We Have This Moment

Saturday, September 13

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!

Monday, August 25

Yellowstone 2014: A breif outline of how we "bear-ly" survived

"We Bear-ly Survived" was our motto this vacation. Not because we saw very many bears, but because we put those words on the backs of our shirts in hopes of seeing lots of bears. We only saw one, and only a select few of us at that.

Because I already posted my journal on The Massner Tales in extensive detail, I will refrain from repeating myself. Instead, I will give a brief outline of our trip and share some photos with you (most photos on this blog are repeats of what was on the Massner blog).

I am almost exactly one month behind on this post. We left a month ago today around this time for Big Sky, Montana.

YELLOWSTONE 2014 - COUSINS VACATION

Friday, July 25:
-Left around 4pm
-Stopped in Carroll, IA at Charlie's Steakhouse for supper to use up Matt's gift card. Yummy food!
-Drove through the night

All ready for vacation!

Saturday, July 26:
-Took our time after arriving in Wyoming
-Went grocery shopping in Boseman, met the Schmidgalls and Aschemans there
-Arrived at our vacation house in time to make supper
-Walked on streets around our cabin and saw our first (and last) bear!

Dad entertained us over the speakers with Matt's handy microphone.

Wyoming, at last! (following a twenty-hour trip!)

MOOSE!!

Some wildlife we saw on the side of the highway.

Billy gets settled into the cabin.

The first Supper on Saturday evening.

Happy birthday, Aunt Penny!

There's our bear!

Sunday, July 27:
-Small church service held at our cabin
-Afternoon hike at Ousal Falls

Ousal Falls

Monday, July 28:
-Left at 6am for Yellowstone-spent an eleven hour day on the road!
-Wore our bright yellow vacation shirts!
-Saw Grand Canyon, Yellostone Falls, hiked Uncle Tom's Trail (very strenuous), and Old Faithful
-Drove through Hayden Valley and got stuck in a bison jam!
-Took Jesse and Gage on a Bear Hunt after supper. No luck finding bears, but saw some moose and deer as well as a double rainbow!

Day one in Yellowstone. Our first Geyser! :)

All twenty-one of us. The Massners, Schmidgalls, and Aschemans (and two Schulzes)

Buddies! Jesse and Gage

Yellowstone Falls

At the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail

Bison traffic jam!

The girl cousins!!

Elk in Mammoth Hot Springs

We're going on a bear hunt (rainbow in background)!

We saw a double rainbow if you look close!

Tuesday, July 29:
-WHITE WATER RAFTING!! Everyone loved it! Our guide kept dumping us out of our raft in the calm parts.
-Johnny purchased a fitting shirt that said "I enjoy a good dump."
-Parents went out to eat while the kids stayed home and had a pizza party.

This is the only picture we took on Tuesday because we didn't take them on the white water. Travis was enjoying his pizza crusts.

Wednesday, July 30:
-Left again at 6am for Yellowstone and another long day of sightseeing!
-Drove through Dunraven Pass, ate lunch at the top of Chittenden Road, stopped at Inspiration Peak, hiked Tower Falls trail, drove through Mammoth Hot Springs where there were elk all over, saw several geysers at Norris Geyser Basin.
-Dad's football moment in the traffic jam.
-Stopped in West Yellowstone for shopping and souvenirs.

Lots of photos!

The view from Inspiration Point?

Matt was trying to be a daredevil.

Beautiful mountains!!

Norris Geyser Basin

The only bears most of us saw were stuffed.

Thursday, July 31:
-A few boys got up early and hiked a mountain.
-The rest of us slept in, had an early lunch, and hiked Lone Peak trail.
-Only six boys made it to the top while the rest of us rode the ski lift a few times.
-Jesse lost his wallet.
-Kids played games with Matt after supper while Moms packed to go home.

Lone Peak: the mountain we climbed.

The hike was steep and rocky!

Matt's view from the top. I think you can see our cabin down there somewhere.

Snowball fight at the top!

Those who made it to the top got to sign the guest book!

The brave crew of hikers that made it all the way!

The boys got a free tram ride down when they made it to the top of Lone Peak.

Everyone shows how far they made it up Lone Peak.

My view down the mountain.

Jesse and Gage

Ryan and Justin enjoying a relaxing and scenic ride on the ski lift.

Friday, August 1:
-Said our goodbyes to the cabin.
-Drove through Yellowstone again and through the Grand Tetons.
-Rode a ferry across Jenny Lake and hiked to a waterfall.
-Drove to Jackson Hole for the Bar-T-5 Chuckwagon Supper (Abby and Bruce had their performance debuts!)
-Said our final goodbyes to our cousins and headed home through the night.