Cherry Picking

I LOVE fresh fruit.  I love that there is different places that I can get access to fresh fruit.  There is nothing like picking it fresh yourself.  Maria has some lovely cherry trees in which we picked ourselves some cherries.  We had a bunch to eat and we sent some home with Grandma and Grandpa Rushton.  We were lucky to have McKenzie and Maria help us pick (which didn't take long at all, those trees were loaded).

 

McKenzie

 

 Howie and Grandma Rushton

 Maria and Livy

Livy makes a great bowl holder.

 

The whole gang, picking cherries.

 

Want some?

Thanks Maria for some tasty cherries (along with some cute memories too!)

Schulthies Cousins Visit

Angela and the kids came and spent overnight with us,  Angela did a Shelf Reliance class for me which was fun to learn more about.  The kids had a blast playing together.  It is never enough time, but we love love love visits from our cousins.

 

 

 Love the many cute personalities in this picture.

 

 

What was cute is when Lydia asked me to take her picture by herself.  Then all the other siblings wanted their own picture too.

 

 

Lucy

 

Lorian

And even Lilly made her way by the tree.

Annual Visit from Emil and Kesli

Emil and Kelsi were on their way to Alaska to work for the summer again and stayed with us. It seems like an annual event. Well we love that they will stop and stay with us. We love hanging out with them.  We absolutely love the game Farkle.  They are the ones that introduced it to us and we always play it with them.  We had a crazy adult game the night before, in which I, Tara, was victorious.  We had to play a game with Howie as we had promised him that we would play Farkle with him.  Livy was a great helper and dice shaker.

 

Howie couldn't have been more proud to win this hand.  We weren't even trying to go easy on him.  He did great.  He kept the score sheet and has it in his room.  Way to go Howie. 

We are a weird sort, but we always seem to have a good time.

Love you guys and thanks for the layover.  We love it every time.

Joseph Smith The Prophet Musical

Tommy participated in a stake musical.  They put on the production called, Joseph Smith The Prophet.  It was beautiful.  It was a mixture of solos, choir numbers and spoken word.  It was a great opportunity to invite others to come hear it.  It was so well attended, that it filled the stake center, all through the gym and to the stage at the end.  It looked like stake conference.  It was packed!  It was well done and the spirit was so strong. It will definitely be remembered.

 

 

Kory Hansen, Ruston Munk, Lance Peterson, Peter Jensen, and Tommy Rushton

Some of the guys that had solos in the program.

Hershey Track Meet

Howie looks forward to the Hershey Track Meet all year long.  He practices running because he LOVES it. He runs "laps" around the barn.  For three months before, he constantly asks when the track meet is. He has a good time and we enjoy this fun kid friendly track meet.  For now, Howie is having a good time.  Ages 10-14 can compete for state.  Even Livy got into the spirit this year and participated. 

 

 

Livy doing the softball throw and the long jump.

 

Cool action shot of Howie mid-air.  Nice one.

 

 Livy runs cute.  She looks like she is skipping and prancing.  She is all about having a good time.

 

 

Howie on the other hand, is much more competitive. He tells me that they even race at school at recess.  Boys.

 Even our cousin Crayton had a good time (next to Howie in the light blue shirt).

 

Livy ran one race and didn't want anything else to do with running, she was done for the day.  But, she surprised us by wanting to run the last race for her age group, the 400 meters/1 lap around the track.  Tommy ran beside her.  She ran slow, but the trooper didn't ever stop.  Way to go!

Livy tickled pink with her participant ribbon.

Here is McKenzie goofing off, but you can see the other cousins and family that also came.  It was a stinking hot day.  We had fun with Susan, Tammy and her family, and Grandma Joan.

Cousin Kailani (in blue) completed also and did great for her first time.

Cousin McKenzie came out of no where and blew the socks off the competition.  She won 1st in both her races, the 200 meters and 400 meters.  There were some pretty upset little girls who had been training for this moment (complete with expensive shoes and track/running gear) and were not expecting a no-name-farm-girl to run in cut offs and sneakers and steal their thunder.  Now she gets to compete in Eugene, OR at the State Hershey Track Meet.  Congrats McKenzie!!!

 

I love this face of pure exhaustion and elation at the same time.

 

All in all, we had a great day.  Thanks Hershey Track Meet for such a great event each year.