Dear Mom and Dad

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today you celebrate 20 years of being married together. Twenty years of raising your children, twenty years of going through the motions of life whatever they may be, twenty years of loving your best friend each and every day. What a special gift to have shared these past twenty years side by side.

 

 

In the past twenty years, you've had children graduate from high school and college, get married and one even gave you two grandchilden. You've taken trips, gone on walks and have worked on many boats. You've built a house together, a garage and now are working on a basement. You've switched jobs in there too and still managed to run a smooth household.

 

 

What will the next twenty and even thrity years bring? More grandbabies, this I can personally promise you, more walks, more boats to be fixed and trips to be taken. More every day, run of the mill things but also more adventures and one of a kind memories.

 

 

Thank you for being amazing role models as to what marriage really means. There is no doubt in my mind that you two were made to share this life together. You compliment each other and love each other unconditionally.

 

 

Happy 20th Anniversary Mom and Dad.

Here's to many more wonderful years ahead of you.... 

 

Love,

Sarah

Making the good stuff

Tuesday night after dinner, Stella and I made the drive up north to my parents house. Mid-week trips aren't usually our thing but we had something important to attend to on Wednesday. Wednesday was Jelly Making Day with my grandma, Mic. She's been making her own jelly for as long as I can remember and I've been, well, eating that jelly my whole life. Store bought jelly has never seen the inside of my fridge!

Getting out to my grandparent's house Wednesday morning started off on a flat note. And by flat I mean my front, right tire was FLAT! I couldn't believe it. Remember last week when my back tire went out on me? Thankfully, this time around I had a much better ending. For one, my Mom was just leaving for work so I ended up dropping her off and taking her car so Stella and I could get our jelly making on. Secondly, my Dad and I were able to fix it! We pulled out a 3 inch nail and he patched it right up! Whew...glad I didn't have to buy another two tires.

Okay...so moving onto making the jelly. My grandparents picked the raspberries on Tuesday night because it was suppose to rain on Wednesday morning. When I got to the house, Mic was already making the juice for the first batch. Love the color of these raspberries fresh from the garden!

The juice making machine! You put the raspberries in the top, boil water in the bottom and steam the juice right out of the berries!

Juice for our two batches! You need 4 cups for each batch. Each batch makes 4 pint size jars.

Next you take the 4 cups of juice and 7 1/2 cups of sugar and mix it together.

Then you need to boil the juice/sugar mix...

And don't forget to sterilize your jars and lids...

Once the juice/sugar mix starts to boil you add two pouches of certo and then once that starts boiling, cook it for one minute.

After, pour the jelly into the jars, close them up tight and wait for them to pop!

Here's my grandpa in his raspberry patch!

Stella and Molly got to spend sometime playing together (Molly is their black lab) and I got to spend the morning with my grandparents. I love it out there...so simple and peaceful. Thanks for letting me come make jelly with you Mic! Love you both!

4th of July Weekend

It was great to finally get away from everything and spend our first weekend at the cabin with Joe's family. I seriously love it there. Joe and I were able to head up Thursday after he got home from work since he had Friday off...that whole extra day makes the world of difference.

We left the extreme heat and the next morning was greeted with this little storm. Thankfully it passed through and we quickly found ourselves sitting out in the water enjoying the sun and time together.

Kobe didn't want much to do with the water like the other two pups.

That's my girl...in and out of the water!

Building sand castles...

Friday evening Jenna had to leave to photograph a wedding but her husband Drew came to spend the night/Saturday with us. Friday night, a heated game of Battle of the Sexes happened and then we let a few fireworks go off on the end of the dock. Stella did not appreciate how close they were going off and spent some time hiding in the cabin.

Saturday Tom, Drew, Joe, the dogs and I spent the day out on the water again and took a couple boat rides. That evening we headed back to the house since the next morning we had Joe's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary in Cromwell. Can't wait to spend another weekend at the cabin. So grateful!!

PS...In case you missed the big announcement yesterday, check out MyStateLove!!

A little bit more from the wedding weekend...

Happy 4th of July! Er, well now 5th of July but I hope everyone had a great day celebrating America yesterday. We hit an actual temp of 101 degrees...with the heat index it felt like 110 degrees or something like that. hot! Hot! HOT! Joe and I worked on a very big project all day long in the AC, more details on that Monday and then we walked to the fireworks. Stella did great too and the loud booms didn't seem to bother her.

After Joe gets home from work today, we're packing up our stuff and headed to the lake for the weekend! We are so excited to finally get out to the cabin (Joe's parent's cabin) and soak up the sun! Then on Sunday we'll be celebrating his grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary with them and the family!!

Before I get to baking some goodies to bring with us, packing, laundry, grocery shopping and whatever else I need to get together I thought I'd share some photos from Sadie and Tyler's groom dinner and I have a story to share with you as well...

Now for the story. So my Mom and I had put out a couple plates of homemade bars before the rehearsal started and when we were done she went back in there to start bringing in the food. What she found was an empty plate of bars including the saran wrap with scratch marks on the tablecloth. The culprit...Stella. My heart sank with the thought of all the chocolate in those bars. I lost it and was in tears while my calm sister Andrea called a vet to see what we needed to do.

The magic answer: Hydrogen Peroxide. We had to give her 3 tablespoons of that stuff which helped to induce some vomiting action. Thankfully she was able to get everything up and out, including the saran wrap in about five separate rounds. Thanks for giving me a heart attack Stella. My mom's words to me...Welcome to Motherhood. Thanks Mom.

Tyler & Sadie Sitting In A Tree

Sadie and Tyler are officially married! What a great weekend back home with the whole family and what could be better than celebrating another marriage! They had a beautiful day, a great turnout and many memories to last.

Let's get to the good stuff though. I know you all want to see the pictures so that's what you're going to get. I snapped over 600 pictures but I won't make you stare at the computer that long.

Like I said, this is just a taste of all the moments I was able to capture. After the ceremony, we had dinner from Tyler's favorite restaurant, Sammy's Pizza and guests were either playing yard games, enjoying the campfire or getting their groove on at the dance.

Congratulations Sadie & Tyler! Thanks for letting me be part of your big day! Wishing you nothing but love and happiness the rest of your lives! Love you both!