Summer fun 2024

 We had a wonderful summer, but as usual, it went by too quickly. We enjoyed the typical things such as: attending JUCO games, holding our VBS at church & helping with it, doing a big puzzle, backyard movie nights, having family visit, going to Joshua's mom and sister's home for July 4, etc., We also did some minor home renovations. 

I will let you enjoy the pictures, including a family reunion on my mom's side. It was fun to see extended family, including cousins, aunts, and uncles that we hadn't seen for 9 years. It was nice to have a positive reason to gather, instead of at a funeral, since last year there were four!

Kids enjoying a JUCO game

Hubby, my Mom, and I enjoyed games too...

We helped (a little) with VBS decorations... we made a sand castle out of boxes! The beach theme was fun.

Kids singing during VBS...

My sister visited and we saw "Inside Out 2" with her and her kids.

We played lots of card games together at our family reunion, especially Nertz!

All of us at the family reunion, about 70 people (out of 220+). We took this with a drone!

These are all of my cousins that we were there...17, I think. Loved seeing each one!!

On the way home, we saw Mount Rushmore and the Badlands...so cool!

Then we were home for one day, did laundry, and repacked for the 4th of July time with Joshua's family!

Our group was smaller this year... we missed the big kids!

We went to a speakeasy, that was different but we liked it a lot!

Youth group movie night...

We listened to "Encanto" music while we made this 1,000-piece puzzle. The bottom was tough!

Our son moved out in May. The ceiling in this room had damage from years before, so we removed the popcorn ceiling. It took about 4 1/2 hours and was a mess, but we are happy with it! My hubby retextured it, and we repainted the room. It looks so much better!

Our youngest daughter moved in there a few weeks ago, and she likes it. We have a guest room now, and it was even used last weekend!

It was a great summer. We are starting to get back into the fall routine, which is good too. Our daughters also went on a mission trip to Mexico with their youth group and enjoyed building a house for a family there. My mom was out of town for 3 weeks and we took care of her dog. We enjoyed our friends' pool and we had a nice anniversary. The girls are in marching band now, and soon that will keep us busy with football games and competitions!

What did you do this summer? Were you able to travel anywhere? I'd enjoy hearing about it.

Psalm 74:17
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.


Proverbs 26:1
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.


Proverbs 30:25
Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;

Summer fun 2023

 We had a great summer this year. We didn't do any traveling, but we had a great time close to home. We had a wonderful VBS, enjoyed our friends' pool, attended a fantastic concert, had a nice July 4th, painted pottery, went to a nearby adventure park, and more. Enjoy the pictures!

We enjoyed our Twists & Turns VBS!

We enjoyed seeing the band "Unspoken..."

We saw the Newsboys, they were really good!

We enjoyed singing along with Phil Wickham too.

We hiked nearby with our youth group to a sweet pea patch... so pretty!

We went on a small hike on Father's Day.

We loved our time with extended family for the Independence Day holiday.

We even hiked to see this waterfall!

We saw Star Wars (A New Hope) in the theater... so much fun!

We enjoyed painting our own pottery, I made a sweet, little heart vase!

Lovely pool time on a hot summer day!

And for our last hurrah, we went to an adventure park that we had never been to before. It had several roller coasters, as well as cave tours. We enjoyed it all, even the downpour in the middle of the day!

The girls...

Bethany loved these huge statues...

Fun cave tours, so nice to cool off!

I rode this roller coaster the first time, then they rode it again. It was VERY fast!

I found my wings!

What did you do this summer? Did you travel to see anything fun?

Genesis 8:22
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”


Proverbs 26:1
Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, honor is not fitting for a fool.


Proverbs 30:25
Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer;

Summer Adventures

 We have had a very fun summer, mostly staying close to home. In addition to visiting family for the Independence Day holiday and paddleboarding (see previous posts), we went to a nearby Christian music festival, had a backyard movie night with friends, had family visit us, and more! 

My daughters were away at camp (one) and babysitting (the other) for an evening, so my hubby and I took advantage of having his Dad's old 4 X 4 truck. We drove it in the nearby mountains trying to find a certain canyon. Unfortunately, the road was not well marked and we had a hard time getting there. We finally found the road and had to head home shortly after. We had a picnic dinner though and enjoyed being together!

Such a pretty sunset!

We had fun going to our friends' pool a few times...

During our backyard movie night, after we ate tacos for dinner, it rained. After the rain the sky was yellow and we saw a double rainbow! We did end up watching "Encanto" after the sun went down.

We had two fawns born in our backyard in June, and we saw them often during the summer!

Some pictures of the music festival that we went to...

We saw Mac Powell, Danny Gokey, and Crowder. It was great fun and some awesome music!

We are close to the same age, so I could really identify with some of Mac's stories!

Danny Gokey and his band danced in sync!

He sang my favorite song of his, "Love God, Love People!" I also bought a shirt there that says that phrase on it. 💜

But Crowder was the BEST! He can play all kinds of instruments, including piano, guitar, banjo, cigar box guitar, etc.,  as well as sing! His violinist was incredible, and was head banging while he played! It was a blast to see!

We had such a great time there!

We played a game called "Trekking the National Parks" that we borrowed from family. It was fun... I won 2 out of 3 times!

We finished this difficult bear puzzle...

We saw the movie "Top Gun: Maverick" with the kids and loved it!

Joshua's aunt and uncle visited us for about 4 days. Mallory played her new (to her) instrument mellophone since her great aunt was a music teacher!

We played the Trekking game again with family, including Rebekah while she was in town!

We enjoyed the lovely wedding and reception of a young couple from our church. Their favors at the reception were little jars of honey!

It has been a lovely summer for the most part. Since his Dad passed away in April, our family gathered to celebrate his life. But that is another blog post!

Genesis 8:22
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Psalm 74:17
It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.

Proverbs 10:5
He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.