Cherry Picking

We love cherry season around here! There's an awesome orchard not far from our house and we decided to meet some of my family members there and pick sweet cherries together. Since the weather has been cool around here, it was a perfect day to pick! I'll take cool and overcast on cherry picking days!


Micah was pretty good at cherry picking. There were lots of cherries that were low enough for him to reach. He ate a bunch, but also managed to fill part of his bucket!


Ethan has really gotten the hang of cherry picking over the years--especially the eat one, put one in your bucket system! He loved getting on the ladder to reach the high ones and I'm pretty sure he filled most of his bucket by the end of the morning!

This is my niece, Kathleen. I love this picture because she's so happy to be helping pick! My sister would show her a low branch and Kathleen would pick away. She didn't even eat that many!


This is the whole kid-crew (with my dad in the background). Quite a bunch! They had fun in and around the trees and chattered away to each other the whole morning. Cherry picking is much more fun with a crew!

Last day of kindergarten

It seems like Ethan just started kindergarten, but already he's finished! I made sure I took a last day of school picture so we could see how much he's changed...and he has!


All of the parents were invited for a last day of school picnic where we were entertained by a magician. The kids loved it and he finished his show by making a balloon animal for each of the kids. Ethan wanted an alligator. It was very cute! I was impressed with how many balloon animals the guy made in a row. I was out of breath just watching him!


Ethan and I went into his classroom to gather up his backpack for the final time. I asked him if he wanted one last picture in his classroom and he thought he should have one in front of their main bulletin board. This was the wall where they did their calendar and charts and time and all the other things they do in a kindergarten classroom!


Ethan had a wonderful teacher and teacher's aid this year. These ladies patiently taught my son and nurtured him mentally and spiritually. I thank God that we are able to send Ethan to a school that openly teaches the Gospel and helps him know more about the wonderful world we live in. What a blessing!

The magician made balloon hats for all the teachers. :)

Anniversary Trip

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough of you are on my case that I felt I should finally blog. Everyone that asks for posts should at least comment to prove you read when I do post! :) I have a lot of pictures that are fun to post, so I'll catch up and work my way through them. We've been busy over the last two months!

At the end of May, Jason and I took a short trip to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It was wonderful to get away together. We loaded up our bikes and headed to a lovely lake shore town. When we arrived and unloaded our bikes, we were met with this bank of clouds:


Thankfully the clouds didn't hold too much rain and we only had to wait in the van for a little while! We unloaded again and spent the afternoon biking and hiking and just enjoyed the scenery.


We spent so much time biking that I ended up with a major cramp in my leg. I guess someone needs more exercise! In my defense, I don't often bike two miles through sand covered trails. Thankfully an Aleve and a good night's sleep helped and we biked more the next day!


We wandered through a park and down a pier while we waited for the sun to set on the lake. Unfortunately, the gnats were so bad that we had to retreat to the van and watch the sunset from there! We had gnats all over out clothes and had to cover our mouths so the wouldn't fly in. I tried to take good pictures of the sunset, but I wasn't willing to open the van window for a better shot so they weren't all that clear. I did manage a nice self-portrait on the pier where the gnats were not as thick.


I enjoyed hanging out with my hubby--we tried out little restaurants and wandered down trails because we felt like it. I'm looking forward to the next time we can get away together!

Tip of the day

Do not play at the park on the first Friday of the month at noon. While this sounds just fine, it is not good when you don't realize that a tornado siren is right next to all the toys.

On a side note, if you're looking for a way to have 40+ children stop dead in their tracks (and then have 20+ parents scrambling to cover ears), I now know just what to do.

My ears still hurt. An extra set of hands would have been nice so I could cover my ears and not just Micah's.

10th Anniversary

Ten years ago today two kids were married. Look at them!

The last tens years have been incredible...filled with laughter and tears!

I'd do each and every year over again because it brought us to where we are today. I love my husband and I thank God for him every day!

1 day...to 10 years!

Ten years ago today we were working through all the final details at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding rehearsal. We really had no idea what the next ten years would bring, but how quickly the time passed!

The next "item" I picked that's been around for the 10 years of our marriage is us. Jason and Janna, Janna and Jason, Mr. and Mrs. (well, I can't say that I felt like a "Mrs." for all ten years, but I guess I technically was!)


My darling husband has been by my side for the last ten years...or maybe I've been by his side...or maybe just a nice mixture of both! :)


He very rarely will take picture with me, but since I had this post in mind for a while I made sure we snapped some photos together over the past few months. I love the above picture because Jason's smile is so genuine and I'm laughing. A great combo in my opinion!

The picture below is not what many would choose as their favorite, simply because you can tell that Jason's talking. But, I love this picture the most because it is a reflection of so many times in our life--Jason's saying something out of the side of his mouth that makes me smile.

I love this man. I can't think of anyone I'd rather hang around with for 10 years.

Stick around for tomorrow's post. I'm going to try and post a wedding picture of the two kids that got married that day. Well, only if Jason helps me. It's sure handy to be married to him!

2 days...to 10 years!

Two more days until our anniversary! It's still hard to believe that 10 years ago we were in the final stages of wedding prep!

Today's "been around for 10 years" item is my wedding ring:


I wear this ring 24 hours a day and I love what it symbolizes. It's my favorite piece of jewelry and the only thing you can count on me wearing all the time. I mean it, I don't even take it off to sleep! About two years ago I had to stop wearing it for a while because a prong was loose. I was so glad to be wearing it again once it was fixed. It was kind of like when we were first engaged, I'd just look at my hand and grin! I love that Jason gave me this ring, but even more, I love the promises that we made when we exchanged our rings!