August 2017 Events

August was a busy month for us - here are some pictures of what's been going on:

Our church had it's 7th annual backpack drive collecting school backpacks with toiletries and other supplies inside for A Child's Place, an organization that helps homeless children.

Chad and I gave the purple pack with lime green trim and the blue camo one beside it.

Our good friends Becca and Jason had their 4th child a few weeks early. Lillian Claire was born on August 6, 2017. Here are some pictures of Miss Lillian from our visit to the hospital:

It sounds crazy, but Lillian looked more like her sister Katie in person, 

but in the pictures she looks more like her brother Ethan! Welcome Lillie!

When our niece Kathryn graduated from high school earlier this summer, her Dad unfortunately was in the hospital and wasn't able to be at her graduation. Chad's Mom and Grandmother had to leave after the ceremony and couldn't see Kathryn afterwards. So, we offered to host a graduation party at our house so everyone could see Kathryn in her cap and gown and take pictures. Here are the pictures from Kathryn's graduation party:

I tried my hand at making homemade salsa for the first time this summer and it was SO GOOD! I made two big batches and canned it so we can enjoy it later in the year. It's so easy to make and tastes SO MUCH better than store bought!

When I started hearing about the solar eclipse on August 21, at first I didn't think much of it. I saw eclipse glasses all over the place and didn't get any because I just wasn't super interested. But, as the date got closer, literally EVERY SINGLE phone call to the library was about eclipse glasses - some library systems were giving them away, we were not... By the day of the eclipse I was kind of over it already, but some coworkers were nice enough to share their eclipse glasses and I am glad that I got to see it. It was pretty cool to see, but not worth all the craziness of driving all over the country to see the full eclipse. Here are a few pictures of the MH staff sharing glasses to watch the eclipse:

It's been SO HOT this summer and our garden was starting to be done by the end of August. I wanted to clean out some of the beds before we went on vacation in early September. When I was cleaning out the beds I found a volunteer basil plant and some volunteer dill! Here are a few pictures of the mostly done garden: