July Fun

July has been a fun month. At the beginning of the month we bought 20 lbs of cherries from someone in our church for $1 a pound. It was great. I borrowed my mom's cherry pitter and the girls, one of my friends and I spent an hour pitting the cherries so that I could dry them in my dehydrator. I was super excited to use it. I received the dehydrator for Christmas and this was the first time I could use it. So I had everything pitted and ready to go on the racks and the dehydrator wouldn't work. The fan worked but the heater didn't. I messed with it a bit, but nothing happened. So I took it to my dad and he checked it out and it works great. So I ended up putting some cherries in the oven and some in the car. The last bit I was able to put in the dehydrator. Hands down the dehydrator cherries are the best.

For the 4th of July we went to the Carter's. Mom, Dad, Scott, Jenny, and their kids came over and we had a BBQ and set off fireworks. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures.

This last weekend we went camping with our ward. It was a lot of fun. We went to Ensign Ranch. We got there around 3pm and set up camp. We wanted to go and play on the giant slip and slide, but we couldn't because of the girls camp that was there. So while we waited until 5pm we waded in the creek by our camp and then the primary had all the kids make butter. It was fun. That night, after dinner, we had a talent show. Molly and a friend sang a song with Benjamin adding his own entertainment. I will try and get the video on here, but I am having trouble right now. Emily played three violin songs. Timothy just danced and sang with all the other primary kids. It was really cute. The next day we had breakfast nice and early and then went out canoeing. I forgot my camera, but a friend took some pictures. I will add more later. After canoeing, Jared took the kids on the slip and slide again. Then we packed up and headed home.

Here are some fun pictures.

Ben fell asleep at the fireworks.

The kids loved the fireworks that went up really, really high.

Uncle Scott got Roman candles. All the kids had fun holding them out.

Ben even wanted to participate.

Oh, I forgot that at the beginning of the month, Ben took a head dive into the leg of our piano. It swelled so fast and big that it split the skin. It was pretty scary, but he is fine now. He may have a dent in his head though.

Another thing that we did this month was going to Grandma's house and picking raspberries. I made raspberry jam for the first time. It was great.