Peaches, Chicken, and Guitar Hero

It's been bottling week at my house. We bought some peaches last weekend and I spent any free time I had making jam and putting up the peaches. It's totally worth it later, but during the time I am doing it, I wonder. We did spend time as a family, working together. The boys blanched and peeled, Mike cut, I filled the bottles. If I was better, I would have a picture of it. Kate was at basketball and Kenna just played. It is better to work together. I also had a friend come over on Wednesday who had never bottled peaches and I taught her how. We spent the afternoon getting hers done. How did those women who bottled everything for their families to live on all winter do it? I was exhausted by the end of the week and my house was a wreck because I didn't have time to clean it. I felt like such a wimp. I generally like to be busy and I don't think I to lazy, but holy cow.

On Tuesday, I spent the day in Preston with one of my girlfriends, canning chicken. That was an experience. I had bought eighty lbs of chicken, because you take up your own. It was this crazy place, very old. You just put your meat or whatever in a can. People were canning pears, potatoes, carrots or even chili and soup. Anyway, after we put the chicken in the can, they put it in this steam cooker thing and cooked it. When it was done, you put the lid on, then they put it in a huge pressure cooker for more time. It looks like this when it's done. I put 3-4 chicken breasts in a can. It was totally worth it. I have a ton of chicken in my storage and it's super easy to use as it's already cooked.

Now for my guilty pleasure. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I love Guitar Hero. I'm pretty good to. I don't care much for video games and my kids will be the first to tell you I'm mean about limiting their screen time. Connor bought Guitar Hero. I have to admit when I first heard about this game, I didn't understand why so many people liked it, but I am hooked. I do limit my time and I didn't play at all last week with all that crazy canning, but I played yesterday. Maybe it's my unfulfilled secret desire to be a star. It bugs my boys that I am better at this game than they are.

Here are some random pictures from the week. This is where Kenna is sleeping tonight. Chase with Mike's new fish tank. He got this at a garage sale for $25 dollars. It had rocks, filter, everything with it except fish. It even had some unopend filters in it that were the wrong size. Mike took them back to Petsmart for a $20 credit. Sweet deal if you like fish tanks. Summer is officially over when the pool goes down.

Happy Birthday to Katie

Yesterday was Katelyn's seventh birthday. She isn't the oldest in her class, but almost. The kids started school a few days ago. Mike's parents took us to dinner at a local restaurant and this is what they brought Katie for her birthday. It was huge.Katie couldn't wait to open her presents so we did it right after breakfast. She was really excited about her sticker machine and her Indiana Jones legos. She invited two friends over for cake, play, and miniature golf in the afternoon. They didn't like the golf course so much because it didn't have castles and Ferris wheels and those types of holes, so they ended up playing in the water. She chose a football cake, (another masterpiece for me). All in all a terrific day.

These pictures are from our last trip of the summer. At the beginning of the summer, we asked each of the kids to tell us one thing they would really like to do during the summer and we tried to get that in. Connor had said Wildhorse and the Unitahs ( he couldn't keep it to one), Chase said Lava Hot Springs, Kenna didn't really care and Katie's choice was a camp out with just our family. We did it the weekend before school started. We drove up on Sunday after church and came home Tuesday. We really had a great time. Katie just bounced with happiness the whole time and we got in everyone's request. We camped in St. Charles Canyon, by Bear Lake. There was a stream behind our campground and the kids kept saying, "Oh, Grandpa would love to take pictures of this." So they took me everywhere Grandpa would like to take a picture and I took them. A few are on the side. On Monday, we hiked to Bloomington Lake. This was everyone's favorite. The hike was like the hike to Fall Creek, about 1/2 a mile and easy, but it got you to this beautiful mountain lake. The boys loved the rope swing off a tree. Kate swang out also, but didn't drop into the water. We spent the whole afternoon there. I just took pictures and watched. It was relaxing. You could fish there too. The next day, we saw a moose by the water, just behind our camp. I didn't get a picture, too many trees. Then we went to Minnetonka cave. That's also fun. We spent the afternoon at Bear Lake and came home. I think it might have been my favorite trip of the summer.