Strawberry Jam and other stuff

My sister Crystal and I spent most of our day Friday making Strawberry Freezer Jam. We each bought 5 big Costco containers of Strawberries, two bags of sugar each and 10 total boxes of pectin. Cutting the strawberries by far took the longest time, then waiting for the mixture to come to a full boil took awhile too, we took turns stirring the huge pot with a whisk. At the end we realized we had extra strawberries so I had to run to Smiths to get 5 more boxes of pectin. We started our jam making at 11 and finished up about 3:30. Here are some pictures of our endeavor.

(We had to take care of 4 kids and baby during this too, luckily Claire slept most of the time.)

Knee Boarding at Flaming Gorge!

Kaycee and her cousin Maddie

My three year old son Nathan is adventurous and fun, he is full of life and vigor. I love to watch his eyes full of excitment when he sees something new he wants to try. A few weeks ago he tried knee boarding, he could not wait to try and begged to get on that board, he looked so little being pulled behind the boat. We were at Flaming Gorge, the water was smooth and warm, he absolutely LOVED IT! All the kids did it and did a great job, Mariah was nervous at first and we pratically had to make her do it, she loved it and did not want to stop. Kaycee was a natural, got right up and even crossed the wake on her first try, she is our very coordinated child, that can do anything she tries. Kent and I tried a new fad called Boat Surfing, you get pulled up behind the boat on a surf board and surf in the wake, it is fun and Kent was able to let go of the boat and surf for a few minutes ROPE free, look at the video I posted of him surfing. I was able to get up easily and stay off to the side, when I tried to get behind the boat I fell. It is a lot of fun.

Growing up!

This summer I have noticed how much my two older daughters, Kaycee and Samantha have grown up. Kaycee just turned 11 and is going into sixth grade and Samantha is almost 10 and in fourth grade. I look back on their lives and can't believe how quickly they have grown, it seems like it was yesterday when Samantha tried to get out of her crib and would put one baby thunder thigh and grunt to get out , Kaycee was only 20 months and begging us to put her to bed at night. Kent loves the goldfish story, we lived in New Jersey and he came home to me feeding them both like chickens, I was scattering goldfish crackers all over the floor and they were gobbling them up. These pictures are the ones that reminded me that my little girls are growing up.

Piano practice pays off!

Kaycee has been taking piano for about two years, this video is of her recital piece from this year. Kaycee loves playing piano and never fights me to practice, she is working on a High School Musical Piece that is starting to sound amazing, when she masters it I will post the video. Here are a few of Kaycee's favorites:

***Ride at Lagoon: Anything scary, Wicked, Samurai and the Rocket (the one that takes you up very slowly and drops you) are her top three.


***Movie: Harry Potter, she was Hermoine for Halloween last year and is great at Harry Potter Trivia. She can talk in a British Accent and imitate Harry and Hermoine really well. She loved the latest movie, we took her on opening day. She can watch the movies over and over and has jsut started reading book one.


***Food: PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA but with pepperoni being the only topping. Her fave is Papa Johns and she likes to dip it in that gross butter stuff that comes in your box.

Green River Raft Trip

All twenty cousins getting ready to go on the float trip.

The scenery was gorgeous!

The entire trip people could not believe the size of our mammoth tent, two room and three if you needed!

We went to Flaming Gorge this past week with Kent's family and camped at Mustang Ridge Campground. Friday our first full day there we went rafting down the Green River, the trip was great because we were able to all go, including our 14 month old niece. We had the best weather and stopped on a beach to eat lunch, the kids absolutely loved it. I will post more pictures of the actual Gorge and a video of Nathan behind a boat on a knee board but for now I only have the rafting pictures.