Another Birthday, Independence Day, and the Heat of Summer

Another Birthday = I turned twenty and am no longer a teenager.

Independence Day = The Steffens (and Alyssa) made their annual trip to Mediapolis!

The Heat of Summer = All kinds of summer excitement to finish getting our blog up-to-date.

Last time I wrote about life, Matt had just celebrated his 26th birthday and we were beginning the good ole' days of summer. For Father's Day, we celebrated with the Massner family on Saturday and the Schulz family on Sunday in Iowa City with Laurie and the new baby.

This is my Dad receiving his new grill on Father's Day! 

The garden? After harvesting lettuce and spinach endlessly, they were done and I harvested peas. When I finished spending a whole afternoon shelling them, I decided I'd had enough of peas and do not plan on planting them again for at least a few years.

I also ended up with a bountiful supply of green beans, and am still working on using up the rest of my tomatoes and peppers. We have been getting a few cantaloupe as well. In the orchard, I've been picking raspberries, blackberries, grapes, and apples so far. Last week I completed my first attempt at grape juice, so I'll see how it turns out. I am not very good at following directions so it tends to hurt me.

So...canning and freezing peaches, salsa, spaghetti sauce, grape juice, corn, green beans, jalapenos, and raspberry jam have been my primary projects for the past couple months. Although I was scared at first of doing any sort of canning, I am catching on. It was kind of nice to have a good excuse to stay inside during those hot summer days!

We spent another weekend in June helping Phil & Kelli shingle their roof (I will not take credit for shingling-it was Matt who helped). It looks very nice now! 

Josie, the boys, and I spent our evening shelling more peas. :) 

When we got home from shingling, Matt rescued our cat from the tree. I'm sure the cat eventually could have gotten down himself, but it was still comical! 

We had the single brothers for a "Thank you" grill-out for the grill they gave us for our wedding. Josh and Karrie helped out too. 

Mom sent a birthday cookie with Billy...

We celebrated my birthday with a fabulous dinner at the Massner house. What a way to ring in the new year!

Johnny made the onion strings! 

Mom grilled! 

Mom's creme brulee for dessert.

The next weekend was the fourth of July, and we were super excited to have the Steffens and Alyssa out for the weekend! They all came out to our place for lunch on Saturday and set up their big slip and slide to run into the pond. Quite fun and entertaining! 

Dad and Mom ate with the Matts

SLIP AND SLIDE!!!! 

Guitar time:)

Jesse, Alyssa, and Olivia get ready for fireworks

Everyone lit up the lanterns again at Sperry - this year we had a heart-shaped one! 

Sunday morning! Alyssa, Me, Cherelle, Liberty, and Olivia 

One of several swimmers at our pond this summer! Giving me the thumbs up! 

Umm...a ripe tomato? 

This moment was photo-worthy because I actually made a decent meal for Matt. The tomatoes were obviously ONLY used as garnish since he will not eat them fresh... 

We had a few other visitors for the evening in July! Mike and Ivy and Dallas and Christie.

The Gravel Doctor took care of our lane for us! 

We found two turtles coming up for air on a log on our pond :)

This is Andrew in the picture, but Matt's latest project (as previewed in an earlier post) was this floating dock. 

The floating dock's debut with Seth and Shadrach! He has a few adjustments to make yet, one being an anchor.

Shadrach found a good hiding spot up high in our living room! 

...and then our big vacation to Yellowstone came. Those details are in our previous post designated to vacation.

When we got back, it was already August: time for peaches and salsa! Mom did a lot of salsa for me, but I helped a little. The first canning I ever did in my life was peaches, so I hope they turn out! 

Once life had settled back down a little, we went to Bloomfield to visit Tim, Laurie, Kyra, and little baby Garret. Garret is home, but still on oxygen and a monitor. He does open his eyes and show a little more expression now! And we got to hold him for the first time!

Kyra, Uncle Matt, and Garret 

Matt enjoyed some quality time with Garret. ;) 

The next day, we went over to Peoria to visit my Grandma Knobloch for her 84th birthday. What a special day!

The next weekend was Town and Country Days in Mediapolis. I forgot my camera, but Dad and Mom Schulz took the kids through the parade on a small covered wagon. It was very cute! Matt's brother Zach was on the FFA float, and my brother Jonathan rode with the football team.

Misc pic: Matt is a pretty popular big brother and uncle! 

College started up in Ames a couple weeks ago and we were sad to miss the big picnic. Billy and Jacob are both up there this year, so we are hoping to go visit sometime this year! 

We spent our Labor Day "laboring" for Seth and Brenda as they moved from their rental home in Mediapolis out to a home they bought in the country. I wish I would have had my camera to take pictures of the big day! They are now hopefully settled in enough to make it through the week. :)

As for our daily lives, they much remain the same. Matt is still out staking and is gone for twelve hours every day. I still work four hours every day and try to keep things up here at home in the afternoons! Aside from a few encounters with poison ivy, I cannot think of many other highlights of our summer.

We hope this finds you doing well. Now it's time to get out there and enjoy the last couple months of decent weather before winter takes us on again!