Conference weekend, & extracting our honey!

We had a great weekend a few weeks ago with General Conference. We usually go camping for the weekend, but this year we decided to just stay home and get some stuff done. Saturday we spent a lot of the day harvesting our honey. Then for the afternoon Amelia and her family came over. It was great having them over and letting the kids play and to see them again.
Dave made this sweet honey extractor out of some scrap material hes had laying around. He is a genius!! I should have gotten a better picture of it!! It was our first time doing this so, we didn't know exactly what we were doing but Id say it went pretty darn good for what we had. We will definitely do some things different next year, but we learned a lot.
Here I am "uncapping" the frame of honey

Dave, sticking it in his sweet extractor

Picture of the un capped honey. We were just scraping it off, but as you can see that was kinda messy so then we got a little smarter and heated up some bit knifes in boiling water then we could just slice it off. Andy helped us with that, but I didn't think of getting any pictures of him helping us. DARN!!

Kaylee helping spin the honey- to get the honey from the frames.

Our whole contraption, with honey flowing out the spigot on the bottom.

Check out the Honey!!

The bees wax from the cappings.

This is how we spun it at first with this super old hand drill, but that only lasted a little bit then we went for the electric drill. :)

Our grand total of 80 lbs of honey. We were pretty dang excited. We were hoping for a little more, but this will do.

My mom and dad and Alexa came and helped for a bit.

This is Saturday afternoon with the Hatchs. The kids had a blast of course. We got the pony out to play with and ride (but not Nick :) and they jumped and I don't know where all the strawberries went?!? They would come get a package at a time then hide under the trampoline to eat them.

Played a game where you couldn't touch the shoes on the tramp.

Dave just couldn't wait to get a taste of the honey...

The kids were bumbed we didn't go camping so we told them we could sleep out back in the tent. Well, then it was late and dark and getting cold and maybe getting ready to rain and Dave was gone to the priesthood session of Conference so we compromised and I put up the tent in the front room for the kids to sleep in. They loved it and so did I! I could sleep in my own bed and not be worried about them. It was a great compromise for all!

On Sunday we went to Grandma Snyders to watch conference.
The kids playing cards between sessions.

Briggs and Aspen with their cousin Joseph.

The kidos playing Bingo during conf. They all did really good listening and paying attention. We had little treat jars with words on them and every time they heard that word they could get a treat or snack from that jar. They had a lot of fun with it.

Asleep in the tent.

What a great conference. I cant wait to get the ensign and re read them all, its hard to catch a lot of it with the kids. I love just being able to sit next to Dave and listening to the apostles and words of counsel from our great leaders! I love to be able to just relax and spend time with family!!

Flood at the Hunting Club

Its been a few months but I just wanted to record these pictures. We had a massive rain storm roll through and then we got a call from my dad that the hunting club had flooded so we went to try to help and to check it out.

This is the entrance to the basement

A view of the front of the club house.

The kids were miserable, they didnt have any fun at all in all the water and mud!! :)

Alexa and Wyatt riding bucking bulls.

I didnt take my camera when we actually cleaned up, but it was great fun. There were a few feet of standing water in the basement so we had to pump that all out, then that night a bunch of people all came and helped. Everything had to be hauled out of the basement and it had to be all cleaned out and spray the mud out. It was quite the project but with all the help it wasnt too bad.

Trip to Twin Falls, ID

Before school started we took a little trip up to Twin Falls, ID to visit Dave's sister Amelia and her family. It was great to see them and their new place. They were so nice to let us stay with them and be such great hosts!! Here are some of the highlights of the trip, although the whole trip was a blast and the kids loved being with their cousins and playing all day.

The first day we got there we went to Shoshone falls, it was super pretty.

These pictures aren't in order, but after the falls we went to Dierkes lake. It was super fun. There was a little barricaded place that was really shallow for the little kids to play in, with a fun sandy area too. Then there was a little deeper part for the older kids to play in. I was in the shallow water with the little kids when Dave went to swim with Kaylee and Aspen. I should have known better! There were some people cliff jumping. I should have known that would be the first place Kaylee and Dave would head to - and they did.

There was a fun little diving board that I think Kaylee went off 73 times!

Caden just liked to climb this big rock.

More of the Shoshone falls

Briggs and Joseph at our picnic at the lake

Our family at the falls

The kids

Caden playing in the shallow part of the lake with his tractors of course.

Kaylee off the diving board again.

Briggs loving the water and the sand

The boys actually playing together.

Off the board again.

This is Uncle Andy preparing to make the big jump! - He had to after his niece did it before him, right! He was a good sport. His boy Drew was just a cheering him on!

Caden loving to swim.

Kaylee jumping off the cliff. It was actually pretty dang high. Especially for a little girl. She would walk past all the teenage boys who wouldn't dare jump and bale off! Shes got guts!!

Then I of course couldn't let my 7 yr old daughter show me up, so I had to do it. I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous, but it was really fun too.

Proof that Andy jumped!!

I cant believe I didn't get any pictures of Aspen at the lake!- what a great mom huh? She spent most of the time swimming around with her life jacket on. She loves to swim, and is starting to learn how to do it herself with out her life jacket on.!

The next day we went and saw the big bridge over the Snake river. Its amazing! Its huge!!

The Snake river coming down through the canyon

Not sure who this guy is but the kids thought he was funny and liked to give him high 5s.

More of Kaylee jumping off the cliff. I never got a good one of Dave, but he jumped off it a lot with Kaylee, and don't worry, he looked good doing it :)

Kaylee found a tree tipped over she just had to pose for a picture.

We got to the bridge perfect timing to watch some people base jump off of it. I don't think I would ever really have the guts to do it, but it was cool to watch. Caden was upset because he wanted to jump off the bridge. We had to keep a tight grab on him. That was his highlight of the trip.

Watching the jumpers

Sunday we went to church then spent the rest of the day relaxing. The kids played with play dough for a while. I couldn't get Nick to look at me :)

Briggs had just had too much. He couldnt take it any more!

We had some pretty crazy leg wars.

Then all the kids attacked Dave

Kaylee and Drew having leg wars

And for a minute the kids were all calm watching a movie! I love that they have such great cousins they love to be with! Wish the other ones were a little closer, hint, hint Kimball!!! (Dont worry, we will make it up to you one day, but for now its just in our dreams) :)

Thanks Amelia and Andy for the much needed vacation!!!