Family fun

When Joseph's family came for Melody and Scott's wedding, we had a lot of fun together doing non-wedding related activities. The two being highlighted here are swimming and canning.

The morning on the day before the wedding, we all went swimming at my aunt and uncle's pool and had a marvelous time relaxing and playing together. Here are some fun pictures of my children swimming:

If you recall the post about Austin and Matthew and the diving board, this next series of pictures is pretty funny. Mostly, check out the caution in the first picture. But he jumped all by himself! You may have to click on the picture to enlarge it so see what is going on...

Our other adventures together as an extended family largely revolved around a week long of canning apricots together. This was indeed a group effort and would have never worked if I hadn't had so much help. With our apricots we bottled them plain, and made apricot and apricot pineapple jam with them. We also made many batches of strawberry freezer jam. I wish I would have gotten pictures of all of that in the process but things were pretty chaotic and I didn't get around to it. Instead, I have the finished product pictured below with my labels, etc.

I am particularly grateful for my dear mother-in-law, and for Stephanie and Amy since I sprained my finger very badly the first day of our canning adventure and could hardly do anything for the rest of the week as related to the project. I tried, but every time I did my finger was even more swollen and bruised than it was to begin with. I am indebted to their kindness and generosity. Thank you!