This summer my mom gave me her big pressure cooker and cold pack canner. I have been searching yard sales in hopes of finding old canning jars and have hit the jackpot a few times. This morning I got about 40 jars for ten bucks. Now I have quite the collection and need to start filling them with stuff. I have hopes of canning pears, peaches, salsa, and tomatoes, and I already made about 36 pints of strawberry jam. We went a little crazy picking those strawberries:)
My garden has been producing a ton of green beans! So today, I channeled my Grandma Holden. She made the BEST pickled dill beans! I remember raiding her pantry many times, swiping a bottle of these babies, and running out to her orchard to eat the whole bottle before she could find out about it.
When I would return to her kitchen with an empty bottle (and I can hear her voice in my head), she would just smile, shake her head and say, "Oh Heavens, Aundie!" (Aundie was my nickname back in the day.)
I can only hope they taste close to Grandma's...
P.S. Siblings: I'll send you a bottle for your Christmas present:)
On our recent trip to Utah for Kelly's family reunion, we took a little detour to Monticello to see my dad. While we were there,we (meaning I,) wanted my kids to experience one of my favorite childhood memories...cutting fire wood. I thought it would help my dad out too, since that is the primary source of heat for his house during the winter time. 
Okay, back to the nice hot summer weather! Besides cutting wood, my dad brought a few guns for us to shoot while we were there. Here is Maika. When she got the gun in her hands her arms just fell, I don't think she was expecting it to be so heavy. 
Logan was all business, I think she even hit the soda can she was aiming for, after taking awhile to figure out how to see through the scope.
Kelly had a go with the chain saw. I think he had a good time, too. We were cutting some huge trees that had fallen during the winter snows. All our backs were pretty sore for the next few days.
Nalani had fun riding the tree-horse we made. I used to love doing this when I was little, too!
Here's my dad with my kids. In the quakie trees. Quakies (Aspen) are my absolute favorite tree! I love hearing the wind blow through the leaves!
Logan and Maika.
Our family picture.
I decided to start off with our attempt at a family photo. A week before we were at these falls, some college kid jumped in to show off for his friends and was killed. I'm thinking he had a little "liquid courage" in him, because the only way I would jump in those falls would be to try to save one of my kids!
As the only grandsons, Bronson and Spencer stuck together. "Bence" is sporting a butterfly bandage in most of these pictures, because he ran into a BBQ stand while playing Frisbee. He cut his eye pretty good. The next night, while playing baseball with some kids from the condos, he got hit in the head by the bat...poor kid! He's a tough one, though!
This momma moose and her baby were right in our backyard two or three mornings, nibbling on some leaves. One night the kids were playing at the park and these two came running through the field and actually stepped on Spencer's bike and broke the hand-brake. Not too many kids can say their bike was broken by a moose:)
We spent the majority of our time at the pool. Every day we would pack a lunch and spend hours over there. This is Spencer, Macy, and Logan.
And, here are Bronson, Maika, Nalani, and Hannah in the hot tub.
Quite the action shot of Bronson jumping to Kelly. That's Nalani's head...she just finished jumping in and was getting ready for her next turn.
Auntie Rachel with all her nieces and nephews.
Grandma Marcia with all her grand kids.
My mom and Gary in front of some geysers.
Nalani's "boom-boom fire power!" pose.
Beautiful Logan!
We saw some other "wild animals" sticking their heads out of the truck while stopped for road construction in Yellowstone. That's Maika and her huge smile. All the kids fought over who would get to ride with Grandma and Gary.
This huge buffalo was about five feet from our truck.
No, this isn't a lake. The morning we left was super cold and foggy. We loaded up the truck, said teary good-byes to Logan and Maika (they rode home with Uncle Jesse and are spending a few fun-filled weeks with Kelly's sisters in Utah...more on that in another post), and started the drive up the mountain. At the top we started seeing blue skies and sunshine...we pulled over at a lookout point to take a picture. Jackson is buried somewhere beneath all those clouds, you can see the whole valley was covered and the mountains sticking out on the far side. It was so beautiful.