Soooo....it has been awhile.



Hello!  Hope this finds you doing well!  We have made it through summer and have had a busy couple of weeks getting back into the school of things. :)  Our summer was super fun and even though I'm a little sad to see it go, I was excited to get back to teaching this year and the girls were excited to return to Ms. Evonne's to see their buddies and especially to start preschool.  We all function better with routine anyways (well, at least I do.)

 

Here are some pictures from the end of summer.

 

My running buddy, Katie, lives up the creek from us and has let the girls ride her horses.  Gabi is a natural.

Maya loving up on Rocky...both girls have given him so much more attention now that Jackson is gone. He loves every minute.

Playing in Gio's sandbox with buddies Tera and Kodi at the Pig Roast Greer & Amanda hosted a few weeks ago.

We put sod in about a month ago and it has done really well despite a major lack of rain.  Our sprinkler system rocks and I will now admit that it was worth every penny.  Greer and Chris really helped us out and we are thankful for their time.

Backyard all raked out and ready to go!  I had a few choice words for the weeds we had to pull out of there. ;)

Here we go...the Bobcat came in handy!

Almost done!

FINALLY DONE!  The girls have longed to do this all summer!

 We've gone on a few hikes, camped out in the backyard last weekend, and spent an evening at the cabin a few weeks ago.  Here are all 5 cousins playing in the canoe!

 
We traveled with Greer and Amanda to Austin, TX over Labor Day weekend to attend the Wyoming vs. Texas football game.  We had a great time...ate lots of yummy food and hit the town.  Gabi & Maya stayed with Dave and Joyce and had a heck of a good time.

At the University of Wyoming tailgate.

Texas stadium...we sat in the middle of a sea of burnt orange....a little intimidating but they were pretty nice to us.

Both Gabi & Maya started preschool last week.  Gabi is in Pre-K and Maya is in the 3/4s class.  They both love school so far. 

Gabi's 1st day of Pre-K

Maya's 1st day of 3/4s...of course she had to wear her absolute favorite dress in the world.

Maya and her buddy, Kade. She doesn't ever call him "Kade", she calls him, "my buddy Kade."

There has been a fire burning in the mountains near us since August 14th.  It started by lightning and has now grown to over 6000 acres.  We have had helicopters with big buckets of water flying over our house and haven't been able to open the windows much because it is so smoky.  My treadmill has reluctantly been used more than I'd like because I can't run outside.  They're getting a pretty good handle on it now, but it got pretty scary late last week. 

Hard to see the flames in this picture, but they were definitely visible on many occasions, especially at night.

 

This was probably the worse day...taken from the mesa above the ranch.

 

 

The harvests around here have been unbelievable!  The apple trees in Don & Phyllis' yard went crazy!  On Labor Day, we shook most of the apples down and pressed them into apple juice.  It was a lot of hard work but that apple cider sure is going to taste good this winter.  The kids definitely got in on the fun!

Picking up the apples.

One of many hauls.

"Heads up!"  Joe was up in the tree shaking down the apples.  I'm sure every kid got bonked in the head at least once.

The handy apple washers.



In addition to the 18 quarts of apple juice, I've also canned 14 qts. of applesauce, 27 pints of salsa, 34 pints of green beans, 26 pints of diced tomatoes, 14 half-pints of pizza sauce, 12 qts. of spaghetti sauce, 9 pints of tomato sauce, 5 pints of zesty zucchini relish, 9 half-pints of jalepeno jelly, 13 quarts of Colorado peaches, 5 pints of apple-chipolte BBQ sauce, and 5 pints of Sombrero BBQ sauce.  My canner is offically put away for the season...I kinda got in a little over my head (aka...lack of time for all of that once school started!)  I have frozen a lot of veggies as well including green beans, jalepenos, and green peppers so far. The garden this year was definitely a success...and is not done....there is still a lot to be harvested and enjoyed/frozen.

The girls still love to play outside, especially in their new grass.  It will be hard to keep them in once the weather turns.  Gabi is an expert bike rider!  Often, Joe and her will go for a bike ride after dinner and she loves every minute.  She is kind of a wild woman on that bike, but not major injuries yet (knock on wood.)  Gabi is also getting really good a hula hooping! 

Gabi took this picture of herself with my phone. :)

There is a new face on the ranch!  Dave and Joyce got a new puppy, Rusty.  He is super cute and the girls just adore him...they want to go see him everyday.  It will be fun to have him around.

 Until next time...and hopefully that is sooner than later...Happy Fall!  Tara