August 2015


I think there is nothing too much new in my life and that is why I only have been posting once a month but then the end of the month comes and I have so many pictures and feel bad that I'm giving you a scrolling exercise that could have easily been sectioned up into several posts.  

If you are up for it, let's begin.

My limelight hydrangeas have been so pretty and I've enjoyed cutting flowers to enjoy both outside and indoors!


To begin the month the west coast Mennonite Girls met for a Sunday afternoon walk at Cascade Falls.


There is a new suspension bridge, just finished this spring,  which most of us had not yet seen and so we enjoyed the walk up to the falls.  



The falls are quite close to Anneliese and her H's lake house and they invited us to come back there to enjoy dinner and the evening together.

It was the perfect way to begin August and we all had such a great visit. 


Traditionally, we put up the British Columbia flag on BC day to fly for the month of August.


The kids that could come that day, came and helped us with the flag and enjoyed taking a lot of time folding up the Canadian flag which has been mended will be hoisted once more today.  


Give a boy a flag and he has himself a cape. 


They shared the flag.
  I called out to them that the flag is actually not supposed to touch the ground and so they tried their best to keep the flag off the ground.



We took our trailer and went camping to Manning Park for 10 days.


We really wanted to do some hiking this year and so the first hike we did was the First Brothers.


We started at the Alpine Meadows at 10:30 and hiked down and up and down and up, reaching the summit at around 2.  


I must say, it feels really good at the top.



Kobe loves hiking with us and once we get going we generally remove her leash and she leads the way.

We noticed that when we reached near the top ridge she was happy to let Terry take the lead and walked between us.  As soon as we got back to safer ground she took the lead again.  



The best part of the hike is reaching the top but the second best part is the lunch.


This is our typical hiking lunch.  




This was heading back down through the alpine meadows. 



The next hike we climbed was heading up Mt Frosty.   
Manning Park is right on the border of Washington State and after the first few days we started to get a lot of smoke from their forest fires as well as the forest fire at the BC coast. 


The view was still beautiful as we looked down at the Lightening Lake where we camp. 



We got home mid August and quickly got things caught up at home and repacked the trailer because the grands were ready and willing to take a trip camping with us. 



I decided that it was pretty much the easiest thing to let them wear the same thing all day and so we went from the swimming pool to the golf course in the comfiest things we packed. 


We didn't necessarily always get hole's in ones but the enthusiasm was unhindered.


We had to make s'mores. 

The satisfaction on their faces at being allowed to hold something over fire pretty much priceless.



I love the way they look out for each other, even blowing out each others marshmallow torches.


I hope everyone has had a s'more this summer.  They are fairly yummy.  


We have blackout plastic that we insert into the window frames of the trailer.  
It helps them to sleep a little longer and when they woke up they each had their cup of froot loops while they watched a video.  

They don't know camping the way I grew up but that's okay.


The girls all brought their little ones along and packed them around the campsite. 


I brought along a big tote of craft supplies.  They sat at the picnic table or down on the mat coloring, cutting, taping, glueing for hours.  


On day two we decided we would see if we could manage the five of them at the waterslides on our own.




We did!

They had a lot of fun and had no trouble falling asleep at night. 


The third day the parents were due to join us at the waterslides. 

It was drizzly so I offered to take pictures and then head back early to camp and start dinner.   Terry and Stuart supervised the afternoon at the  waterslides while we waited for the second set of parents to arrive.


The best day to go to the waterslides is on a drizzly day because you can pretty much run up and slide right down.

They got our money's worth that day. 






They all had a lot of fun but it was hard to get all five at the bottom of the slides at the same time.



By the time they got back from the Waterslides, we were ready for dinner and they ate like loggers!


Meanwhile back at the farm, the cherry tomatoes were waiting to be picked again.

I've roasted a lot of cherry tomatoes this summer which is pretty much our favorite way of eating them besides right off the plant. 




We took in a few car shows in August.  This one was on a beautiful Saturday. 



It's been so dry and yet my flowers continue to bloom .  These anemone plant blooms right through to fall.


On the last weekend of August we had a fantastic wind storm followed by a good and very much needed dump of rain.

I went outside when I heard the chainsaw buzzing.  


I was surprised he was wasting no time getting the fallen tree cut up. 

He said it had fallen across my walking path.

That's my guy!


The wind storm was on Saturday.

Sunday the sun even came out for a bit and all the kids came for lunch.

We had one more summer fun toy that we hadn't tried out yet.

A stompin' rocket.

The little guy was happy to do the stomping and when I came around the corner of the barn to watch them I noticed that the big boys were taking turn aiming the rocket at each other.

Boys!




Our apple trees are ready to harvest early.


I brought some bags outside for each of the kids to take a bag of apples home.

Do you ever notice that when you are trying to document something, the ones you are trying to document are in a big hurry to get back to what they were doing?


Only this one lingered long enough for me to take a picture of her apple picking efforts.




The rest of them?

They were back to their wheels with no time to spare.


I love summertime!




When it was time to head home they all came back to the call of Ice Cream sandwiches.




Two by two.







All five together for a moment.

Monday the rain came down in earnest.

I wore my slicker to walk and put on a pot of chicken noodle soup and that was how we ended August 2015. 

Have a wonderful September my friends.
I'll see you back here with my September review and in the meantime I'll be posting things as they happen on Instagram as @lovellaathome and you are welcome to follow me there.

all for now...
with love,

Comments

  1. A grand August all around! Wish that you could be here more often, though after my month away, I get it. Wishing each grand a wonderful schoolyear ahead.

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  2. That was one packed month from beginning to end. So much good healthy fun!

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  3. August is definitely one of the best months and you packed it full of good times! Those beautiful hikes alone and then camping with the grands shows the energy you still have to make the most of this time, Great how they got your moneys worth at the slides. =) I love how much fun the kids have, uninhibited by a camera that pops up here and there. Your apple trees produce well and your cherry tomatoes look like it was a great summer to grow tomatoes. I'm almost sorry this carefree month has passed us by, but there is always more to look forward to. Happy back to school adventures!

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  4. Wow, I'm worn out just reading about your August :)!! What a beautiful group of family and friends. You are one blessed lady!! Thanks so much for sharing the beautiful pictures. Hope your September is just as fantastic! Blessings from Missouri!!!

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  5. Oh, I don't mind scrolling! Such a lovely re-cap of your month of August. Lots of smiles and good memories.

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  6. I scrolled with interest and delight to all your August activities Lovella. What a beautiful family you have. So glad to hear that you are getting some much needed rain. Here's to September ...

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  7. Wonderful photos of your August moments. Your grandkids are so sweet and have some fun adventures with you. I'm glad you finally got some rain there after the dry summer you've had. Have a wonderful September.

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  8. I wrote the same thing just now on Anneliese's blog...you truly live in a most beautiful part of the world! And your grandchildren are certainly blessed with your love and energy.

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  9. i'm late commenting on your August post -- but it shows a month 'worth living' .. and I always love to see a happy family - it makes everything better ! even apples !! wow.. I wished I could just bit into one!

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  10. I can only feel the excitement in my heart as I read this. There is so much that happens in our lives and how can one best post and relate the most beautiful moments in our lives. It's fun to come here and just feel like I've had a coffee with you listening to the excitement in your life. We know what Matters Most.

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