MMMPeaches...

We were in Utah last weekend and picked up a box of some super delicious peaches. What to do with them? Have ye not time to bottle as I? I'll tell yer what!
I still have a few jars of peach jam leftover from last year so I decided to peel & slice all of these, squeeze a lemon in there, add sugar and pour them into ziploc freezer bags for impromptu pie filling. I did this last year and it was goooood. We had a peach pie some random winter evening and it was heaven. So I did that with this box and now I have three bags of filling ready to go in the freezer.
But what did I do with the remaining eight succulent, ripe, juicy peaches? I made this sans the refrig. pie crust (made my own).
Yeah. I ate half of it.

Weeks of Late

Time to catch up! I apologize for my inconsistency. We've been getting back into a routine which has been a welcome thing but still takes adjusting.
Here are some random photos I have taken over the past couple of weeks amid homework, piano and swim lessons.
My kids get more and more creative with their hide and seek spots but I think they'll grow out of this one soon.

They also get creative with how they play with the stuffed animals.

And how do you like Luke's language? This is rocket science silence.
(Obviously, it's a good thing school started up again)

We took the kids up to Mt. Charleston for a hike to Mary Jane Falls. It's a pretty steep, intermediate hike and the kids did great!

We have been trying to get to Lake Mead with some friends all summer and the LAST weekend of the summer, we were able to fit it in. It was a beautiful, hot day, perfect for the lake. We had a great time cliff jumping, tubing, etc. This was another pic taken with that Hipstamatic app on my phone. I'm glad it caught those sparkles in the water... "Because fish like shiny things and don't we all".
Lake Mead has such different terrain than Lake Powell, despite how similar it feels. It's really like being on a strange planet, all that barren dark rock with a bleached band above the water. I'm glad this is so close to us.

All the kids (except for one toddler), jumped off various heights from this cliff. I was impressed with their bravery!

With school beginnings comes the athletic practices. We opted to have Luke skip soccer this season. He wants to try so many things. I was going to sign him up for basketball again, too, but he said not to yet, because he still has to try golf, football and hockey. Uhhh... yeahsureokay.
Here is Sadie and Luke farther back in the lane at their Stroke School.
Can I just say I am glad my kids are learning this at a young age? I wish I had. I did swim practices a few years ago and gave it a good effort but was never good at it. I don't find the happy place that some people do while they do millions of laps. You know why else swim is good for kids? It expels a lot of energy. Yes. That's a nice feature.

And this is unimportant, just a random sunset as the evenings cool off again and say goodbye to summer.

Same sunset, but w/ the hip app.
Hope you're all enjoying your September!

Snowflakes Already

I know I am behind on posting.
One of the reasons is I have been doing some design work, and some of it has been this kind of stuff....

Vote for my design on minted.™ see more from Andrea Leaver vote for me! Check out my competition in Christmas cards and Save the Date cards at Minted.

The deadline for this contest is on Monday. I'm going to try and submit a few more designs before the weekend. So if you feel like having a looksie, vote for me! :)

Watt-ch This!

One of the highlights of our family Powell trip this year was when Marty & Jess hurried the speed boat out into the channel to get a phone signal so they could call in and see if they won a video contest they entered--- as the boat returned a half hour later, Jess stood at the nose of the boat, thrust her arms up and shouted, "We WOOOOON!!!". It was so fun to share in that moment with them. Marty was up all hours of the night for days to finish this and it was worth it. You can check out the video here. And look! They were on TV!

Never Too Early

Hey Friends! How is everyone doing now that school has started?
Scott and I were catching up on Fallon episodes the other night and Jim Gaffigan was on there. His wife just had their fourth baby and he was telling Jimmy if you don't know what it's like to add a fourth child, just imagine yourself drowning and then someone hands you a baby. Ha!! We had a good laugh over that one. I share that because our week of routine has felt like that to me. It's bitter sweet, you know... school lunches to make, working out early again, crazy afternoons... but I could run my errands with NO KIDS and my house stays clean for 6 hours. It's all good. I'll share some pics soon on events but I didn't want to forget to share this.
I've been doing some design work and made these Halloween treat tags for Bake It Pretty. Thought you'd like to get in on the fun. Go to my Academe site for the link to print and make your goodie giveaways fun (or funny). Enjoy and have a great Labor Day weekend!