Fully Licensed

This girl can officially drive all by herself! I think I was almost as nervous as she was for her to take her test. I had butterflies FOR her the entire time she was out with the instructor. She came back with a smile on her face though, so I knew all was well! She aced her parallel park, and only had a few minor demerits. Her instructor told her she had been taught well, and I know she was super grateful for the hours her dad put in helping her learn how to parallel park in the mini.

She is so looking forward to the extra freedom and all of the adventures awaiting her this Summer. My mamma heart is full of anxious excitement as I watch my oldest gain more and more independence. It is so hard watching your kids grow up sometimes! I’m not quite ready for it. I am glad she’s such a responsible girl and know she will do great! We are so proud of her!

 

Lake of the Falls

July ended with an epic three day backpacking trip with some friends (the Andersons) up to Lake of the Falls. Mike took the oldest five while I stayed home with the littles. I would have went, but hiking at 5 months pregnant wasn't recommended by my midwife. Oliver begged to be able to go and did pretty good for an eight year old! Camilla smuggled a two pound book into her pack to enjoy & Hyrum carried almost as much weight as his dad! Their backpacks weighed anywhere from 15-31lbs with all of their gear (varied by age). It sounded like everyone had a great time, despite the difficult hike. They even got to slide on some snow while they were up there. I was grateful to hear about their adventures when they arrived home, and happy for the shared photos (which I will post in no particular order).

 

 

 

 

Sunset in the Garden

Raspberry season is in full swing around here and we are picking gallons and gallons each day from our bushes! We were glad to have some extra help today from Uncle Mike and Auntie Chris to help lighten the load. My freezer is already filled with more berries than we can eat before next year (along with some packages left from last year). 

Cooper really enjoyed picking berries with us today and ate a whole bunch!

I wandered through the greenhouse mid afternoon to check on things and was surprised at how well our corn is doing! It's taller than Grampa now and we have so many cobs forming! 

After tucking in all of the littles, I got on some coveralls and began painting the garage! It was still the peach color of stucco we had before the renovation and we have been procrastinating the job of painting it. We decided to go with the darker color and I'm loving how it's turning out so far! My goal is to surprise Mike when he gets back from the hiking trip, but painting stucco is proving to be more time consuming than I'd like, so we shall see.

When I had finished painting for the evening the sunset skies were calling me on a walk. I noticed this mamma deer feeding in our field on my way up to the orchard and stopped to watch her for a while. 

I peeked in on the turkeys, and they were happily roosting.

I admired the apples & reflected on my day as the sun painted the sky. 

Then I grabbed a quick snack and headed inside for the night to finish cleaning the house while it was quiet.

 

Sunday Evening

Thankful for quiet Sunday evenings....

 

FSY Pickup

Today we went truck shopping in Edmonton. Mr. Stannix was curious how much he could get if he traded his Titan in for his dream truck (a Ford Raptor). We spent most of the afternoon hanging out at the dealership, test driving things and talking finances before finally purchasing! It was an exciting day for Mr. Stannix!

 In the early evening we hit up a park to let Cooper stretch his legs before picking up the big kids from FSY around 9:30pm. This little community park holds so many memories of Camilla at this age as we lived in this neighborhood!

After picking up the kids at the University, we went out for dinner at Earls and listened to their FSY stories, things they learned, people they met. It sounded like a great experience and I am so glad they could both go!

 

Morning Crepes

Today was a busy day! We began with crepes filled with nutella, fresh raspberries and bananas. The kids really love when I make crepes for breakfast! Then we got a bunch of stuff done outside...

 

A Boy and his Dog

Just a boy and his Dog.

Hope & Joy

This morning Mr. Stannix and I were able to go to an ultrasound appointment together and peek at Babe on the TV screen. They counted all of the fingers and toes and checked on everything else. Physically, this has been the easiest pregnancy I've ever had. Mentally & emotionally, I've been plagued with worry. After losing a pregnancy or two after twelve weeks, one can't help but fret over all kinds of silly things and there were a few tear filled days where I worried myself over nothing. It was so comforting watching baby squirm around and suck its thumb on the ultrasound screen today. Now that I'm able to feel every kick and hiccup , the second half of this pregnancy will be filled with hope & joy!

 

FSY

This morning I opened my eyes to find Cooper stripped down to nothing! Thankfully he didn't pee anywhere! He did it again after lunch so I threw some overalls on him to try and break the streak. 

Camilla and Hyrum are spending the week at FSY. They will be staying with roomates in a dorm on campus and enjoying some fun, dances, religion classes and being around like minded youth. Camilla was excited, Hyrum was a bit nervous I think as it's his first time. My mamma heart is hoping they have an amazing experience!

Throughout the day I received a picture from my cousin of our two girls hugging outside Camilla's FSY dorm room. It was so sweet to see them together! Then, I also got a picture from a missionary who served here in our ward and is now an FSY councilor. She ran into the Rocky girls and snapped a photo for me! So grateful I have spies everywhere. Now if I could just get more than one word responses from my boy, I'd be happy!

 

Happy Sunday

Happy Sunday!

 

Garden Days

This morning we woke to blue skies and sunshine. We spent most of our day up in the garden picking raspberries and harvesting garlic scapes. We saw butterflies, grasshoppers, bumble bees, and a little brown bird even stopped on a raspberry can right by Lily to say a quick hello!

We laughed and visited as a Summer breeze tickled our sun kissed faces. I only made it half way through the raspberries, so I will be heading back out tonight after the littles are in bed to finish them up.

This boy is so curious! After a morning spent running around the raspberry patch, he was more than ready to nap!

What a glorious day!