A Year!

YES it has been a year since I posted last on here! Not because I have nothing to post about but because I have been enjoying living in those moments and taking time to blog just seemed like putting a hold on life with my family. Sorry for deserting this for a while. I have a goal to begin again, take the time to write about our life, even if it is only for my sake. I realized I had a year of having nothing written down about the happenings of our lives. So, like I said, I will try to do better.

Instead of Catching up where I left off, I am going to sum up our summer which I can NOT believe is over. It seems while spring was here, I kept telling the boys "When summer gets here..." "When it's warm we will...." Well it got warm VERY fast and suddenly Summer was over and we are back to school. Two weeks of school have past and I don't think I was quite ready for summer to be done. I had planned daily summer activities for the boys but didn't seem to get around to those. However we did go to the beach and thoroughly enjoyed that. We did use our Slip & Slide on hot days and enjoyed our new playground we put up in the back yard. We also got to spend some time out on our boat.   Plus our time playing with our new puppy Kili. Isaiah's one request was to play Putt Putt during the summer, since it is only open during the summer months. We squeezed that into our last week before school starts and he said it was the best day ever.

 Slip & Slide Fun

 Beach Fun

 Our new Playset

 Fishing trips

 Our new puppy Kili, short for Kilimanjaro, though I hope she doesn't grow that big!

We did some traveling this summer and enjoyed the trips we took. Some were short trips like to the beach and the Aquarium. But we also got to travel to Williamsburg area.  We got to discover our American history and it sure made me proud to see how our forefathers fought and DIED for our country. Knowing their sacrifice would mean the freedom of the future generations of Americans, they WILLINGLY gave up their life to their country. Many moments of touring Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg, Keith and I would stop and take a breathe and say, "Wow the sacrifice" or "wow, we are walking where the men and women that formed this country walked." "Wow, the men who died here KNEW they would die but did it knowing full well if they didn't die, the Enemy would win and we would loose our country and freedoms!" I wish the leaders of our country now would visit these places and remember how this country was built on God and how important that fact was to their cause. I think if they walked in our forefathers footsteps, our country would be in a different state that it is in right now! If you ever have the chance to visit Virginia and see the history our country was founded on I would HIGHLY recommend it! Awe-inspiring, Breath-taking and humbling!!

Governor Nelson's House 

~ 300 years old, Minimal restoration and it was used in a few wars as hospitals. 

Oh the history on these floors! I wondered who walked, danced and even died on these floors. Makes you stop and appreciate history when you see it in person

We also traveled to Connecticut, to visit Keith's family, which was a nice trip. The warm days and cool nights were refreshing. It was a fun time spent with family and just relaxing.

Keith's Dad and Brother stayed with us before driving to Connecticut and they got to enjoy some golf and fishing.

 We got to visit around a bit and catch up on our lack of Clam Chowder, Dells Lemonade and Fried doughboy's, while checking out the beautiful Cold Blue Atlantic Ocean in  Rhode Island.

Rhode Island

Iggy's Chowder house~ YES!!!

 Del's Lemonade

We even took Kaden to his first Professional Baseball game. Yankees vs Red Socks. 

  We also got to surprise our boys to visit my high-school friend Daniel, who happens to have one of the coolest jobs working for LEGO. My boys were amazed and have future plans to be Master Builders when they grow up. And YES there is really such a job title!  Thanks Waffle! 

 LEGO ~ the place where EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!

 My future Master Builders

  Thanks Waffle!

Our summer was also filled with many fun visits from Family and Friends! It is always a joy to have people visit us and just enjoy being together. Summer started with my brother Jesse and his family coming for a visit. It was great to have my niece and nephew here to play with their cousins. We packed in a LOT of fun into 5 days and I have just a few pictures of it just because we were having fun and I forgot to take pictures. Eliana and Josiah became awesome crabbers and we enjoyed the time spent together. I wish we didn't live so far from each other.

Family time

 Beach time~ eating a genuine SANDwich

 Crabbing Crew

We also had visits from another high-school friend, Josh, and his Family. The Jeffer's had spent a week camping at the beach and then spent 2 nights hanging with us before heading to Pennsylvania. It was awesome to have them here, and my boys learned what a REAL Nerf War looked like with Jeffers and I. Brought back lots of memories of all the trouble, I mean times, we had together growing up!  Thanks for visiting Josh, Robin, Lily and Connor!

A visit from the Herrera's from Texas was a short but fun day! What a great time together. We formed a friendship when they came to Galena, Alaska for a Mission trip to cut moose for our village after the Galena flood.

The rest of our summer was filled with gardening and harvesting wonderful Veggies and fruit. Our garden did pretty well, though we learned what won't survive the heat here. We harvested from local farms green beans, Onions, red potatoes,  cabbage,  and sweet corn. From our garden we enjoyed tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, peppers, peaches, plums, figs, and more blueberries then i know what to do with. It was a fun season and we do enjoy eating the harvest and not having to buy these at a store.

Preparing our garden

 Some harvest from our garden

 Picking green beans

Sadly Summer is over thought the hot days have not left yet. It was a full summer of fun. but now it is time to start back to school and get back into a schedule. I hope you all had a great summer!