Labor Day Adventures

I decided to just post these pictures or nobody will ever see them. And of course, everyone must see them. I took them after all.

Sept 3rd, Labor Day weekend:

Have you ever been to watch sheep dog trials? Oh my goodness, so fun!

Of course, this is us leaving. You never take pictures of the dogs and sheep at a sheep dog trial... didn't you know?

If you want to see it, they're going to make a movie of it here. (a better explanation video of the actual trial is here)

It was really fun and I plan on going next year and staying all day. Or at least buying the movie they're making.

This is why we brought Megan.
Do you see the bonnet on Hannah? I made a couple small ones out of the leftovers from my pioneer sewing projects for adults. Hannah and Natalie were so excited they wanted to wear them to watch the dogs. Makes an aunt happy.

Then Alec pumped up the raft...
And Jim pumped up the raft...
But Megan won.
Why didn't we bring an electric blower? Oh we did. It just wouldn't work.

Then we floated down the river.

Of course we didn't take our electronics so u'll just have to take my word for it. We got cold, ran up against some trees, over rocks, a weir, more trees, more rocks, and a bridge pier. Emily thought we were going to flip so she got ready to grab some kids. That's when Bethanie got scared.

I wasn't in the boat at the time. When the going gets rough, Melanie bails... tries to get back in the boat and therefore distracting Alec (the driver) concequently allowing the raft to run up against the pier. Those engineers... no faith.

Its Jim and Megan's fault we didn't flip. Jim asked Megan to pray before we got out on the water. Lots of faith in college freshman and business men.

The fact that the raft was semi flat from our hand pumps and the coldness of the water probably helped too. It just smooshed up against anything hard. Thank heavens.

After that, the kids wanted to turn around and go back. We told them they could row back, but the rest of us with the oars were heading downriver to the car. It was so late in the evening by then that we saw beavers and muskrats all along the banks. Then we hit another tree (which Alec smacked with his oar to show it who was boss), dragged the boat out, ran up the canyon to get the cars while half stayed back to deflate the raft and wrap crying kids in towels, pushed the raft into the back of the car, stopped panicking after Megan found my car key on the ground in the dark (the faith of those freshmen rears its head again), and went home.

Fairly eventful day.

So we rested from our labors on Sunday so we could can peaches Labor Day.
Labor on Labor Day. Tee Hee.

Emily and Bethanie showed me how to do it.
First they get blanched so they're easy to peel.
Then you use child labor to peel the peaches and fill the jars.
Then boil them for 30 minutes.

No, we don't have a picture of the final product. We forgot. Maybe I'll take a picture of the few cans I took home.

As proof I did help, those are my arms (Pictures courtesy of Jim).
I handled the knife since we all know how good I am with sharp instruments.

So what did I learn from canning peaches? I HATE earwigs. Amen.

Then I drove back to Vegas with a beautiful bunch of grapes from Emily's garden along with a cooler full of garden vegetables.
Only special people get grapes from Emily's garden. Just saying. (Apparently I had a lot to say along with these pictures... who would have guessed?)