Summertime

Here's a recap of all the fun things we were able to do this summer.

For a homeschool activity, we got to meet Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series, and Beyonders. He gave a good presentation, helped the audience create a premise and setting for a story, and then the kids got to ask him questions about being an author.

Rob and the kids worked on building nesting box for the chicken coop.

building the box

The girls wanted to help by painting the old coop door.

nesting box in coop with the chickens

chickens in coop - getting bigger!

Sammy and Jen went to the splash pad with us.

Sammy was not quite sure about the water. Tessa was trying to get him to warm up to it!

Yeah! See? It's fun!

Elise being silly, Isaak looking for Kaleb

We had these awesome shish kabobs one night. Dave, Denise, and kids came over, as well as Ethan.

We make a good team. :)

Fourth of July weekend we went shooting with Dave and Miles.

I had to take my turn trying out Rob's shotgun. That thing kills your shoulder!

Rob was great with the shotgun. He hit a lot of the targets that Miles launched for him.

Gpa Pemberton's .22 rifle was much easier to shoot.

Funny picture - Isaak looks too young to be shooting that thing!

This is such a cute pic. This is my parents' atv.

The boys were playing on the atv - pretending it was a horse and they were Indians, I guess. :)

Feeding Sammy at Gma and Gpa's house before fireworks.

girls blowing bubbles by gma's pond

Here's a pic of the chickens from July... getting bigger!

With Emily and her kids at Herriman beach

The girls were a great help with peeling apricots to make jam.

All the kids helped pick apricots from the tree in our backyard, as well as a neighbor's tree. The boys helped peel too, but not as many as the girls did.

Stirring the jam. It turned out so yummy! We made apricot pineapple jam too.

I took the kids to the Wild Horse and Burro center up by Butterfield Canyon. It was cool to see all the horses and burros. You can make a donation and "adopt" a horse or burro. It would be fun to own our own horses some day.

cute little burro

old horse shoe

We got a new kitten in July. Her name is Stardust.

She fits in well. Thinks she owns the place. :)

Rob and his kitteh.

The girls participated in Herriman's musical this summer - Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They were part of the children's chorus, and they did a great job.

Rob and I both got to be in the musical too. Robert played "Dan", and I was a wife.

Picture of us all after the show. I also got to play the violin solo in "Canaan Days", which is why I'm all fancied up in this pic. It was really fun to be in the show together, even though it took up a lot of our summer. Most of the pics I have are from Joseph practices!