Amy's 8th birthday, rainbows, and snow

Yep - yesterday was officially Amy's 8th birthday. Can't believe that our baby is now 8 years old...where have those years gone? I know everybody says stuff like this - but it really does seem like just yesterday that she was born! She has brought so much laughter, smiles, and joy to our life - and even though they have gone quickly, I wouldn't trade a single day of the last 8 years of enjoying her!

I took some more pictures later of our family party - cake and presents and such (I will hopefully get those ready to post later today!) This was the first birthday celebrated in our new home - so I wanted so badly to make it a special day for her! I'm glad to say she went to bed happy, so I'm gonna call it a success! 

This past week since we have gotten home has been filled with little scattered rain and thunderstorms. I LOVE it - and have been happy for the higher humidity while I have been working on canning...usually canning dried my hands out something fierce, and that was in Washington with high humidity. I was afraid of what my hands would look like after a week canning here, but so far so good. I think I owe it to the higher humidity - thank you Lord!

So with all the storms, this view out our living room window (I know...gorgeous, right?) - has pretty much included a rainbow every late afternoon and evening. I think I'm gonna call this my rainbow spot! This particular rainbow was a couple nights ago, and the picture doesn't entirely do it justice. It was the FATTEST rainbow I have EVER seen! Seriously - I think it was double the normal width of a rainbow. BEATUIFUL!!! 

Then the other little thing we have seen out this window several times a day, is this little antelope! I kind of feel sorry for him...one of his horns is missing! He is always alone when he stops by, and I can't help but want to take care of him! He kindly complied with my wishes this evening, and moved toward the rainbow so I could get his picture with it...and notice the little double rainbow off to the left? Yep...it was mighty pretty...

Then after the rainbow, the clouds covered the hills...dark and stormy...

...and as the clouds cleared...I saw SNOW on the top of the mountains! 

YIKES! I'm both excited and scared for snow to hit here - but I kind of feel like I am just getting in the swing of enjoying fall - and now it wants to disappear on me!  I think it is because we just started school this week, as well as canning season. So even though it is the end of September, it kind of feels like it should be the beginning of the month! I guess I'm just behind a little is all... 

Sorry these have been few and far between! Being gone for a week, and then coming back with one day to unpack before tackling both canning and schoolwork - as well as birthday parties and continued house projects has provided a LOT of busy days! The last couple of days I feel like I have been on my feet all day, and dropped onto the couch to relax and watch a movie before heading to bed. Now that I have accomplished the 21 quarts of applesauce, and 14 quarts of pears I set out to can - hopefully life will slow down a little. (Yeah, right...who am I kidding, huh?) I do still have a couple boxes of apples to work on, but those will be made into apple pies to freeze, or if I get lazy - just peeled, sliced, and frozen for crisp and pies to be made later. We'll see how it goes...

First Day of School/Fall photo shoot

Sorry I haven't gotten caught up here yet! We got back late Saturday evening, and hit the ground running to unpack from our trip (a VERY loaded truck I might add!) - and then get ready for the week. Today we started our FIRST day of school for the year, and I'm happy to report it was a GREAT first day! LOVE it when that happens! They were done by noon, with no tears, and even a considerable amount of smiles! And...since they had been begging for a while to go to the park, we packed up and headed for the town park. I had never been there before, and was unprepared for how beautiful it would be - especially with the fall colors! GORGEOUS! Fortunately I was smart enough to bring my camera, although the battery died before I had taken half as many pictures as I intended! But I love the pictures we did get! And they had a blast rolling down the hill - I took some video on my cell phone, so I will try to upload those a bit later to share! For now, here are a few of my favorites:

LOVE this picture of both of them together! Perfectly captured both their smiles!

And to end, wouldn't you just love to step into this picture and walk down this path? We did for a little while - but I plan on going back soon to walk around some more! 

Hope you are all doing well, and will try to catch this up with some more pictures soon! Right now, it's off to cook dinner, get ready for another day of schoolwork in the morning, and hopefully prepare to tackle canning some of the apples and pears we brought back with us! Come to think of it, the next few days might turn out to be pretty busy - so you might not see me for a few days! 

We now interrupt this adventure...

Yep - it's true! I got pretty busy with trying to get our house unpacked and settled into, as well as the outside oiled and ready for the (rapidly) approaching winter, that this blog kind of got neglected! And now, we are working our way back to Washington for a weeks visit to the "big city" of Sedro-Woolley! So things will be quiet here for a wee bit I'm afraid! 

There have been a few adventures along the way though...a big thunderstorm - with a lightning touchdown that cause a small fire about a half mile from our house:

Then a little later, another particularly gorgeous and epic thundercloud decided to plop itself right over our house for a bit:

I also completed my first batch of homemade bread at high elevations - successfully I might add!

And used my new electric pressure cooker to make an incredible batch of soup - that started with dried beans, and was finished in about an hour! Definitely my new favorite kitchen appliance!

And I have come to love and so enjoy the view from our living room windows...gorgeous!

You can see the smoke from that fire still in this picture...it was contained very quickly I believe, but smoldered and smoked for a few days still...

And...this was early on our drive today! We have since landed in Montana, but drove by too quickly for me to get a picture of that sign!

Wondering how weird it is going to be to be at sea level again! And so excited to see and spend time with everyone again! So it's off to bed, and ready for another day on the road tomorrow! Goodnight!

Labor Day, Yellowstone, and Ice Cream

Kind of just realized that I had never gotten these pictures posted! Last Monday, Labor Day, we finally decided we'd had enough unpacking, and we were going to take the day off! So...since we are now only about 3 1/2 hours from Yellowstone, it seemed like a good place to start. So...we drove and made it to Old Faithful, right after it had gone off. We decided to wait around for the next go around, so we had a picnic lunch, then bought some ice cream (and...ummm...the small was HUGE, so we're glad we stuck with a small!) - then we walked around the loop that had lots of fun little geysers, holes in the ground, and sulphur pools. Made for a fun walk, then we found a back view of Old Faithful, and got to enjoy the show without the crowds! Pretty fun! Here are a few pics and videos from my phone...since I left my good camera in the car... :-(

Thunderstorms...

I kind of love thunderstorms - a LOT!!! And I was feeling a little like I was missing out down here, because in the 4 weeks that Michael was down here on his own, there were lots of thunderstorms, or so he told me. Then I was down here, and nothing. So on Saturday when we were working hard on our unpacking, I was quite delighted with the dark stormy clouds, and a great thunderstorm. Most of it stayed in the distance, but I'm still glad I got to at least enjoy it. And it makes me look forward even more to the next storms - that are hopefully very many!

I really love how far away I can see a storm coming - and you can tell where it's raining and the front of the storm is. Of course, that makes it more disappointing for me when it misses us, but it is still fun to see it - even in the distance!

Hopefully these videos work - I'm including them even though it is the best video taping! I of course missed all the best lightning, but these ones weren't too bad. And right after the second video, there was the one and only very close flash of lightning, that I also missed because it was in a different direction, but that was also the cue for us to head indoors...didn't want to become a statistic!

Boxes...boxes...and MORE boxes!

Whew! I thought for a little while that we would drown in packing paper and boxes, but it looks like we will survive this experience! I truly forgot how much work it was to move...and that is saying something, because I really thought I did remember! And we didn't have to do it all ourselves, we even had a moving company. Which explains the whole drowning in paper and boxes theory! Seriously, I'm pretty sure an entire forest died to supply the paper product for our move! 

Yesterday I am pretty sure I single-handedly unloaded 100 boxes...well, maybe that is exaggerating a bit. It probably was only 99 boxes... ;-)   

I pretty much have realized that the best way is just to get them unloaded and shoved somewhere, then when that is all done I can begin the long slow process of organizing things where they will work and function the best. That part will probably take about 4 years...figures doesn't it? 

Anyway - I don't want to take too long here, because I want to tackle the rest of the jungle today and see if I can conquer it! But I have some pictures and video of my first thunderstorm here (YAY - hopefully the first of many!) - and also a few pictures and videos from Labor Day when we decided to cut and run from the unpacking and visit Yellowstone for the day now that we are only about 3 1/2 hours away from there. So we  visited Old Faithful! I will also get some pictures of the house now that it is getting put together a little bit - but for now, here are a few shots from moving day after the boxes had all been dropped off...YIKES it was crazy! Felt like I was walking through a maze!