More Family...in the good ole summer time!

One of my favorite summer pictures! My son-in-law taking a run through the rain. He even put his swim suit on for the occasion. He doesn't see much rain in his neck of the woods and just had to get out in it and enjoy it for awhile. He is such a fun guy!

My son joining in the fun. See how brown the grass became this summer? Hot, hot and hot days with very little rain.

HA! After their run, someone was even a little bit cold. Felt great!

Had to pull out the rocking horse from storage. Ride'm cowgirl. This little sweetie needs cowgirl boots...pink cowgirl boots, for sure.

We sure enjoyed celebrating the 4th of July together. We even braved the heat and ate outside.

Plenty of chefs on hand to do things up right!

I do love a good ole bbq......

...and all the fixings!

Time to eat and enjoy each others company!

The more, the merrier!

A favorite past time. Ha! Pushing one's own stroller around and around.

There was work to be done, too! We put in a little, lovely rose garden off of our back porch.

Everybody needs someone to supervise a ground breaking activity....and to eat snacks.

Just about done. Love seeing this rose garden each and everyday. I am loving the colors of roses this year...orange, yellow and lavender. The lavender has a beautiful scent....very different from other roses that I am familiar with. I have been clipping many a bloom. They sure do brighten-up our home and smell so good.

Keep on enjoying the summer everyone! xo

Summer Days!

Someone has been here this summer and how she loves to play peek-a-boo!

Went camping in northern Michigan with lot's of our family. We all hiked into one of our most "favorite, favorite and I do mean favorite" lakes for fishing, reading, picnicking, and basking in the beauty of Mother Nature...Wakely Lake. The early group hiked in and hit the fishing with the sunrise. The late group came in a few hours later with a picnic and all kinds of fun doings!

My daughter, Kristen, was with the early group. Here she is holding up a little pan fish. For all you fishermen and women, this is an artificial lures only lake----you can only hike into the lake (no cars, trucks, etc) and no motorized boats. So, you wade, paddle your canoe or belly boat it out into the lake.
K----looking good in my wadders!

Jenna and my son figuring out something on the camera. Don't you just love Spencer's makeshift doo---I believe it was to keep the sun off his neck, and to help keep mosquito's and black flies away.

Someone had a ball exploring all the wonders around her...and under our favorite shade tree's.

She loved discovering the beautiful flowers and then taking a closer look....picking the flowers apart....she was very busy for a very long time. This is hard work for a girl who just turned "one".

Hubby came up with a nice wide mouth bass catch!

My pretty mom enjoying everything. She is a delight ----and you would never have known she had a terrible and I do mean terrible gash on her leg that took us to the ER late one night. Many stitches and pain meds.....i must confess...it was so bad i saw her bone. I did not like it one bit. It was awful and she was so brave.

Fishermen....L to R, my super son-in-law, my husband, and my dad----dad was born to fish and has fished his entire life. He taught my son-in-law how to fly fish a few years ago...and actually, he taught my husband many, many, many years ago how to fly fish. We love to fish.

My son was so sad that he had left his ID at home. He could not get a fishing license without his ID. So, what-cha' gonna do? He had fun. He and Alyson have taken pictures like this for awhile, now. So funny how big Spencer is and how it makes Alyson look so small.

Can you hear the peace and quiet? Can you feel the gently breeze? Can you see the dragonflies and butterflies lighting gracefully here and their? How about the loons? How I love hearing the loons.

A great adventure and lovely rest at OUR Wakely Lake.

What has everyone been doing this summer? As you can tell, we have been so very busy with lots of company and extra activities. So much to share and fun pictures ahead....tis a good ole summer time! xoxo

Camp..Somehow I survived.

Our stake had girls camp two weeks ago and I finally feel like I'm back to normal life ha! It's been so nice not to have to worry about meetings and getting bandanas and paint and decorate our flag and get beads and registration forms blah blah.. it was quite the adventure. Our stake drives up to Kolob in Utah 4 hours from Vegas so it was a big trip. They had us stop in St. George to visit the temple...

It's a beautiful building I could have stayed there longer taking pictures on the grounds.

Our kitchen and dining room and campfire pit. The tents are farther back to the right and the leader tent behind me down the hill a little bit. There were a lot of flies and mosquitoes, somehow luckily I came out of it unscathed.

Our illustrious YW President.

Our girls had skit night so we had plenty of characters..

Some hobos..

Mean Girls..

Two "old" grandmas..

And a nerd or two.


They also had rappelling, canoeing, zip-lining, flying squirrel, archery and target shooting. Yep, we were busy.

Camp Flag

A little friend. There were also snakes. One of them I almost trampled getting back to our campsite!

Getting harnessed for the flying squirrel. I had never heard of this before.. One girl is on this end and.....

Everyone else on the other end of the rope. It's tossed over a tree branch in the middle and some fandangled pulleys and whatnot so that the girl goes shooting into the air as the group pulls on the rope...

It was crazy and so fun to watch.

Phew! But I'm glad it's all over with and to be back at home with this cute face..

M helping Dad fix the shower plug. Best friends :)


Happy Weekend!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity-Jig!

Our daughter is home from serving a mission for our church. She spent the last year and a half in the San Diego, California area...and speaks Spanish!

My son was so happy to see his sister again. See the two different colors of flooring. You can see an officer sitting in a little chair and desk thing-y to the far left of the picture. Above their is a sign that says Do Not Enter. We were perched on the very edge of that grey flooring trying not to run towards Kristen when we saw her round the bend...til we just could not take it anymore. So, we most likely ebbed in 5-10 feet in the "don't get in here" zone.

My husband took over the camera. So glad to get a picture of my other daughter, Alyson, Kristen and me. Happy times.


All of us were so excited to see Kristen again. And, we are feeling very lucky that more of our family will be traveling from out west to join us in celebrating Kristen coming home safe and sound, after serving a very wonderful mission.

And, so, there was cooking. Just have to learn these great recipes from Kristen's Spanish speaking mission area. Yummy.
Recipe..... corn taco's, stuffed with-------get ready, shredded chicken and mashed potato's, fried in canola oil. Get everything nice and hot in the inside and a bit crisp on the outside.

And, the toppings. I do love a good hot sauce and this combination of toppings were so divine...shredded lettuce, tomato's, diced onion, salsa verde, hot sauce, lime and sour cream. Oh--the drink. It is a fun one, for sure. It is called Horchata. It is a skim milk, cinnamon and rice flavored drink. It was tasty and more like a little cup of dessert. We found it in our International Section of our grocery store...along with Jumex, guava nector. Super good to drink.

So, all in all, we are relishing in having our girl home. How we missed her and how we are enjoying hearing about all her adventures. She is a gem. We are so excited for her to see our Olsen family and friends and our traveling family members. What a blessing and what great times for us all.

Life is good!!!xo

Happy Times!!

It's summer. Time for sunglasses and lunch with my dad.

....and with my mom.

One last walk with dad before he goes back to work.

In my Mom's books....

Huh?

I love books of any size or shape.

Happy girl, for sure!

Great kick off to summer spending time with Jenna and her family out west. They will travel out to Michigan this summer, as well. Can barely wait. xoxo

p.s. What summer plans are ahead for you all?