Dog days of summer!

 It is hot outside!!!!  All week the tempts have been in the 90's and the grass is not lush green anymore because of the heat.  I hope we get some rain soon to cool off the ground!

We are blessed to have a cool house on these really hot summer days!!!!  Air conditioning is a blessing!  

This summer has been a time of late nights and sleep in mornings!  We love it that way!  We are spending time at the pool, in the garden picking cucumbers and tomatoes and waiting for the green beans to grow!  

I'm not ready for school to start yet but I do look forward to being back on "normal schedules" and the kids are starting to show that they need more than lazy days!  This week Ashlyn and Austin have been so nit picking at each other.  You know, a little kick here and I tap there just to make the other one say something or tattle.  After the cleaning got completed at the house here yesterday, I told them we would go for a drive and look for some sunflower fields that I heard about!  We drove off and boy were we glad we did!!!!!  Look what we found!

I read on Instagram that Sunnyside Pasteries has lots of sunflowers behind and around them so we drove to their bakery!  We pulled in their driveway and I could not stop saying, "Oh my word!!!!!!"  All the sunflowers we saw was stunning!  I've never seen so many in one spot!  Fields of them!!!!  All in bloom!!!!  Just gorgeous!!!!

We went into the bake shop for a donut and then drove down the road to take a better look!!!!  I was not driving on golden streets but this took my breath away and I thought of heaven!!!!!  How pretty it is!!!!!

We pulled to the side of the road and took some photo's.  There's no way I can explain how pretty it is because there's more sunflowers than I can photo here!  Take a look!!!!

Bees were buzzing everywhere!

I think we counted six corn field rows of sunflowers!!!!!  Incredible!

They think they always need to do a crazy face photo!

We drove back home with the kids picking on each other.  I thought maybe reading another chapter of Where the Red Fern Grows would help the craziness and picking on each other.  We are getting through this book and should be completing it some time this weekend!  By the time supper rolled around I felt like all I was saying was "Kids stop it!"  "Calm down."  "Just leave each other alone."  I was telling this to Mike as were eating supper and he said, "Why don't you go for drive.  Just you.  Go get a spritzer at Agape or something!"  I did just that!  I went for a drive and got a raspberry mint spritzer and made a stop at Target.  Wow, I wasn't in that store for awhile and things were everywhere.  Shopping at stores like this I try to avoid when the Littles are with me.  They beg and I say no.  I don't enjoy shopping in that kind of fashion.  We have family photos coming up and thought I would take a quick look at the boys clothes for Austin.  Keeping it simple and I was back home to hear Mike took them out to Rolled Creamery and ate ice cream.  It must be summer time!

Before I headed out the door for my drive, I told the kids to go pick the tomatoes in the garden.  I just knew that they would be doing something crazy and I snuck up to them in the garden.  Look.

Ashlyn was picking the tomatoes and then rolling them down to Austin.  Austin was putting them in the bowl.  They were giggling and loving the garden but then Austin sat on Ashlyn and they started squealing.   I just shock my head and grinned.  It's good to see them enjoy life together but sometimes I wish it was with less drama.  I keep reminding myself that they are growing up and some day I am going to miss this stage of life!!!!

July is a warm one and so stay cool, hydrated and remember to laugh!

Ashlyn goes to camp.

Ashlyn was able to go to girls camp this year with our church and she loved every bit of it!!!!!  We missed her terribly and Austin was so bored without his best friend at home but we made it and couldn't wait to pick her up again on Friday and hear all her camp stories.

I left the garden unattended mostly last week because I knew that when Ashlyn gets home, she's going to go straight to the garden and see what she can find.  Look what she picked!!!!

When we signed Ashlyn up for girls camp, she asked if she could invite Ava!  Of course, it was open to whoever wanted to go!!!!  Ava was able to go to and they had a blast being in the same camp group, Flamingo Logon, and with it both being their first time away from home for a full week, they had each other!

There was a western themed night and Clarita sent me this photo and it warmed my heart to see Ashlyn have so much fun at camp!  Also, Juanita made over twenty Stromboli's at camp on Wednesday night and she asked if I would go along and help!  Absolutely!  It was good to walk around camp and see the girls cabin and serve them dinner!

Ashlyn was delighted to find out that Daisy and Courtney were their camp counselors!  She knew both of these ladies and they made it super fun for the girls!!!!  Thank you ladies!

Austin missed Ashlyn SO MUCH!  He did go out to Adrians house one afternoon and Adrian came here for a few hours on another day to help pass the time!  It was so good to see these two reunite and play and draw together!  That's wonderful to see siblings be best friends!

I was ready to spend some time with her and we got our nails painted on Saturday!

Because we had cucumbers from the garden, we mixed up a batch of Sweet Dill Pickles!  Ashlyn was right there to help me and this is why I missed her so much while she was at camp!!!!  I love this girl!!!!

And she missed Zayla like crazy!  It's too cute!  Zayla is much younger than Ashlyn but they are each others best friend cousins!!!!  Zayla came over on Saturday night while the Lapp Siblings went out for their birthdays and Austin went to the Buck with cousins.  They had a tea party and just loved being together!

Red Beets are now ready to harvest from the garden too.

Mike sharpened my mower blades and every time this happens, we mention Daudy D.s name!  He loved to sharpen mower blades for people!  Anyway, when I went to mow, something was not right.  Mike came home to fix the belt and then did this in the grass for me!  Can you see it?  He mowed a heart in the yard!!!  I'm the lucky one to have this man as my husband!

More garden goodies are being harvested!

Matthew is in a summer league with basketball and we finally went to watch one of his games!  Also, the summer life beside the pool, is not a bad life at all!!!!!

I bought a 2000 piece puzzle the other week and started it at the cabin.  I divided out the pieces in colors and stacked them in plates.  There's a lot of pieces and I just wasn't sure how else to organize the pieces.  It worked good to bring it home in pieces from the cabin and now it's on the dining room table!  There's much to do yet but I love it!!!!!  These hot days of summer are now around the dining room table putting puzzle together!

Homemade Coleslaw from the garden cabbage!

When Mike fills the bird feeders, the seeds go flying!  We had lots of sunflowers grow up from the feeders and I don't mind that a bit!  Sunflowers are one of my favorites!!!!!  They are so pretty and spell summer/fall so well to my seasonal love language!

July is slipping by quickly and we are starting to receive some school emails about "back to school" events, school lists, etc. but I'm choosing to not think much of this just yet.  The summer days of late nights and sleep in mornings are great for now!  I do know that I will be ready to be back on a better schedule after school begins but for now we live life as it comes.  If we decide to go to Jer's ballgame and it gets late, we are fine with it and love it!

Enjoy this month!  July is hot!  Stay cool!

Family vacation ~ cabin style!

 

Summer family vacations have not always looked the same way over the past years.  Winter vacays are mostly spent in Florida and we LOVE THAT!!!  We discussed going to Branson, Missouri, this summer but Mike did a big remodel at Lapps and we decided to spend a few days at the cabin instead!  It was so good!!!

Wednesday I planned to pack, get groceries and clean the house.  That's not what happened.  I woke up not feeling well and achy all over.  By lunch time I had a fever and chills and Mike came home to take to out to the doctor and get me checked for a urinary track infection.  I felt it over a week ago but I thought cranberry pills were helping.  Once the fever came, I knew I needed a doctor.  And that's what it was.  I was given some meds and Mike picked up some soup at Dienners and then got the kids from Lena.  They were hanging out there because I wasn't well.

We decided to sleep and see how I feel in the morning.  I woke up feeling better but still weak.  I did get to go to Strasburg Market Place for some groceries and then I came home to pack and load up for the cabin!  We were not in a rush and it all worked out great!  Costco was another grocery stop I needed to make and we did that on our way to the cabin!  Perfect!

We arrived late Thursday afternoon at the cabin and relaxed for the next three days!!!  It was great!

We went down to the river and watched the boys fish.

Hadassah and Jer and Ritchie and Matthew all met us at the cabin Thursday night.  Matthew and Ritchie took the kaiaks on the river.  Austin wanted a ride to!  Jeremiah helped cook up steak one night and we fried up the fish the big boys caught the weekend before!  (The fish was put in the cabin freezer last weekend so we could eat it this weekend!)  

Ashlyn and Austin entertained themselves!  They filled up water balloons and did relays with them!  

There are so many butterflies at the cabin!

The boys could fish all day long and they really liked cooking them up too!

Jeremiah tried out his new style tree stand!

We rode whatever had four wheels up there!  😂  Mike drove brother John's rig around.  Mike and Austin loaded up a kaiak and headed to the river.  Ashlyn and I hoped on the four wheeler and beat them there!  We love riding around on the mountain roads!

 

We drove the golf carts up to the blueberry patch numerous times.  The berries are still mostly green and so we didn't pick many but the kids love it up there!  

Matthew loves to fish and always catches them!  He catches more than all the others fishing.  He's got a knack for it and is good!  One time, he caught a fish, took it off his hook and flipped it back into the water right beside Ritchies boat.  Ritchie was supposed to catch it.  So funny!

We started a 2000 piece puzzle.  That's the biggest puzzle I ever tackled and because it's big and tons of pieces, I decided to break it down by sections.  We got the border together!  Then I sorted pieces in colors.  One plate for green, one for the balloons, one for the different coke signs, etc..  We got a lot of pieces together but near finished it.  We packed it up in one big stack of plates and now I need to unpack it here at home somewhere and get working on it!  We might be finished by Christmas!?!

So many couch snuggles!!!!!

Late nights and sleep in mornings!

There were the biggest "wish weeds" up there!

The kids put chalk in their hair - hence the red and blue hair here.

Drying off  ....

We stopped at Red Rabbit on the way home and we loved it!  We've drove past this place for years, years and never stopped.  Usually, on the way home for the cabin, etc. we are more than ready to be back home!  This time, we took the time to stop and it was fun!!!!

We got home Sunday eve and unpacked and spent the rest of the evening in the back yard watching the boys play catch and we cooked up some campfire steaks at 10 PM.  These are the days!!!!!

Ashlyn and I just couldn't help but take a walk out to the garden after we unpacked!  The cucumbers are ready for picking!  She was thrilled to find all her foods!

Big cucumbers and a huge zucchini!

We had such a fun time spending the past few days at the cabin with the kids!  We played games of four up and four down.  Lot's of golf cart rides.  Four wheeler rides.  Blueberry picking and kaiak fishing!  Puzzle pieces were put together!  Southern Gospel music always plays at the cabin!  Late nights, sleep in mornings!  Campfire foods!  Watermelon, chocolate cake and fish fries!  Shuffle board games, another chapter of Where the Red Fern grows read and being lazy!  Everything was so much fun!!!!

Summer of 2022 is so fun!