Summer Happenings

This is the view of the sun lately. With all the fires our allergies are killing us but the sun sure is beautiful to view! 

Chad got COVID and was sick for a few days. Then I got it. Both of us had to quarantine from work but were feeling better after just a few days so we got a lot of projects done around the house! We finally put up a fence that was knocked down by a wayward driver in January. We painted the treehouse that chad built after a windstorm broke our tree. We painted our living room, kitchen, and landing. It was amazing! Quarantine was actually quite pleasant for me as an introvert and Chad as a DIY-er! 

I laughed when Chad brought home real windows for this project, but I have to agree that they look really nice! And the kids love to open and hang out them. He suggested running electricity to it (for what a fridge??) but I kinda put the brakes on that. Party pooper that I am.

My helpers with the ground cover and bark

We've also done a lot of gardening. Chad built an amazing high tunnel last spring when the whole world shut down (quite literally) with the onset of the pandemic. The schools closed, stores, closed, hospitals were over run, etc etc. But here in Idaho, We project-ed our little hearts out. Our quarantine project. I hear everyone has one. LOL. Anyway, it has been wonderful and our second season in is just as fruitful!

And along with the gardening of course comes the canning! I have the best kitchen for this. I have 2 full sinks in my kitchen which drives me absolutely crazy... except when I'm canning! Last year I tackled pickles for the first time and we loved them! We actually eat more canned pickles and chicken than we do peaches and applesauce! And Chad helped me this year! Last year I was all on my own for all of the canning and it was so boring! So he being the wonderful man that he is, volunteered to help me this year and it was so great!

Chad went a little crazy with planting the jalapenos this year. Our kids don't even like anything remotely spicy so what am I to do with all of these?? So we pickled some. And dehydrated some. Waste not, want not... I guess.

We've also been exercising quite a bit. Isn't she the cutest little athlete? This summer the 2 older girls set new goals to be active. Jaedyn with running and Lilia with weight lifting which morphed into shooting baskets and the goal to make 100 every day. They even got up early to complete these goals before the heat of the day. The younger 2 followed suit and playing in our shop turned gym. I have loved this gym of ours. And am so grateful for it. It also was a huge blessing during quarantines as the gym closures didn't have an impact on us.

A new tradition started last year is meeting the Soderquists at Ross Park for a day of swimming fun. And this year the Nestlers joined us. Kelli and Dez are dear friends of mine from my childhood so it is fun to get together with them and reconnect and watch the girls establish friendships. We have 10 girls between the 3 of us! LOL

And a summer blog wouldn't be complete without making mention of at least one adventure! We joined some friends of ours and my parents and headed out to Mesa Falls for an afternoon hike and picnic. 

We sure are surrounded by so much beauty. I tell my kids all the time that scenes like this testify of God to me. The shape of a leaf, the smell of a flower, a puffy white cloud in the sky... happy little accidents? I don't think so.

 

Family Fun!

Chad's parents got their mission call to Nauvoo! We are so excited for them but as Jaedyn said, "it's a long time!" They leave in January... we may just have to go crash their party in Illinois at some point 👍

As a last hurrah for a while, they rented a beach house in Lincoln City, OR and invited all of us to come join them for some memories. We were so excited! In Northern Wa sits a rain forest called Olympic National Park. Chad has been wanting to visit there for a very long time. As we were driving up for a 3 day reunion, he decided to plan to take a little more time off and take me hiking and exploring in the park. Thanks to the generosity of his parents, we were able to do this sans kids! We were a little saddened though to hear that everyone had the idea to gather a little earlier so we ended up missing out on some good quality get together time. But I'm glad the kids at least got to take part.

The park was beautiful! We've flown to Hawaii and Costa Rica and have absolutely loved the rain forests there so it was funny to chuckle at the similarities so close to where Chad grew up!

Me and my main squeeze

And my main squeeze squeezing on a massive tree.

And a bridge

And a waterfall

Ok but for real, it was beautiful. I just don't have a good camera on my phone. And I may have been a little frustrated because my phone has been on the fritz and I've been looking for a new one. Right before this trip I was checking out the Samsung S21 Ultra and the camera was AMAZING! So every picture I took just made me sad because it could have been so much better if I'd just bit the bullet and bought the dang phone. But alas... sigh. So instead I created many memories while Chad took all the pictures. 

We headed up to Vancouver on the 24th of July, spent the night with family and then headed out to camp in the park Sun-Tues. On Sunday Chad woke up with a little sore throat that went away after an hour. The same thing happened Monday. His allergies have been bothering him off and on for a bit so we assumed there was something in the air. Then Tuesday he woke up feeling kinda crummy and it just progressed through the day. We returned to Vancouver in the afternoon and by then he was doing a little better. Wednesday we left for the beach and was a little congested. Thursday it hit him pretty hard and that evening his sister-in-law convinced him to take a COVID test which came back positive. Dang. So we left a day early. The kids were hysterical and we were disappointed. It was hard to end everything so abruptly and say good-byes that weren't real good-byes. 

We got several keepers for the memory books though, and these are my favorite pics. These cousins!

Best friends forever, cousins for life!

Sure do love you Cronin Gang!

PS: Sadly, Chad was only the first of many to become a COVID victim from this gathering. And we were all vaccinated! He is now fondly referred to as "Patient Zero" by his family. Thankfully all have made a full recovery!

 

The Cross

Several months ago I was listening to a podcast from the Taylor and Tyler Come Follow me podcast. I believe it was the Easter Special. I can't remember all the details nor context but within it they were talking about judging. Or rather, the importance of not judging. To illustrate this point one of them brought up the subject of the cross and how for many Christian denominations, it is a symbol of worship. The speaker confessed that they for a long time believed that crosses were wrong because we should worship the resurrected Christ and not the symbol of his death. He shared something along those lines with a Christian friend who was somewhat aghast at this judgement. She corrected him and said that no, she wore the cross as a reminder that Christ did suffer and die, but the cross, the EMPTY cross, was a reminder that that was not the end. That he overcame death through resurrection. I loved this. I have always thought a simple cross to be so elegant, but I also was somewhat standoffish toward the emblem. I don't even remember being taught specifically against it. Weird the ideas we can pick up, and a reminder to be careful of what ideas words can plant. Words are powerful and we must be careful with them.

Anyway, I mentioned this to my parents once when they were visiting. The girls were hanging around and Jaedyn must have been listening cuz she piped up too, expressing her admiration of the cross. We had a small discussion about it and the importance of not casting judgement. And that was the end. Or was it?

A few months later, Jaedyn went shopping at a store with her cousin and brought me home a gift. A simple silver cross. An empty cross. It is beautiful and I love it. And I wear it. Not just as an emblem of what it obviously represents. But also as a reminder not to judge. As a reminder to not allow myself to be ruled by the fear of judgement. And as a reminder that there is a little girl who loves me very much.

 I give to you... the cross.

 

Mt Hood

   This Post is courtesy of Helen of Trout

                                                   

This last week was the Boyd family reunion, which is Angela Cronin's side of the family.  Every year I think it'll be my last, but then every year I get invited again!  They always go camping to cool, remote places and it is so fun!  This year the destination was Mt Hood in Oregon.  Angela Cronin invited me to drive there with her family.  They were pulling a small trailer and, while on the freeway, we got flagged down by another car telling us one of the wheels was smoking.  Turns out all the bearings, except one, had failed and only one was keeping the wheel on the trailer!  Since it was July 4th weekend, EVERYTHING was closed.  Thankfully Les Shwab was still open for another 45 minutes when we pulled in.  They were awesome and fixed both wheels (apparently the other was going out too), replaced the tires, and $400 later we were off again!  I felt so bad for them cause it was a borrowed trailer they ended up basically paying for it but won't get to keep it. 

The first part of the reunion began with a backpacking trip consisting of about 13 miles.  We enjoyed the beautiful forest, lake, river, and many many spring crossings!  Only Wes and his two boys, Angela and her family, and myself ended up going backpacking.  Everyone else was still traveling to the destination. 

 

There were many many obstacles to traverse on this backpacking trip.  Logs and springs were the most common obstacles, with an occasional loss of the trail and spiders webs. 

Side note: this water was fuh-reezing!!

We had a spikeball tournament.  That was really fun!  It was nice to have several teams you could play against, and everyone was a good sport about winning or loosing.

We played lots of card games!

The kids occupied themselves by building a huge fort!

We went on a few hikes.