A Cinderella Party

For my Christmas present, one of my friends gave me a ticket to the new Cinderella movie - it was totally

photo credit

worth waiting for! This was the first of four visits to the movie theater for this specific film... What can I say? I had friends who wanted to go see it and they couldn't come with other friends - I couldn't send them by themselves.

However, Saturday night, we had a party at our house to watch Cinderella. :)

Since it was a Cinderella party, some of us (Sarah, Bethany, Susanna, and I) took one of each of the shoes you currently see and placed them in the music room. Feeling guilty of such a game, we did return them.

A "Brilliant" Summer

It is no longer Summer! Sometimes I don't know what I've done - I don't have a huge clue or a day-to-day schedule, but here are some of the highlights of my summer and not in any particular order - just the order they came to mind. :)

Soccer:
Kaytra, Titus, Josh and I got to play Tuesday nights - in a word, it was "brilliant".

If you're curious, yes, that's a gallon of Gatorade

Texas:
Such a fun time with Grandparents and cousins!

Fair:
Always tons of fun ;)

Cliff Jumping:
This, soccer, Church Camp, and Family Vacation - they are my favorites!

Running:
I ran two... :)

Church Camp:
How do you explain it? :)

Family Vacation:
Wow - totally amazing!!!!

So if you were me, and you had to describe your Summer in a word, what would you say?

Hope you all had a good Summer! Now throw on your sweaters and scarfs, and pull on your boots and gloves. It is officially Autumn!

Sun River

Last post was a stalling post, I admit. We had just gotten back from our church's Family Camp and I didn't want to blog about that yet (planning on that happening next week). But now we have just arrived back from our family vacation. I took over 100 photos on vacation, so you are just getting the best or my favorites. :) And now, here is my family vacation in a nutshell - ok, maybe 12. :)

some family member sleeping...

The sum of day one? Sleep and rest. Think of Pooh Bear "Sleep and eat then repeat" - it was gorgeous. Hence, there are not many pictures from that day. :) While in Sun River, we didn't really start doing anything till 9:30. One of the days we were there, I slept over 12 hours! :)

I won't give you a play by play for day by day on this vacation - it's a time of relaxation and just super awesome family time.

There are always two main attractions at Sun River:

#1 Doughnuts - same place. We've outlasted owners but by the end of our week of vacation, the new employees know who we are.

#2 SHARC - this water park is a new addition - well, in the last six years, but we've been going for 21. :)





Last year, we started a new "tradition" of meeting up with some of our friends who live in that area. They showed us how to rock climb this year. All nine of us kids gave it a go - I didn't go all the way up, my battle was just going. Even though I'm afraid of heights, I can't bear to not give it a go if other are having fun when doing it.

We're always sad to leave Sun River, but always refreshed and ready to return back home (where there is green grass. :)

I'm so grateful for my family and the time we have to just be together - when we're home it's so easy to get busy. It's kinda funny to hear yourself say, "Oh, man! I wish a spent more time with that family - oh wait! they are my family." I don't have the picture Dad took the last day Grandma, Grandpa, and Ben were there, so I just put these on instead - this is who drove home in the camery. :)

Favorite goofy pic

Crazy - love Grace's face

Kinda feel like this has some real personality to it. :)

Thanks for coming along - I think my next post is on Church Family Camp - it's hard to have so much good stuff all at the beginning of September! Probably my favorite two weeks ever! :)

Pita Bread

This is one of our family's favorite things to have as a snack or with dinner - Pita Bread. 

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016071-homemade-pita-bread

I'm Singing in the Rain!!!

I woke up at 4:37 this morning to the beautiful sound of not just a sprinkle, but a real rain. I woke Grace up - living in the Northwest and not having a real rain is a very important reason to be awoken. Once she heard my cause, she too was thrilled. When I woke up 3 and 1/2 hours later, it was still going on (though it has now stopped). 

If you didn't get to enjoy the rain this morning, I'm sorry - but I hope you enjoy the effects of the rain. :) Have a great Saturday!

Music on the Lawn

Sarah had her studio's Music on the Lawn Friday evening. All of her students performed well - Sarah said that the most lessons anyone had over the summer was 6.
There were two duet performances - Daniel and James who opened the recital with "Bring Him Home" and then Olivia and Grace who concluded the recital with "Forgotten Fantasia" - you don't know the composer for that one? Ben wrote it originally for Sarah (piano) and her friend Jenny (cello) for another friend's movie. The movie never came to be, but the music lives on.

We were all suppose to make something to share for afterward, so I made cheese covered olives. These ended up being part of dinner and Madeline made peanut butter cookies to share instead. A superb idea.

Mix all ingredients but olives together.
Wrap each olive with cheese mixture.
Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes on ungreased cookie sheet.

Mom and Dad gave me a cookbook for my birthday - one for me to place recipes in and to decorate. I decided that on one side of the page I will put the original recipe and on the other I will put gluten free, dairy free, and paleo variations on. Now that I have a plan, I can slowly start to get moving. :)

The Fair is in Full Swing

It's still dark at 5:42am...

Technically, it was in full swing last Friday, but we have just gotten back from our first full day at the fair. We
(Josh, Grace, and I) got up early - until you hear that our friends got up at 3:00am.

Hurdle #1 at the CC Fair: Vet Check

Slightly lighter 10 minutes later

This usually goes really well and we expected the same this year. The weather was dry, so we didn't have to worry about hoof rot but we've never had to deal with sore mouth before; however, now we know what sore mouth looks like and will be discovering how to heal it as Joshua and Madeline's lambs couldn't enter the fair because of it. I always feel badly for the people who don't make it. Was there anything I could have done to help change that? I had not even thought about the vet check and jumped to the second hurdle. I don't love it but it is a great assurance to know that God is in total control and has a perfect plan. Josh and Madeline - they are being a great example to everyone else in the sheep barn. I'm blessed by them.

Morning in the fairgrounds in the
stadium

Hurdle #2 at the CC Fair: Final Weigh-In
This one always makes everyone nervous. Each lamb needs to gain about .4lbs everyday to be able to sell at the auction (though more is acceptable). With all the warm weather, the lambs hadn't been eating as much, which caused their owners to be slightly paranoid. All of us who entered the fair were able to jump this hurdle as well.

Hurdle #3 at the CC Fair: Market Ready
This won't happen till tomorrow, but this is where the judge will go and make sure there is enough meat on the lamb to sell. Rarely, but sometimes, will a lamb pass Weigh-In and not pass the Market Ready - so we're all hoping that that will remain case.

Tomorrow is another fun day and there are still things to do tonight - I should get going.

~Rachel