Red Potatoes!

Tonight we harvested our red potatoes, and they turned out great. Kelsey is quite the gardener. She helped pull up the plants and picked the potatoes. She also washed all of them. We have never grown red potatoes, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. We got about 10 pounds of potatoes, so it looks like we'll be having some mashed and roasted potatoes some time over the next week!

Camping at Lost Lake

We had a fun weekend camping with the Hearings. Kelsey left on Wednesday to spend extra time with her cousins, and we joined everyone Friday evening. Sam had already set up our tent, so set up was so much quicker. The Guses and McKenzie joined us for a few hours on Saturday which was extra special. Amy even participated in our family rule of not having to say "excuse me" when you burp! After she burped, Kelsey said "I've never heard a woman burp!" Even though there were quite a few bugs, we still had fun! We all loved swimming in the beautiful, warm lake!! We took our paddle boats out to the middle of the lake so that we could see Mt. Hood. It is quite a sight. We enjoyed playing games (yes, Mary beat me at almost everything we played :), making smores, going to the general store for ice cream, riding scooters and skateboards, and eating delicious food (especially Uncle Sam's famous french fries)! Mary and I took a long walk last night which was very fun. Peter and Sam enjoyed hanging around the campfire in the evenings. Alex loved spending the night in the tent with Conner. It's always fun to go camping, and it's always fun to come home and take a shower!

Our garden is growing...

We are excited that we are now able to eat some of the food from our garden. When we returned from vacation, there were lots of green beans, some tomatoes, blueberries, and a cucumber. I sauteed the beans in olive oil and garlic and added some kosher salt and pepper. Everyone loved them (which is a miracle in our house). Kelsey even asked if I could make some more tonight! Given the 105 degree weather, we ordered Thai takeout instead :)

Wisconsin Family Reunion

We just returned from an amazing, 9-day vacation in Wisconsin. Peter's brother, Tim, rented beautiful vacation homes for everyone to stay in. He also rented a pontoon boat. The week was FULL of fun and relaxtion. We fished, made campfires, read, swam, ate smores, golfed, played tons of games, went on boat rides, built a huge sand creation, walked, celebrated birthdays, gave the girls manicures, learned how to crochet, played bocce ball, napped, went on a scavenger hunt, saw an eagle catch a fish, dissected a fish, baked cookies and brownies, and ate and ate and ate! We really enjoyed getting to spend so much time with our family who we do not see very often. Peter, McKenzie, and I took a side trip to Park Falls to see where my grandparents were born and went to school. We even met a couple of people who remembered my Grandpa! We returned back to Milwaukee on Friday and went to the Brewers game that night. The kids finished the trip by swimming in Aunt Margaret and Uncle Ed's pool. The kids' favorite part of the trip was fishing, getting to drive the boat, and spending time with everyone. It definitely was a trip of a lifetime!