For the love of food....

and maybe organization. In March I started a new way of grocery shopping, actually shopping period. It all began in January, our Bishop challenged all of us in the ward to go for one week without going to the grocery store. We got creative, dug deep into the cupboards and the deep freezer and made it that week. I also realized that if I had been asked to go 2 weeks or a month we would've eaten a lot of rice and spaghetti sauce (probably not a bad combination). Then came the monthly dry pack canning with the ward, we started with rice, moved onto pasta, milk, flour, sugar, this month it's beans and the canning continues. Each month we also have a lesson on provident living, March's was on coupon shopping. I learned of a website that watched the sales of a few local stores and combined them with the coupons from the Sunday paper to get the lowest possible prices on items and to stockpile them for a 12 week supply (email me if you're really curious, I love to share, yourshaderep@msn.com). I'm addicted, our cupboards runneth over and our checking account is barely feeling the pinch! Now to the picture....I've wanted to purchase a canned food rotation system for quite some time, we finally had the need with so much canned food items our pantry shelves were boughing, and thanks to craigslist I found one for an amazing price. So, for the love of food, organization and being prepared here it is!

Reunioning with the Booths

This year was the first Roscoe and Jeanne Booth Family Reunion (Jake's Mom's family). We were able to spend 3 fun filled days with Jake's extended family. Here is a picture of the 3 year old girls making their Princess crowns for the Starlight Mountain Theatre production of Cinderella.

This is a picture of Grant and Grammy Shar enjoying the play and Grant's snacks.

Here's Jake, his brother Mike, and Grant hanging out in the cabin.

And finally Ella with Cinderella. Ella LOVED the play, at one point you could see Cinderella singing directly to her. Prince Charming even had Ella try on the glass slipper to see if she might be his lost princess. Other activities included hiking, ATV riding, white water rafting, lots of yummy food, late late nights and catching up on one another.

4th of July 2008

Each year our family heads to McCall to spend the 4th of July with my Dad and the rest of the crew. We were able to get a lot of activities packed into one trip. There were dutch oven meals at the property, four wheeler rides for everyone (courtesy of Allen), fireworks over Payette Lake, fishing with Uncle Allen, playing on the "beach" in Riggins, and riding in Grandpa's boat. Ella was covered in dirt in the first 5 minutes (she is making this her own personal tradition). Grant was laid back and enjoyed it all (as long as I was the one holding him). Paislee, well she always has a fun time in the great outdoors.

Fire Bowl

For Jake's birthday (I won't mention his ripe old age) the kids and I gave him a fire bowl for the back patio. The girls loved roasting marshmellows and making s'mores.

More Flight Pictures

We had to pick up some people at the Boise airport that came in on a Southwest flight from Portland and then fly them to McCall today. After having breakfast at the Pancake House we then flew the plane back empty (note the loosend tie and unbuttoned top button). We don't get to fly the plane empty very often so we had a little fun and took advantage of the opportunity to take some pictures on the flight home.