You may remember me mentioning that we bought some rafts earlier this year?  Well, we went rafting just about every weekend this summer!  That combined with canning, haying, and spending a lot of time as a family hasn’t left a whole lot of time for blogging.  Here’s some pictures to catch you up on our summer adventures!

Our friends, Matt and Liz, got this tiny boat and brought it to our house to blow up.  We had it in our living room for several days and it became Hen’s chocolate-milk-drinking-place.  She was sad to see the boat go.

Mr. Rancher and I have really improved our outdoor-cooking skills this summer.  This is a cobbler we made, just for fun, with some fresh peaches.  We also made pizza, grilled chicken, dutch ovened potatoes, baked beans, and fried up scones for Navajo tacos.

Henley loves swimming in the river.

Especially when she has some sweet shades, a Capri-sun, and a pillow life jacket.

This is the pyro-cumulus cloud from the Pioneer Fire as seen from our house.  It is incredible and humbling to think of the destruction symbolized in that cloud of smoke.

We found time in between all our fire-watching to acquire these pretty ladies.  Though I don’t know what breed these chickens are, I think they are the prettiest breed out there.  They haven’t been very productive as far as egg-laying goes, but we like watching them scratch and cluck and ruffle their feathers.

Our token family/selfie after spending an evening fishing at the reservoir behind my in-law’s house.  Not a single fish bite our hook, but it was fun to cast and reel.

This is how we can.  We can in our jammies.  We like to can, because we can, because we can-can…in our jammies.  And take selfies on the trampoline while the pressure canner rocks and jiggles the jars of spaghetti sauce until they’re all sealed.

Mr. Rancher’s cousin Cade was married a few weeks ago and we got all fancied up to attend.  As always, Mr. Rancher spent most of the drive there and back on the phone.

Attempt at a family picture with all our cute clothes on…

And here we’re all looking!  The wedding was beautiful and we all ate way too much candy from the candy-bar.  Side note: Henley did have a cute bow in her hair but pulled it out on the way home.  Our deal is that her hair can look however she wants when we’re at home, but when we’re in public it has to look presentable i.e. combed, in a pony, or with a clip.

Our freezer is stocked with meat again.  Finally!!!  I just want to say that I loaded, unloaded, and packed every last pound of this meat into our freezer all by myself.  That’s roughly 500lbs. of meat.  In to the car.  Out of the car.  In to the freezer. 500 lbs.  Have I made my point?

Climbing on the semi for yet another round of hauling hay.  We’ve helped with hauling so much this year that I have actually learned how to back the truck and trailer.  I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious…hee hee.

Reading stories with Daddy.  Be still my beating heart.

My honey playing with the little excavator.  He had entirely too much fun digging a massive trench to build a retaining wall or sidewalk or patio or something.  Kinda like a little boy playing with Tonka trucks.  Toys for boys are the same for men, only men’s toys are much more expensive.

Our graceful and tricky kitty, Samson, enjoying the sun.

Crazy-hair-day is every day at our house!

That’s a wrap, folks!  Hope you summer was as wild and exciting as ours.  Now we’re ready to spend all of fall hibernating.  Thank goodness for the oh-so powerful lure of all things pumpkin that will help us power through!