end of June

 

 

Summer's flying by so far.

But then again, so is life lately.

 

We are loving the moments we spend together in this busy season and I'm once again reminded of how much I love my family :)

Time spent with grandparents and celebrating birthdays have filled our past few weekends.  My camera hasn't been out of its case much lately, but this picture captures life and memories at Grandma & Grandpa's pretty well.  Good food, the best of company, and sun shining in through the windows.  Grandpa Tingy and Grandma Shirley spent some time visiting last weekend and we enjoyed time together eating birthday cake, just being together, and watching old home videos of when we were little.

 

 

 

Our garden, grown entirely from seed this year, is finally filling out with the rain and sun these past few days.  We even ate our first few snap peas tonight.   These pictures were from awhile ago, and everything's much bigger now, with the exception of our now non-existent cucumber crop.  Oh well, not everything will be perfect.  Checking on its progress is a pretty regular occurrence at our house... maybe that's why it's taking so long to grow? ;)

 

 

Eliza

 

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday

Katelyn!

I am so blessed to have you as my sister!

Love you tons!

~Eliza

Over the river and through the woods...

...to Grandmother's house we go!!!

We decided to brave the icy roads and head out to our Grandparents' house on Saturday. We found out just how icy the roads truly were when we saw a car ahead of us spin on the ice and slide into the ditch!!! Yikes! Dad drove slowly and very carefully and we made it safe and sound! When we got there, Grandma and Grandpa kept saying how happy they were that we were able to come and that they'd felt so lonely on Christmas. It was great to be able to spend a little Christmas with them...we loved it!

Since only about half of the crew was able to make it to Christmas (my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and other uncle all lived too far away to be able to drive in the bad weather), we certainly had plenty of food to eat for Christmas dinner!

Grandma made a delicious meal for us of Swedish Meatballs, scalloped potatoes, corn, peas, squash, cranberry sauce, lefse, flatbread, and sparkling juice!

Here is Grandma's beautifully decorated table, ready for the meal!

---You've probably noticed by now that we have a few Scandinavian traditions :)---

After dinner, we opened our presents...

...and then went back to the table for dessert: Grandma's traditional "Grasshopper Pie"

Yummy!!!

(One year, when I was little, Dad told me that there were real grasshoppers in it!!! I don't think I ate quite as much of it that year! ;)

The pie also served as a birthday cake for Dad who turned 50!!!

Later that evening, we sat around the living room and listened to stories from Grandma and Grandpa about their Christmas memories from when they were little. It was so much fun! I just loved being able to catch a glimpse of what their lives were like and learning a little more family history!

With the help of the weather we were able to convince Mom and Dad to spend the night ;) (it actually didn't take much convincing this time) and we headed home after church and a scrumptious Sunday brunch the next morning.

THE END

(I just had to add that, because it sounded like I was telling a story ;)

~Eliza

My Birthday

Last Saturday was my 19th birthday!!!! We had a fun evening as a family at the new Mexican restarurant in town. Then on Sunday, my mom's Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Dave from Washington state, and Grandpa Jim and Grandma Ionne came for dinner. Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Dave brought along my graduation gift/birthday gift. Guess what it was! We had the table all set except...(what is missing?)

They brought these boxes...

So I opened them and found...

Beautiful dishes that were my Great-Grandma Ingeborg's!

Look at them all, there is a setting for eight of most things, but 13 dinner plates!

Here is the table with the dishes and a chocolate cake that my Grandma made for me with a beautiful cake plate, that she also gave to me!!!

Here is an close up of the dishes (and that is sparkling grape juice).

Above is Uncle Dave, Aunt Dorothy, Dad, and Eliza.

Below is Eliza, Me, Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, Mom and Uncle Dave.

Grandma and Grandpa gave me a pink Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook!

And my beautiful cake and cake plate. My cakes are now beginning to become a fire hazard! I guess I am getting too old, they said this is the last time they will put all the candles on!

Sorry for the long post, but I am really excited!

~Katelyn