July Happenings 2017

Yeah, less and less creative titles.

I remembered last year we went up American fork canyon and played in the stream. I wanted to go play in water with the dogs again (and we didn't have a family dinner that Sunday) so we headed out.

Well... Apparently last time we went much later in the season when the water was gentle and cool. This time the water was running high and freezing.

Aaron putting his hand in the water.

It was so cold Daisy pulled her collar off rather than go into the water... She doesn't like to swim :)

I was wearing a white skirt... it might have gotten a little muddy, but no picture evidence so perhaps it didn't really happen.

Then it was the 4th of July. This was the picture I sent out to the nieces to get them excited. Setting up for water balloon volleyball!

And here we are playing. Amy's sisters family came to join with us. We had hamburgers on the grill.

And that is the end of the pictures that day...  See Marco Polo :)

This month my boss Susan decided to leave Jacobs and move back east to be closer to her family and other interests such as highland dancing. Emily misses the plums, grapes, and leaves she had shared with us. I miss her advocacy in the office. And of course, we both miss her! 

I wanted to make fruit pizza for her before she left since I know she likes it. I practiced by making one for 4th of July in the shape of a flag which turned out pretty well other than the fruit bleeding into the frosting.  Didn't take a picture of that but here are the two I made for work.

Didn't actually need 2 but we ate the rest at home :)

Remember when we sold the other working small tractor? Well, we got a younger one (1980s vs 1970s) that we bought along with a trailer, plow, and snow plow.  Craftsman is also still around so Aaron thought it will be easier to find parts.

Aaron did a little work on it with my help (I suggested the bicycle pump to clear out the gas line... which worked!) and Angela bought us new tires for the tractor and the trailer. Thanks so much Angela! We have mostly used it for carting the garden waste over to the goats.

Then it was Pioneer Day...I took a video of our beer.


And a picture...

Emily made a beautiful zucchini pie..

I think Aaron made a quiche too.

Obligatory fireworks... We just had Megan with us so this time I took pictures.  When we have tons of people I forget to pull the phone out.

Our pies... chocolate, key lime, apple, and some pumpkin cheesecake. Ended up with lots of leftovers so it became our Sunday dessert as well.

Just for my own journaling purposes, whoever of the nieces and nephews can come, join us for Sunday dinner. Jared and family come as well of course. We have had as many as 14 and as few as 7, not counting babies. It's always an adventure :)

July is the start of canning season. We are on our way to can enough for whole year, 4 quarts at a time.

I think this is applesauce, tomatoes (blended and then cooked down to a sauce), and cheese making.

The Friday night pizza tradition lives on.  I think I have mentioned this before, but Aaron has gotten really good at making dough. Lucy (sourdough starter) died while we were in Maine so I haven't made the flat bread like I used to. I think Aaron likes it better :)

See the ricotta goat cheese? Yeah, I made that.

Bailey's Wedding and other June Happenings 2017

So, beginning of June we celebrated Aaron's birthday. He loves those peanut granola bars!

And that's all the pictures I took there! Don't know if you have heard but many of the Helm girls have started using an app called Marco Polo. It's like Snapchat where we send little videos to each other.... although for some little is relative :)

So I've started sharing moments in our lives with low quality videos rather than pictures. Didn't noreally think about it until working on my blog. Sorry Aaron!

I did take a picture of Emily and I at Bailey's last minute bridal shower. Wendy (Neita's sister) did a great job on such short notice.

Here are the pictures of us waiting for them to come out...

The boys.

My beautiful Mom! Who isn't feeling well but always has a smile :)

Some girls... It was pretty warm so we were all looking for shade.

If you do a funny face, I will take a picture.

The kids patiently waiting.

Beautiful niece Anneliese.

Here they are!

It was so fun to see how happy they were.

Did you see that little Laurelynn back there ready to carry the train? She was so excited to do her job :)

She also asked something funny about Bailey getting married and not being able to participate but I can't remember what it was...

Aaron is telling Melina stories about the temple. I'm sure he knows :).

She doesn't believe you :)

See the beautiful large and small bouquets, boutenieer, and corsages? Mom, Angela, and Jenny made them all the day before. I helped by rolling a few of the parts for them to put together.  So very impressed with their creative skills.

Happy family pictures...

A bunch of us headed over to the City Creek food court for a smoothie.  Mom didn't go with us and we took so long that she called and told us everyone had left except her. We hurried back with a smoothie offering for her :) it was a hot day!

The dinner afterwards was in a beautiful old chapel nearby. It had stairs and ramps and hallways going every which way. So cool! Wish I had taken some pictures.

The next day Mom, Dad, Jared, and I headed up to Nampa for the reception. It was deja Vu all over again from Nathan's wedding reception... Except there was BBQ :)

Cutting the cake. The yard was decorated beautifully and Zane told me all about the weeks of hard work he had put in to make it so.

First dance.

Father daughter dance...

And Mother and Son... I need to take more pictures so I have more to pick from :)

From there it was a sleepless night in an old smelly hotel, early morning to the airport, and a couple plane flights to Maine while Dad and Jared drove back to Utah.

See previous post :)

Then we came home and we were back to normal.

Here I am out with the dogs. Cooper had sliced his foot somehow so I went somewhere new so he wouldn't think to get in the green canal at our normal spot. Remember, Cooper loves to catch sticks thrown in any body of water.

The rest of my memories are on Marco Polo...

SISTERS WEEK 2017! (June)

OK.. finally got to sisters week!  Man it was SOOO much fun.

Mom and I were tired since we spent the day before in Idaho for Baileys reception (the wedding and reception will be a different post.. along with the other June happenings) so the flight was very long (obligatory ducky picture).

Emily flew out from Salt Lake and met Jenny in Texas.  Angela flew out to Pennsylvania and drove up with Bethanie.  We came together 2 by 2 with the four of us (Mom, Emily, Jenny and I) meeting up in the Boston airport.  It was much cheaper than flying into Portland and since we had to rent a car anyways...

We had to wait in line for more than an hour to get our rental car so we ended up getting up to Bailey's Island in Maine a bit later than planned.  We also stopped at the Walmart right at the highway exit for food and other forgotten amenities.  The next day was Sunday so we wanted to be prepared.

So much fun to explore the cabin and catch up with everyone.

In the car after church...

Bethanie was nice enough to let us use her car the whole time since we could all fit... with the wheelchair in the back.

This is the closest thing I have to a picture of the cabin... I thought Angela's wheelchair looked rather forlorn :)

It was a fun cabin the owners only rent during the summer because it has no insulation and the second story is hung from the roof. Apparently those visitor familiar with construction are amazed at the construction... I didn't think much about it :)

There was a bay down a bunch of steps which we had to explore.

Emily, Jenny and Bethanie.  Thats the house up on the bluff.  There were other houses around the bay but we only saw a couple people the entire time we were there.  Booking right before the big season perks!  We also had great weather pretty much all week.

Aaron had been trying to get a hold of us (not very good reception on the island) because when he and Dad came home from church and immediately out to check on Spots (she had been antsy in the morning but wasn't due for 2 more days), he saw two babies looking at him!

A little boy..

and a little girl.

I can't even tell you how relieved Aaron was.  He had been reading up on what to do if any complications came up.  He was quite nervous, given Spots labor struggles for the last two pregnancies.  And then she goes and has them safe and sound all by herself.

(sent a day or 2 later)

We were all so very grateful that it went so well and I'm grateful to be reminded again of this blessing :)  Emily sure was relieved as well!  She had been thinking about skipping the Maine trip...

Now we could enjoy the week with no worries!  Emily and Jenny had us write down our goals for the week on Sunday so that we could make a plan.

It was a good idea cuz then we all felt like we had a successful week.

2 bums :)

Eating our dinner seaside at Lands End.

Monday morning we walked across the cool crib bridge that apparently I didn't take any pictures of... I really don't know why.  Its a cool bridge! I did take a picture of Mom with a butterfly on her finger...

That afternoon we went on a  "hike" to the giants steps.  We wanted to do all the fun things on Baileys island the first day.

We really were all so excited to be there in Maine and together.

Emily and the wide open ocean.

She loves the ocean.

It ended up being a bit of a slough pushing Angela along the small trail through bushes and over rocks trying to avoid the poison ivy...

But it was beautiful.

I thought this was a nice picture...

I loved hearing and seeing the crashing waves.

Pretty sure we did more things that Monday but I didn't take any pictures...

We decided to go more into the interior on Tuesday. We went to a Shaker village, the last one since there are only 2 shakers left.

It had a nice museum and a nice guy to tell us all about it.  We also spent some time in the little store, looking at hymnbooks, teas, and yarn made from wool from their own sheep.

Its unfortunate that we couldn't take a tour of the whole thing but the buildings were not handicapped accessible.

Emily and I probably could have carted her around but... the helpers there didn't think that was a good idea :)

Their buildings were nice.

And thats the pictures I took there.

Next pictures I have are Wednesday morning. Mom had caught what she thought was a cold and wasn't sleeping :( but she thought sitting in a boat would be OK.

The boat ride was so much fun!

Emily lost her hat though :(

We saw seals,

Lots of light houses

These were all on the river by Bath were the shipyards were.  Jenny and Mom were pretty sure they wouldn't be able to handle ocean rocking :)

We got to see a huge fort out on the coast

And another lighthouse.. Love the picture with the phones!

It was a calm day... our captain was surprised at how calm it was out in the "triangle".

When we went back, the captain took us up to go under the big road and rail bridge... I took a bunch of pictures but just showing one here

And we went by the plant where they build big ships for the Navy...

This is my surreptitious way of taking a picture of Captain Ed.. with a ship behind.

Bethanie had seen that he collected duckies so she had brought him a zombie one... when he took us out all his duckies were being washed :)

That afternoon we spent in Bath while Mom rested in the car.  It was a really cool museum.

Yeah, the boathose wasn't actually open :)

testing out the strength of the pulleys..

Pictures to show Angela what was up the steps...

She totally took advantage of an unattended phone... and now she gets a picture on the blog!

They had all the building showing what went into building a ship... Angela tried her hand at hand drilling.

Just want to say I tried it and it went right through... bigger mass :)

Strolling through Bath...

The next morning Mom was still not feeling well at all so the 4 of us got on our wet suits and jackets for a little bit of kayaking.

I didn't take my phone with me, for obvious reasons, but it was a fun thing to do...

The only problem was Jenny and I's kayak sprung a leak.  So Emily and I took it back.  Didn't get a refund but it was certainly an adventure!

Emily enjoying the bay again..

Mom didn't want to miss out so she joined us at a lighthouse.

Enjoying the fun museum attached to it.  Love this picture of Emily.

I need one of these.

They only let 5 up at a time so here goes Jenny and I.

The ocean view.

Tried to get a selfie... with Jenny photobombing :)

The whole group!

I'm not very good at this thing :)

It was a beautiful sight area... this is the fog bell.  They would pull up a weight and the bell would ring every few minutes for a couple of hours.

"Bethanie, stand like Jenny!"

There were wild roses everywhere.

The wide wide sea.

There was a cool place with an old fort and town that got sacked by Indians and other people (the French and British were fighting over this area).

Out west, I forget what a much longer history the east coast has... and how many amenities they had while the pioneers were still living rugged.

We found a quiet beach in the evening to play at.

Emily really does love beaches... she wrote her name in the sand.

Then she did Bethanie

Melanie (getting washed away)

Jenny

Angela

And Mom.

Poor Mom was still worn out... but she found a nice place to sit and enjoy the evening.

Here she is doing my name again since the first was washed away.



Everyone contributed to the Sisters weekend montage.

The sunset as we headed back to the cabin

Our last day we decided to explore a little closer to home.  It was more cloudy and rainy.

We attempted a walk in the woods with Angela...

I thought it was fun but I'm not sure Angela did :)

On this day Mom and Angela stayed in the car while the rest walked in the forest and out to an island that is only accessible at low tide.  I won't tell you the whole story (I'm not the one with picture evidence), but I did leave all of them behind in the race back to the mainland through the incoming tide.  Wasn't aware I subscribe to the "everyone for themselves" philosophy.  Ah well.

Last roam of the beach with the crib bridge in the background.

And a last drive back.

On the plane back I asked Emily "when can we do this again?"

:)