Thomas and Janae...

 Friday evening, the day before the wedding, we were able to attend the temple with Ben for his first time.  It was a wonderful experience.  Ben has such a strong spirit.  It was a nice evening for Peter and I, and one we will remember.

 man, was the sun bright!  super squinty pictures...

 wedding day!

 here they come! 

hard at play

 this here monopoly game took hours.  and hours.  all day really!!!!!  i think it made the three of them pretty much hate monopoly.

 we've had some crazy clouds this summer...and here is another example of them. 

 just playing ball outside.  we have lots of mosquitoes this year, so we take the outdoors in small doses. 

girls only!

Tessa and i had another one of our girl's days a few days ago.  We did some shopping- then went to a matinee of "Mortal Instruments".   We have read all the books...and Tessa was anxiously awaiting the movie.  I didn't expect much, being a movie from a book, but surprisingly- it was pretty good!  And another surprise?  It was totally clean.  NICE! 

updates

last night was nice.  Ben recieved his Melchizedek priesthood ordination.  Pete gave him a great blessing.  he is that much closer to being a missionary now.  1 month from today, he will arrive in England.
two weeks school will be starting.
crazy.
this summer has flown.  as usual.  this one hasn't exactly been full of activities and trips.  we usually at LEAST head to Whitefish for a few days.
 it would have been nice to take Ben once more.
it has been HOT this summer.  i frankly am sick of it.  i am having AC next year, even if it involves a small unit and me drilling a hole through the wall.  YUCK.
we have lots to do still.  little things to get for Ben.  we got his visa this morning, so at least that is all set.  friday he goes to the temple...
saturday Thomas and Janae are getting married.  so there is a lot going on...it is crazy.
i really NEED A VACATION

so happy together...

sometimes Tessa and I like to play Disney duets together...

time's a'flyin!

we are creeping up to the 6 week mark!  it is so crazy to think that in 6 weeks Ben will be living in England!!!  it is a bizarre but extremely exciting thought!  i can't wait to live vicariously through his fun.    we have lots to do though...tomorrow we head to Kalispel for the day.  we usually stay over, but not this year...so we hope to power shop hard for one day.  hope we can find SOME mission stuff, and some school stuff.  thanks to Kathy and Don, we are getting Ben a good coat.  so we have to focus on shoes, boots, lots of clothing, and a few churchy things like books.  missionaries can now wear sweaters and different pants...they seem to have more freedom- so hopefully it will be easier.  

no, HAIL!

last sunday we got our 3rd- maybe 4th round of hail in weeks.  they have been fairly small, but this was the largest this year.  as i heard the weather forecast for storms, i just knew there would be hail- nobody else really thought so.  i was mostly worried about my garden!!!  

anyhow, later in the day these creepy clouds started forming...

 looked like hail clouds to me!

 um, yikes!?  this was giving me a flashback of exactly one year ago with the crazy huge hail.  didn't want to see that ever again!

 a lot of it was small up to ice cube sized...most loonie sized.  a few cracks in our siding, and our new gutters are all dented.  nice.   GRRRR.  we have had the most insane weather this year.  there are storms and weird things every day all over Alberta.

fun fun fun

it was fun to watch Pete and Ayden put this deck together.  and they enjoyed doing it!  they had great weather, and Ayden learned some good skills.  they did a great job, and next up- staining.  

 Ayd and I painted the picnic table.  we like it- even if it is kinda bright, and not everyone seems to like it.  it was fun!

and here we have...

Ayden...showing some things.  first- we have this monster bush outside his bedroom window.  it used to be a kind of smaller shrubbery, and now it's beastly. 

 my squash plant.  and...it's small in this picture.  got a little destroyed by hail, but is still growing like crazy.

 sadly, the sunfire has seen it's last day.  it went from a great car, to an okay car, to a crappy car.  so long sunfire!  you served Ben well.

 have to take a picture of the flowers every so often just in case hail stops by for a visit.

Bows in Beazer

here we have the two kiddos that own bows- out in Beazer getting some target practice.  

 the old barn.  hmmm---wonder what lives in there!