Finding Beauty in Summer 2019

 This summer was filled with fun! For me I had lots of friend and cousin time! But Mom still found time to put me to work. Weeding, harvesting, getting stuff ready for the market... plus all the other household chores you still have to do in the summer! Boys worked hard elsewhere all summer but it was nice to have them around on Saturday! Liberty was her usual self!! (happy, but very very crazy, into everything!) She loves the outdoors and is always chasing her kitty around!! 

In the beginning of the summer I took a really fun trip to Starved Rock with all the young girl converts and Lori Young and Kelly Waldbeser! It was a great trip! Lots of memories made!! 

building the deck

putting in the patio- glad we have Reagan to get it right :)

The boys spent their spare time working on the pool deck and back patio in May, June, and July. It turned out really nice and we enjoyed it the last months of summer! 

We were so glad to be able to make a trip to St Louis! We went to a zoo and then spent the afternoon at a game library! There were hundreds of board games that you could choose from and play! It was really neat! Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay the whole weekend as we planned because Grandma Stahl passed away Saturday night. But the time we were able to spend was so fun! That next week Ayden, Cambria, and Jenna came back to Illinois with us.  We kept Ayden most of the week and Cambria a few days. Jenna went to Princeville and we left Kenan in St Louis. Mom and Dad definitely enjoyed treating Ayden like their grandson all week and I'm sure Ayden enjoyed it too! Cambria and I had lots of fun as well!!  

He's protecting his toys... but he loved her to pieces! :)

                    sweet corn 

Unfortunately, I was fortunate to miss out on this big day!! It looks like Liberty was a big help!! 

Bike rides are my FAVORITE!!!! 

Of course there is always work to be done in the garden! 

This is what Jared's summer was like... Work, work and work some more... and then come home and play with his toys- his truck, Liberty, and his fourwheeler.

yum! yum! yum!

Market!(!??) Every week, Mom harvested the produce, brought it into me, and I washed, bagged, and labeled everything! Kenan was a great go-fer!!
(editor's note: Kenan DID do radishes and green onions- and there were a lot of them! and other things too...:) :)   )

In the afternoons when we were too lazy to work outside and too bored to do anything inside, we went SWIMMING! Who doesn't like to do that! Unfortunately our pool isn't so private anymore.... it becomes a BIG problem when you are used to being stupidly crazy and you know no one is watching you!! 

Faith, Mom and I went biking for Faiths b-day!! Tons of fun!! 

                Dad and Mom- "What should we do?? We don't have any plans on this Sunday afternoon." Kids-"Lets go hiking!!" Mom-"Okay...but it looks kind of rainy." Dad- "Oh, come on, there is only a                                                           15 percent change of rain!" 
(editor's note: recall this, the spring of endless rain....)

Yep! This is what a 15% chance of rain looks like! We were hiking along and having a great time when it started to sprinkle. We were dumb enough to keep on going so by the time we were as far away as we could get from our van it started to POUR! As you can tell in the picture (which only says half), we were drenched. The funniest part about it was that we came to a fork in one part of our trek, and Kenan was convinced that we were supposed to take one way and Dad was sure it was the other way. Well, naturally, we trusted Dad and took his suggested trail, without paying much attention to Kenan's thoughts.... Unfortunately, Dad's aren't always right. About a half-mile later, now totally soaked to the bone, including wallets and phones and all our underclothes,  we ended up in the same spot! All this time remember it was pouring down rain! There was no let up in the blanket of rain until we were back at the van! (naturally) Even though it wasn't very fun going home in wet clothes, we all were able to laugh about it and we were very thankful it was just rain!! :)  While we were on our way home we saw a vibrant rainbow! It was the icing on the cake!

cousins 

Elise came right at the end of summer! We had lots of fun but we decided that this time was different because we didn't have a TON of fun, which is our usual...  I think it was because we were both dreading school starting again!
(editor's note: and that you were both worn out from so much socializing this summer!! :)  )

This explains Elise and I... we go cross eyed and take a picture, Elise fails...

(editor's note: and this isn't a TON of fun??!!)

...we laugh hysterically about it until our stomachs hurt and by that time we don't remember what we were laughing about!!!

Kaden, Levi and Chloe came for a weekend earlier this summer! We swam, took a (shortened) bike ride and enjoyed the summer air! It was great cousin time. 

Hope came too for a few days... we made lots of memories... 

....like always!!

AN ADORABLE GIRL THAT MAKES EVERYONE SMILE!!!

so very beautiful

 The beauty in summer is my favorite! Waking up to the birds, feeling the grass beneath your toes, watching flowers burst into bloom, and experiencing a butterfly, so fragile and delicate, hatch.. all of it is such a miracle! When we look at every moment we live we realize it is a miracle too. A miracle of life, of memories and of joy... but we can't look at the ugliness of things. We can't look at the caterpillar or the chrysalis we have to look at the butterfly. We can't always see it... we just have to look forward to it in those times. Awaiting to see the beauty in the end.  Just the same, we have to look at the miracles, the joys, the memories of life and if we can't always see them then, we just have to look forward to the beauty that's coming! - Lily