Riehl Reunion!

 We have a number of family reunions this summer and this is the first one.  The RIEHLS are such a fun bunch of good people!!!!  My dad and his siblings ALWAYS invite every single person to all their gatherings!  We drove to a small camping area with a pavilion and pond and ball diamond!  We've been here often and this was perfect weather for a two day reunion!

My parents were in charge of the food on Monday night.  As soon as the food was ate the rook cards came out!  Ballgames were played and Austin was having a blast!

Cousins were there along with a lot of other extended relatives that Ausin didn't know.  Mike was out of town and missed out.  The kids were sure that the green pond water was warmer than the tempts outside and after a swim, they gathered around the campfire to warm up and sip on hot meadow tea!

We went home to sleep but came back for day two.  So many ballgames were played and Austin loved playing second base and my Uncle JR played first base.  His loud voice and encouragement to all the batters was fun for Austin to see.  JR is a fun man and he made Austin feel right at home, amongst many Amish relatives.  The pond water looks like slime but the kids loved it!  The food was good!!!!

Tuesday night, we ate supper together and then Ashlyn played some spike ball with her extended family friends!

The Riehl's are a lively bunch and so fun!  This was a great two days spent with family!

Green Dragon.

We say every summer that we want to go see Green Dragon or Roots Farmers market.  Well, we got it done!!!!  We invited the kids to all go along and we piled into the Audi on a Friday night.  With the AC blasting on high, the weather was warm and we arrived in time for some fish sandwiches and pretzel wraps!  

But what I really wanted to see was the animal auction!  People crammed into this tiny barn space and there were animals in big and little crates.  Baby chicks.  Roosters.  A goose.  Rabbits, goats, a calf ... so many birds and it smelled like a barnyard!!!!  My videos don't upload on my blog but I have some cute videos of Gunnar looking at the animals and totally being amazed!!!!  It was so hot in the barn and we only watched the auctioneer for awhile before moving along!  Now we know how this goes!

We chased a gorgeous sunset on the way home!!!!

 Summer time is for farmers markets and animal auctions and sweaty nights.  We sure had all of that here!

Baseball season wraps up.

 Baseball has been so, so fun for our family this spring and Austin loved it!  Mike helped out with the coaching when he could and Austin learned all about fast pitches, strike outs and stealing base!  He's played softball for years but this is his first spring baseball with PV and he really enjoyed it!

He ordered sunglasses from Los Rayes back in April and we've been waiting for a long time to finally get them shipped!

Austin is playing for the PV Braves 12 U but also for the team Stormers with a church league.  This league is slow pitch and he really loves that too!  He missed some practices because of baseball but they had an opening tournament a few weeks ago and this is gonna be so much fun too!

PV Braves had their very last game last week and that wraps up a good season of new friends and memories!!!!  We ended the night with a win and ice cream at Freeze and Frizz!

Thank you to our wonderful coaches and these boys are now friends to our family!

The garden in June.

The garden in June is thriving!  We are having a dry summer as far but with the sprinkler running over the garden beds, the fruits and veggies are doing fine!  We already picked off three zucchini and lots of kale!

 

Austin peeled the zucchini for me and we made some zucchini bread!  We love this bread topped with butter or cream cheese!  I love it with dippy eggs on top!!!!

I noticed something growing in the field line right beside the garden.  It's where I throw out any weeds I pull from the garden.  It's also where we threw out pumpkins last fall.  I saw this group of greens coming up through the dirt, so I dug it out and planted it in a raised bed.  I think it's pumpkin!!!!!

My lavender didn't make it through the winter.  I had it for years but it died off and now meadow tea is taking over.  The poppies in the garden are wild and crazy and I love them!

Cabbage is my favorite food to watch grow in the garden!  It grows huge!  Tomatoes are coming!

Zucchini plant and peppers are showing blooms!

 

Herbs and celery are ready!

I must have grabbed a different kind of onion because I don't remember them growing funny like this and a big white head on top of the plant!  Kohlrabi is forming a head too!

 

This space is so fun to me!!!!  Plants are thriving except for the sugar peas.  They didn't grow high but are finally giving us a few peas.  I will be pulling out these plants soon and planting string beans!

Watching the kids walk around the garden and picking out a carrot for Sunny (the neighbors horse) and enjoying fresh picking is so rewarding to me!  

What a gift this space is to me!

Sunflower field coming up!!!!!

 What is an ivy wall?  I saw it on Pinterest and then saw it done at my friends house!  We planted ivy last fall and now decided to have someone come and put up wire for the ivy to crawl up over and hopefully make a nice pattern on the side of our house!  

Also, I was asking Mike to get my raised bed repaired that was falling apart so that I could plant some sunflower seeds.  He laughed and said that he talked to the neighbor and got the OK to rent part of the field right behind us and plant lots of sunflowers in it!!!!  I was shocked and so happy about this!  It's so thoughtful and something we talked about doing for a long time.  We did try this at the cabin last year but nothing grew well because of the soil we had and the animals eating the growth.

Mike bought a bunch of Mammoth Sunflower Seeds!

He rented a tractor from the hardware store and worked up the dirt in the field just behind our house!  Then him and I planted the seeds by hand!  We also added a row of zinnia's in the front part!

If this actually grows like we hope it will, it will be lovely!  The guys hope is attracts lots of doves for this fall!  I hope it produces a million blooms!!!!

Mike is so sweet to do this for me!  I love him so much!!!!

Turnpaugh Health.

 June is here and Ashlyn's got a job!  She is enjoying it and the days that Meg and Mel work are especially fun!!!!  How lucky to have cousins work side by side!

This is a good summer blend for my diffuser!

Mike said four years ago that I should make a Turnpaugh appointment and get myself evaluated.  My health is great so I put this off for years!  I finally made an appointment for me and Ashlyn because she deals with a lot of headaches.  We both had blood work done and now we wait to see how many supplements they think we need! 🤣

After our appointment, we ate at Agape and this is always a fun treat!!!!

This was Ashlyn's first time giving blood and she did great!

Health is so important!  My parents both have meds they take for heart and blood pressure.  Just to get my numbers checked really is a good idea.  I hope to never have to be on any prescription meds and this is just one way to stay on top of my health!

As for Ashlyn, she has a sensitive stomach at times and has headaches.  Is it hormones?  Is it diet?  We hope to find out some answers and battle headaches without an over the counter med.

Nobody enjoys doctor visits but at least we are not sick or fighting disease!  We want the very best for our health and this is the first step to keep things going well!

Mother/Daughter Banquet.

 We celebrated another night just us girls and Gunnar was along this time!  We had a Mother/Daughter banquet at church and it was just another fun night being together!

Amy spoke on motherhood and we ate great food!

I love my daughters and this was just another fun night celebrating life!