Made a trip to California for Shauna's grandpas funeral Had a great visit with Candys & Brandon, The Crumps and many more family members.

We finally got enough snow to go sledding. It was very fast and slick but they had a blast. See the slide show with pictures. I am trying a new site I found for slide shows. Hopefully it works. I think if you click on the slide show it will go full screen.

This was one of the waterfalls we saw on the hike up to the lake.

Austin & Mason were trying to roll this tree trunk into the water--didn't have much luck.

Took a hike on Labor day--10+ miles round trip (going up almost 2000 feet in elevation--not flat by any means) to a secluded lake. Would have been a great lake to swim in except it was way tooooooo cold-although it was tempting. Saw some beautiful sights--next time we have to remember our fishing poles.

We took a quick family camping trip to help Porter get his Second Class rank advancement for scouts. Since he is the only boy in is group, he has moved quickly along. He is first class and already working on a merit badge and he won't be 12 until Nov. Great job.

His goal is to have his eagle by age 14. I am all for it--get it done and out of the way.

canning

So my cameras are on the blitz--The lens is stuck on one so it won't take pictures and for some reason the other camera is stuck on video and won't take a picture.

So, you are stuck with a video. This year I tried my hand at canning without mom & grandma around to help. Lance's sister gave us some raspberries from her garden so we made homemade raspberry syrup and jam. I made the syrup recipe last year but cheated and just put it in the freezer until it was used. This year I thought I would try to be more of a old style homemaker and can it. I have heard several pops so far so I must have done something right. Thought about sending some to Mom for a belated b-day gift but not sure the jar would survive the mail.