Friday, July 25, 2014

Summer perks!!

Two posts in one day???  Im doing great:)  Actually our computer finally is cooperating with me.  Seems everytime I attempted to blog our computer would just shut off.  Soooo frustrating!!!

Not only does summer bring lots of fun activities, but it brings us lots of yummy treats we enjoy.  This year we decided to try our hand at watermelon and muskmelon. Plants are doing well and we have about 10 watermelon growing currently.  Our biggest one is the size of my palm.  A ways to go before we get to cut it up and enjoy it.
 Had an abundance of green beans at one point so I went ahead and tried my hand (yet again) at freezing them.  Did it last year but left them whole.  We didn't like how much water they retained so I cut them up this year and we are giving it another go.
 Our yearly pick.....this year I invited Kelli, Avery, Alivia and Austin to join us.  Between all of us we picked 50 lbs of blueberries.  YUMMMMM!!  Of course we ate 10 lbs fresh and I froze the rest.  Love having these in our freezer during the winter months.
 As a child one very fond memory I have is heading to Minnesota for christmas eat year to visit my grandparents.  We always ate their canned dill pickles and I have always wanted to know how to make them just like grandma!!  I am SOOOO excited to say that I got the recipe finally from my aunt nancy and this year we planted picklers!!!  Thanks to AJ's going on vacation I was able to go pick some of his picklers and Elijah and I set to work canning pickles.  Some of them were to big so we cut them into hamburger slices and a few of them we made into spears but most of them stayed whole(they are baby dills).

 Ellie wanted to help!!!  She was glad to pose with the canning salt:)
 Wonder what these are for???  Well, you place the jars into coolers and then put boiling water on top of the jars covering completely and leave over night.  In the morning they are sealed.  We have done many batches as the picklers come in.
 Here are just a few of the ones Ive done this year.  And we have obviously eaten some already and yep........it brings back a flood of memories as I munch on them.  OH what a blessing to have my grandma's recipe!!

 And yes, of course we have just now been enjoying sweet corn.  My parents 12 rows are ready to be eaten and "put up".  Need to do that next week sometime.  Want to freeze around 20 quarts or so.
OH WE LOVE SUMMER!!!!

Summer Fun!!

We have done really well at getting the boat out this year.  The kids really enjoy it, and its a fun family event.  Elijah asked Nick if he could try slalom skiing.  Nick told him he wouldn't be able to get up. (I didn't realize Elijah had asked him this).  Then Elijah came to me and asked if he could try slalom skiing.  I immediately said "yes, but its tough, and you get water in your face, and you have to crouch low, and you have to stay balanced".  He was excited to give it a try.  With two coaches from the boat and much to nick's surprise Elijah was up and out of the water within a dozen attempts.  And he has gotten up every time since.  Way to go buddy!!  We are so proud of you.  Great form of exercise and endurance!! (oh and for the record, because he doesn't weigh nearly as much as nick or I his face remains pretty dry when getting up and he doesn't have to stay crouched nearly as long as we do!!:))
 Even Ellie gets into the lake.  Crazy she does this because after our Tennessee vacation I was pretty sure water was NOT her thing!!!

 After seeing the boys go tubing she was pretty sure she wanted to do it.  She LOVES it!!  She bounces around on purpose and we sing songs about monkeys jumping on beds:) while she is jumping around.  She usually does not like it when she has to get out and let someone else have a turn.

 No they didn't all go tubing, but we wanted a picture anyways.
 We also had a fun saturday this summer going to Nick's work picnic at Indiana Beach.  Elijah was unable to go as he was at JR boys camp, but Caden, Liam and Ellie enjoyed it.