Summer

 We had an early crop of raspberries this summer, which was the most we've had yet! We were very excited about this since all of our kids absolutely love raspberries and they happen to be the only thing from a garden that Erik will eat. Score! 

Most days I picked about a pint of raspberries for a couple of weeks!

We have also had a plethora of cucumbers, which at first I was wondering what to do with all of them, as I have been trying to eat as many as possible. Then I realized that since the BYU I Dance Alliance Team is coming to our house for lunch next Saturday, before their performance that night, and we're serving Lebanese Food, the salad we're making has cucumbers in it. I will need 8 cucumbers for it- perfect!

We don't always go to baseball games over the summer, but we have made it to a Tiger's game every few summers. This summer, our friends the Kishs, got tickets through Joe's position at Ford to go to a game, including sitting in a VIP lounge complete with all-you-can-eat food and they invited Jason and me to go! It was so much fun hanging with them, eating delicious food, and watching a baseball game that we actually won! The Tigers haven't been great recently, but we managed to pull off a win against the Guardians and the game didn't go on forever- another bonus! Since we had VIP tickets, we also had VIP parking and got out of the stadium quickly due to our close-by parking space in the garage. It was lovely!

Inside, where the food was.

Just outside where we ate. Jason has a Tigers hat, but we had to wear our Michigan shirts since we don't have Tigers shirts.

Before we left I snapped a couple of inconspicuous pics of the VIP lounge.

On the way out.

Texas Adventures

 We decided to drive a long 13 hours on the first day of our trip to make it to the National Weather Museum in Norman, OK. the second day. Luckily, we gained an hour on that first day and made very good time. Friday morning even allowed us to sleep in a bit before driving the 3 hours to the museum. From there, it was only 4 hours to Jason's parent's house in Amarillo. 7 hours total driving in one day is easy for us!

We had fun pretending to be meteorologists!

We found the green screen robe!

Exploring water run-off with sand!

We only spent 5 days in TX, but we thoroughly enjoyed all 5 days. We visited with Gramms and Abuleo and with Uncle Thomas and his family, who live only 10 minutes away. Jason, Austin, and Erik saw them 2 years ago, but Kade and I hadn't seen them in years!! Maybe 5 or 6? We played games, reminisced, and ate lots of good Texan food, including Thomas' pulled pork sandwiches and BBQ chicken with homemade coleslaw.  We went swimming, hiking, visited the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, and pulled weeds for Gramms and Abuelo, earning more good Texan food (donuts and pizza for the kids and Indian food for the adults, though that wasn't necessarily Texan, but it was delicious!) We even watched the news about the Trump shooter and had some discussions over that. We have people on both sides of the political scale, but everyone managed to get along well enough!

Here's a picture walk of our main activities with more descriptions of each following:

We acquainted ourselves with Gramms' and Abuelo's back-door neighbors.

And reacquainted with cousins!

All the kids love Raising Cane's!

The adults got to sit by themselves. Thanks Abuelo!

We spent time at Thomas' on Sunday. The grandpas are pictured here. 

On our way to the museum, I snapped this. Erik is proud to be as tall as Gramms now. 

Panhandle-Plains Museum cowboys!

Giant dinosaur puzzles!

The kids really loved the dinosaur exhibit.

They especially loved the Pioneer Town, though! Here they are role-playing at the Saloon! They also role-played at the schoolhouse, the bank, and the jail!

We got out bright and early on Tuesday to beat the heat for the weeds. We were already halfway done when I took this picture. Only a little after this we had some cloud cover and the kids did some bonus pulling on the other side, which wasn't nearly as bad. 

We blocked the finished product picture, but it was done! And look at those clouds now!

Feeling good about a job well done!

We found this little guy- George.

Erik, Jason, and Abuelo took care of him while the rest of us were shopping at Plato's Closet. 

On our way to Palo Duro Canyon. Again, early, to beat the heat! 

I was surprised by how many animals we saw. You can barely see the butt of a deer running into the field here. 

We saw cross-country runners running back as we started our 6-mile hike to Lighthouse Rock. 

The colors were beautiful!

We saw this Western Ornamented Box turtle carrying a beetle for lunch.

Our destination in the distance. 

Kade is a hair taller than me now, but my posture is better!

Jason got good practice for his backpacking trip next week with the YM. He carried all our waters!

We saw a couple of Horned Toads and I refuse to include the pictures of the giant wolf spiders the others took pictures of. I tried to, but I couldn't. It just brought back the memory of seeing those gigantic things walking on the trail. I had to be escorted by so I couldn't look at them and so I could feel like they weren't going to attack me while passing. I hate spiders!!

We made it! 

They always have to explore a bit.

The way back was brighter. Austin and Erik took turns carrying the pack of waters back down, though that was easier since they were almost empty! They should have carried more on the way up to get more backpacking practice. And to finish up the hike we were gifted to see a diamondback rattlesnake, while in the truck, in the middle of the road. Kade was happy to see the snake, I was happy we were already safely in the truck!

I only got one pic of the pool because I was busy in the water! The kids had a blast racing their cousins on this obstacle course. I did get a video of Jason and Thomas on it, but I won't post that!

On the way home, we stopped in Joplin to see the memorial to those of the 2011 EF5 tornado that went through there. If you want to see a beautiful memorial and read some touching stories, go there. It was heart-wrenching and heart-warming at the same time. That tornado was the biggest of this century and the most expensive of all time. Kade is fascinated by weather, especially tornadoes, so he played a big role in our sightseeing. 

Pieces of shrapnel from the tornado. Look carefully at the next 3 pics and see what they preserved. 

Honoring the volunteers who helped.

The frame represents the buildings that were lost.

If you can read this, it is so touching. If not, look it up.

These butterfly stories are the best! This is why it's called The Butterfly Memorial. Basically, angels in the form of butterflies saved many lives!

This was outside St. John's hospital that was destroyed, but this cross and hands stood standing. It was erected in 1996.

We also stopped by the famous sign for Route 66 and drove a lot of the way on the famous road. My kids were Cars fans back in the day, so it was kind of fun. We also finally got to stop by Buc-ees, the famous stop for the cleanest bathrooms, affordable, quality gas, and delicious food, especially brisket. And yes, I did get a brisket sandwich, which was excellent! For the record, when we were in Amarillo we got Whataburger for one of our meals and I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, as I often do because I don't eat a lot of fast food burgers, and it was way better than the grilled chicken sandwiches at Chic Fillet. Not, the crispy chicken sandwiches, which I've never had at Chic Fillet, but the grilled chicken sandwich. It has no flavor. So there's my opinion. 

We couldn't get better than this. There was some fair going on in the street and there were people everywhere!!

Buc-ee the Beaver!

The trip went way too fast, but we enjoyed it, so that's the most important part!