insta friday

only three weeks left til school starts and we are trying to squeeze in all of the stuff we can before summer is over.

last friday we headed up to anderson ranch for some outdoor fun.

rob and taylor went backpacking with kris and josiah and melissa, me and the rest of the kids stayed at her family's cabin.

there is a creek right below the cabin so we spent a fair amount of time there.

this is the first day. 

emily was wearing a skirt but that didn't keep her from hopping in.

her, marley and kristian had a ball playing in that ice cold stream.

this is the end of day two.

not sure how the kids got this dirty but in the midst of playing all day they were covered.

covered.

head to toe dirt.

i love that about this girl, though.

she is a girly girl when she wants to be but more often than not she is just as dirty and scraped up as the boys.

she just does it in a skirt.

we took a package of 100 glow sticks up with us.

we came back with zero.

the kids made necklaces, bow ties and eventually put them all together and wore them as a giant bracelet.

when we got home i realized i had loads of strawberries that i needed to make into jam.

good thing it's relatively easy.

taylor had picked quite a few blackberries from across the street so we ended up with eight jars of strawberry and four jars of blackberry.

that should keep us for a while.

taylor started football this week. 

this is his fourth, and last, year of optimist.

four years!

it's bittersweet.

our dahlias in the back yard. 

they are gorgeous.

more of this dreaded task.

i seriously hate ironing.

i wait until there are about twenty shirts that need to be done, or til rob threatens me with death, and do them all at once.

if i can find something to watch on tv it makes it a little less painful. 

we have lots of fires burning in the state of idaho.

the smoke has been making the sun and sunsets gorgeous.

if only all that smoke didn't make me all sneezy and headachy.

the fruit of skye's labor.

i couldn't make it to peach picking cause i was making jam but she got me some anyway.

now what to do with them...

the first three days of football is, mandatory, helmets only.

last night was the first night of full pads.

they may look tough but i think they are adorable.

between the smoke and the clouds this mornings sky was beautiful.

last, but far from least, we celebrate this guy's 12th birthday today.

i was supposed to have a c-section on the 15th, the day after closing on our new house and trying to get as moved in as possible.

on august 10th we went on our walk through at 3:30 and were on our way to look for furniture at rc willey when my water broke in the parking lot.

two hours later this little 8lb 14oz baby was here.

he has blessed, and sometimes stressed, our lives for the last 12 years and we wouldn't want it any other way!

love you taylor tot!

happy birthday!