Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Mountain Seasons

In the mountains we are suppose to have 4 seasons. The reality is - we don't. It goes more like this:
Winter - Mud - July - Winter
Hmmm... I guess THAT is 4 seasons.

Fortunately, the white stuff won't stick around this time. But it won't be long when it will come again and not go away until April (maybe May). Don't get me wrong - I like snow. In fact, I LOVE it for about 3 months but by month 5 - I am DONE!

I will admit the snow looked beautiful today. Don't you think?

One Word...
MAGNIFICENT!


It's a Beautiful thing...

FALL!

As I sit here posting these beautiful fall pictures, I must ask myself;
"Where did summer go?"

I am going to miss the flip flops,

the dirty feet from not wearing shoes,

the flies swarming around the spilled milk in the shed (NOT!),

the variety of blooming flowers,

running through the sprinklers,

And the summer campers/activities at Big Canyon!

Fall is most favorite of the four seasons
Here are the reasons:
cooler days
beautiful leaves
bugling of elk
family routine
homeschool begins
harvest time

Thank you God for the change of seasons!


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Oh so SWEET!!

Honey that is!!
Yep, our bees worked hard and stayed "on task". So much so that they have filled their 2 hives for survival this winter and also OUR little hive.
Papa and Nana came to our house for dinner and then we got to work.
Time to Harvest the Honey!!

Anxiously pulling out the frames to find all of the honey.

This hot knife opened up the honeycomb.

Oh, the honey-comb! yum yum

Then we put the frames in a honey spinner and spun away. Such great helpers and, i might mention, quite cute also.

More spinning.

This bucket was lined with a filter to clean the honey.

It smelled so sweet and yummy in our garage.
Papa had a full audience of Z's watching the process. This was a first for all of us. Hopefully many more to come.

This honey is now filtered and getting put in a quart jar.

6 jars total!
Don't be asking us for any honey. :)
We are keeping this yummy stuff to ourselves.
However, if you come to our home we will be happy to share!!

And Tessa sweet-talked Nana into reading a book.
Oh, how she loves her Nana!



Remember this...? and then this!

We are so thankful for our first harvest of honey.

Thanks to the bees! And thank you Papa!!!


Monday, September 21, 2009

Play in the Park

We had a "free" weekend. No campers. So Friday night, we all went to the park in Park City. It had been quite some time since we had been to a park...



Tess - our monkey

Dani

Elizabeth

Weston

Maggie

Abbi

Hudson

Caleb

We were there most of the evening and pretty much had the whole park to ourselves.

As you can tell, fun was had by all!


Saturday, September 19, 2009

Girls and Twirls

Our cousins just attended a beautiful wedding in Idaho. We received pictures - oh so beautiful. All to say, after seeing the pics, they wanted to dress up and "go to a wedding". So Maggie, Elizabeth and Dani Rae dressed up in their finest wedding attire. Then Abbi curled and prettied their hair. They were ready. They went outside and twirled in the grass and celebrated their (pretend) wedding.


Notice the little kitten dancing with them. (he was actually chasing their dresses)

Dani Rae

Elizabeth

Maggie

It was a fun afternoon of getting pretty and dancing at our (pretend) wedding.


Friday, September 18, 2009

Celebration of Life - The Final Chapter

The Celebration of Life
* Jerry *
August 26th, 2009 at 2 pm
Kansas

At the service Greg sang two songs, friends spoke of Jerry's character and memories made with him, and Brian spoke about eternal life and the love of Jesus. Brian started off by having all 13 of Jerry's grandchildren stand up front and he talked about the legacy Jerry leaves behind. Brian then asked his step-grandchildren to come up - 10 more! WOW!! What a great visual.
Everyone did a fabulous job of giving tribute to Jerry. He was a very loved man and will be missed by many.

This is the cemetery where Jerry's body is laid to rest. Beautiful! Surrounded by huge trees. Perfect!

On the way to the cemetery, there was a caravan of about 50 vehicles. Police held back all other traffic at the intersections. It was honoring to see how people in the oncoming lane would pull over and wait for the progression of cars to pass before proceeding on their way.
Respect!

After the service/burial everyone was invited to go back to Sue's (and Jerry's) house for food, fellowship and fun.

Wade, Craig, Sheila, Brian, Jason and Chris
(the four guys are Sue's sons, Jerry's step-sons)

All 6 couples

Gma June, the M's and the Z's

The whole Z clan!!

We miss Papa Jerry!