Savanna's unique, personal style

2 swimsuits

Mismatched footwear

One hair braid undone because its neat like that. 

Yup, that is how she left the house and headed to the pool this morning. 

July 26, 2014

 Happy 42nd birthday to Jeff. He spent the day climbing Chief Mountain. He was up about 5:30am, left at 7:00am, started hiking at 10:30am and was a 1/3 of the way up the mountain at noon and didn't get finished hiking until after 11:00pm. The hiking group missed the closer border crossing so they had to drive another couple of hours to come back into Canada through the Coutts 24hr crossing. He didn't get back home until after 2:30am. He has lots of stories to tell. 

Brandon & Devin spent the day hiking Crypt in Waterton with Jordan & Adam Burton and family.

The rest of the family went to the Magrath parade. Of all of the parades we have been to this summer, the kids liked the candy at this one best. 

Rebekka- A happy Parade watcher!!

Left to right--Aaren, Maren, Savanna, Tysyn, Evan, Cassandra. Rebekka was in the carseat in the back of the van.  

We were a little confused this year because the parade came from a different direction. Instead of being near the beginning of the parade route, we were near the end. The kids still got lots of candy because there weren't a lot of people sitting around us. WE LOVE PARADES!

I took the kids back to Magrath to watch the fireworks. Devin didn't come. We couldn't rouse him off the couch. He was too exhausted from his late Friday night, early Saturday morning and all day hike. 

Brandon was holding Tysyn during the fireworks. Tysyn didn't like the loud ones! Rebekka slept in her carseat in the van the whole time. Aaren sat behind me out the back of the van and the girls sat on a blanket on the grass beside the van. We sat kitty corner to the ball diamonds near the Magrath schools. 

We never ended up making a cake for Jeff's birthday. It's been too hot to bake! We'll have a cake as soon as it rains!

FHE- July 27, 2014

Devin said he wanted to do the lesson this week. 

He presented us with the soda cracker challenge.
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The saltine cracker challenge or simply the saltine challenge is a competition in which a person has 60 seconds in which to eat six saltines (also known as soda crackers), without drinking anything; all the crumbs must be eaten.

Although the challenge may sound trivial, it is actually very difficult, because the crackers quickly exhaust the saliva in the mouth. Even though six saltines can fit in one's mouth at the same time, and a minute is plenty of time to chew, the resulting mass of crumbs is difficult to swallow with a dry mouth.

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So, we set out to play Devin's game. Dad, Mom, B, D, A, C, all had 6 crackers. M had 4. E had 3. S and T had 2. R had a corner crumb!

The timer was started and we all set to work eating our crackers. I'm not sure who really won but we had some good laughs and a lot of crumbs all over the floor. (Don't tell Grandma- our vacuum is terrible.....)

Then Devin introduced the concept of water. We would start the next challenge with 6 crackers and water. We could drink as much water as we liked. The time was started again and we flew through the challenge. Eating our crackers and drinking as needed.Once the fun was over, Devin likened the water to the gospel and the crackers to our lives. When we have the gospel, it is much easier. He didn't say much more. His lesson/FHE he said was was salty and dry and short and sweet. 

He even bore a simple testimony at the end. 

(For me, that was the best part of family home evening.)

Our treat, which he helped make before our family home evening, was soda cracker candy!!!

We went through nearly a box of soda crackers tonight!!!!

SODA CRACKER CANDY 

35 soda crackers
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter
12 oz. pkg. milk chocolate chips
Chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover cookie sheet with parchment paper. Lay 35 soda crackers flat covering pan. Boil hard 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup butter for 2 minutes. Pour over crackers and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Remove and cover with 12 ounce package of milk chocolate chips. As they melt, spread evenly. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Chill until candy peels off parchment paper. Break into pieces.

My recipe notes:

I used more than 35 crackers--like 48 per pan! (But kept the butter/sugar amount the same.)

When the pan was brought from the oven, I sprinkled lightly with chocolate chips. Then we spread the chocolate once it melted. I didn't use anywhere near a whole bag per recipe-(which was one pan).

We omitted the nuts. If I was making this for myself, I totally would have added the nuts! Yum. 

Saskatoon picking at Heather's 2 Hectares

Yup, I picked all that were in my bucket. 

He played a lot!!

She ate a lot!

Cassandra's method!

Tysyn ended up going shirtless because the water bottle leaked all over his shirt. He can't stand wet clothes and so he shed his shirt as soon as it got wet. I had to spray him with mosquito spray to keep him from looking like he got chicken pox.

The weather was great but we wished for a little more wind to cool us down and keep the pesky biters away. We met up with Aunt Cara, Meagan, Jaylin and Ethan and picked for about 2 hours. I took home 2 1/2 buckets of plump, juicy, purple Saskatoon berries. I even got to bring home a very small plant that the owner dug out of his yard. Yay! Maybe in a few more years we can have some bushes of our own!!

We were glad we didn't have to pay to take Tysyn home. He ate SO MANY of those yummy berries. Each bucket cost $10.00 and I figure he ate about $5.00 worth!

Picking Saskatoons at a farm just outside of town. 

A diligent berry picker!

Sleeping arrangements

Their bed.....

My bed...!!!!!