear and a wolf in the same pen and they were wrestling like puppies would wrestle together. Kind of fun to watch. The other caged animals just made me sad because they didn't look happy. Maybe it was because it was so hot.

"Cool bed! I like it!"

BriAnn has learned how to climb out of her crib, even with the sides up. The first time she fell from the top and hurt herself, we decided it best for her well-being that we do something different. The same day we decided this, I happened to go past a garage sale with a cute bed for sale. $25 later and a little bit of elbow grease, we ended up with this. What was BriAnn's reaction? "Cool bed! I like it!" She has even slept in it. Right now, she is calling for me to "open the door" because we put the door knob covers on to keep her in. I'm still hoping she will sleep. A few more mintes and I may have to let her out. Yes, she is speaking sentences at 2 years old. However, she does like to do baby talk garbeldyguck at times, like when she spoke on the phone with Uncle Kyle the other day. She is in the stage where she likes to have pictures taken. When she knows a picture is coming, she says "Smile. Say 'cheese'." then sits there or poses until the picture is taken.

The boys are doing well. Trevor is enjoying piano lessons and playing with legos. He hasn't spent as much time in the pool at home as I thought he would. I think he wants a bigger pool. I'm just not ready to go there yet because of drowning hazards.

Tyson fell and jammed a plastic toy in the back of his mouth last night so he has a soar throat and a bit of a raspy voice but is non the worse for his little encounter. He is able to eat and sleep so we will just watch it for infection. The mouth is amazing and heals quite quickly. He is getting excited about "home school preschool" in the fall.

Jason had his colonoscopy and to the relief of all, he is completely clean. He will go back for another one in 5 years. He was rather comical when we picked him up. He didn't remember getting a big chocolate milk shake or calling his family with results or signing papers on a new house (just kidding about the last one-maybe I'll keep that in mind for the next time). The meds they gave him really knocked him out. He slept for about 3 hours afterwards and then felt great.

What's been going on in your world?

Monday: 5-hr round trip drive to pick 70-90 lbs apricots and back again with 3 kids. Thanks for helping Mom, Dad, Kory and Gma Savage!

Tuesday: Deliver apricots to people and work on preparing my own for preserving

Wednesday: Fruit leather (120 rolls), dried apricots, jam prep;

ART on my hands (they are feeling better!!!!)

Thursday: 4 jam jars of Raspberry Jam; 15 jam jars of Apricot Jam; 2 pints of Apricot Jam; 90 degree weather; Who else would like apricots?

Friday: More ART on my hands (last session unless they start burning again); Mud Mountain Dam

Saturday: Jason helped Dad Bolles dig up septic tank openings to prepare to have it pumped; Picked up Marianne T-shirts; Temple

Sunday: Church

Monday (tomorrow): Jason's colonoscopy

No pics. I'm sad. Will do better next time. The kids were cute helping pick apricots and swimming in the pool at G&G Hebdon's. Mud Mountain Dam was fun and refreshing. We still have 3 fish (round 3) that are living after 3 days. Cause for celebration!

Goldfish Drama

I helped out at a wedding this weekend where the center pieces where fish swimming in a vase with shells and sand to add to the decor. The boys have been asking for a pet for years (literally) so I decided now is as good a time as any to try. 3 fish came home with me and 1 was still alive Sunday morning. By the time we got home from church, that one was gone, too. My friend gave me three more Sunday night. All 3 of those have since passed, as well. So, a co-worker of Jason's has graciously offered to give us his oxygenated fish tank and told us to treat the water for chlorine. Once we have those items, we will try the fish thing again. I'm not ready to give up, yet. However, it does make me a bit sad thinking about those poor little fish that died probably from chlorine poison. Wonder what it is doing to our bodies? Names of the fish: Yedi, Dorothy, Cheddar, Love, Nemo, Bolles. The last surviving fish inherited ALL the names of the previous fish.

How does your garden grow?

With kids in it!Amazingly enough, we do have some vegetables that survived the dandelion overspray (both rounds as they were so bad). I'm happy to report we picked lots of yummy cherries from our tree out front, we just may have a pumpkin or two, we have peas and the sunflowers that Tyson planted are, again, the thing that looks the best in the garden. I think he has a green thumb. Last year he planted green beans that grew better than the ones I planted. This year, his sunflowers are doing better than everything else. Go, Tyson!


Speaking of non-successes, the strawberries we picked and jammed but the jam didn't set up. I tried using liquid pectin that didn't have me warm or cook anything for freezer jam and after 24 hours, it still hadn't set up so we froze it anyway. We just have really runny jam on our sandwiches now. The kids still like it, though. I just keep reminding myself that one day I will have all this down pat and that if I keep trying, I may never need to rely on my food storage. Here's for hoping!

Some things I've learned this summer:

• Don't use dandelion spray on even the slightest breezy day.
• Don't use liquid pectin to make freezer jam.
• Plant seeds on the north side of the trellis, not the south.
• It's ok to buy starters at the local plant nursery so you can have veggies sooner.
• My house is not set up to grow starter plants that are nice and strong. (House faces north and south with no windows on the east and no place to put seed pots on the west.)
• Sharing fruits and veggies with neighbors is a great way to strengthen neighborly ties.

July 4 - Hebdon Family

Saturday morning at the Flag Raising Ceremony with my parent's ward. Tyson, Uncle Kory, BriAnn, Aunt Leslee, Carter, Trevor, Aunt Jeni, Uncle Kevin, Uncle Kent, Tanner, Kenzie, Derek, Bryce, Aubree, Paige

Fun with kid-friendly fireworks at the CA. Carter, Sariah, Staci Ann, Uncle Kevin

Trevor, Grandpa Dennis, Evan, Staci Ann, Sariah, Tanner, ?, Kenzie, Tyson, Bryce, Aubree and Uncle Kevin. Uncle Kevin is instructing them how to safely pull the string to see the confetti inside the fireworks for kids.

Trevor and others getting ready for the bike parade at the CA.

Tyson's bike all decorated. The picture taped to his bike was of two bikes that he drew. One was Tyson's bike and the other was Carter's.

BriAnn at the CA where my dad works.
Trevor wanted to try his hand at the camera and I had promised he could take pictures of the fireworks at the pond. Well, the camera got left behind so he took a picture of the confetti that came out of one of the fireworks. The kids absolutely loved the fireworks. Trevor's eyes lit up when he found out we weren't finished lighting them off. BriAnn kept saying "Pretty colors!" and Tyson enjoyed them until they started hurting his ears. Thankfully, we were almost done by the time that happened.

Tyson with Conda Frog and George helping unload the car

July 3 - Bolles Family

Cousin fun in the hammock at the cabin. Or not-so-fun to some.

Jason, Jared and Trevor in the row boat at Bumping Lake.
Marianne, Sally, Alison Trevor, Tyson, BriAnn, Marianne

Jason, BriAnn, Trevor

Alison, Emily, Sally, Marianne, Jessica, Matthew

Evie, Tyson, Jordan...looking for polliwogs

Marianne, Jason, BriAnn at the cabin.

Evie, Megan, Marianne...all linked together!

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Friday and we enjoyed the lake, horseback riding, good food, good company and good times. We left Jason at the cabin Friday night and the kids and I went on to Mattawa for festivities there. Sunday night we went back to the cabin and intended to spend the night but things didn't work out so we got home Sunday night about 11:30 pm. It was all worth it to spend the holiday with family. How blessed we are to have both families so close!