MAY
Planting our garden
Me with the Parker Family Garden Blueprint. We had carefully planned out how to maximize our gardening space, and I think we did a darn good job!
Scottie and I going to work (below)! I don't think I will ever get over the excitement of growing a garden. It is still so hard for me to believe that you put a little seed in the ground and then wowla you get crops galore and food!!!
Ohio has a really early growing season and we had everything in the ground by Mid May and then had produce in June...starting out with us being able to eat our green leaf lettus first.
JUNE
Our tomatoes
Our green beans (2 rows), lettuce, and cantaloupe.
Our first pepper, I seriously couldn't get over how cute it was!!!
JULY
Cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, OH MY!!!
Our three zucchini plants....which all later died on us:( I felt like I was losing a family member! It was sooooooo sad.
August
Our garden looks like a jungle now and Scottie and I have enjoyed eating all the fresh HOME GROWN produce all summer long:)
Our huge tomatoes and peppers. Each pepper plant has 5+ peppers on it, and one plant even had 9 at one point!
Me watering our garden....see how big it is??? You almost can't see me!
Here is one of our cantaloupes, yes it is all just one, it was huge! We got 8 off our plants this year...pretty impressive if you ask me!
Amish Country
Besides all our garden we did this summer we managed to get in a visit to Amish Country. Getting up to the Berlin area has been on our OHIO bucket list for a while now, so we decided we would take advantage of the 4th of July weekend and headed up there.
Here we are at the cheese factory. You could watch them make the cheese, and then the best part was that they had samples you could try. I don't think I have ever seen so many different types of cheeses.
See lots of CHEESE!!!
The Amish Bakery also had samples and here is Scottie enjoying some!
I never could get over the buggies and horses on the road!
The Yoder Farm.
Me petting the horses-this one's name was Sparky
A beautiful view of Amish Country
For dinner we had to eat at the famous Der Dutchman restaurant. It was good, and worth the experience...even though I think my home cooking was comparable.
Dinner
One our way home we stopped off at the Longest Covered Bridge. Called the Bridge of Dreams.
While we were on the bridge an Amish couple rode by on their horse buggy!!! I was thrilled.
July 4th weekend Cont....Scottie and Daniel made cornhole boards together! FYI-Cornhole is a super big deal out here especially during OSU's football session. These boards normally cost $100-200 dollars and these boys made theirs for way cheaper!!!
We also checked off another place on our Ohio Bucket List this summer and went to Alum Creek. We had a great time with some friends eating yummy food, playing cornhole, and playing in the water.
Me and Steph
Birthday Party Cornhole Tournament. I just realize there is a lot of cornhole in this blog post LOL. Our friends in the ward had the best idea for a birthday party. They had each couple dress up and then come play cornhole. Scottie and I represented the Utah Junior Jazz and both wore Scottie's old basketball jerseys. I think the jerseys must have been good luck because we made it to the semi-finals!!!
Me and Steph
Birthday Party Cornhole Tournament. I just realize there is a lot of cornhole in this blog post LOL. Our friends in the ward had the best idea for a birthday party. They had each couple dress up and then come play cornhole. Scottie and I represented the Utah Junior Jazz and both wore Scottie's old basketball jerseys. I think the jerseys must have been good luck because we made it to the semi-finals!!!
Here are the die-hards!!!
Well thanks for reading about our summer happenings!!! I can't believe that Autumn is just around the corner, stay tuned for more updates.
The next day, Friday, we stopped at Key West, our first port of call. At Key West my family went all out and took a private catamaran to Dolphin's Playground to watch some dolphins play and then we went and snorkeled on the reef.
A sweet family photo, I think this one above is my MOST favorite from the entire trip!!!
Me with my siblings!!! We all had such a great time catching up and just getting to be with each other.
Snorkeling!!! The coolest part was seeing a HUGE barracuda super close to me (like 2 feet away close!)
My whole family saying cheese together....group pics make me very happy if you can't tell!!! 
Scottie and I in front of our cruise ship at Key West (above). US below....we used the ships props and took a pic of us in front of the ship??? Which one do you think is real? LOL
Formal Night- Since our family cruise was in honor of my parent's 30th wedding anniversary we thought it would be appropriate if we celebrated! All of my siblings and I pitched in and got my parents a personalized picture of the Salt Lake Temple. That is where my parents were sealed for all time and eternity 30 years ago:) This is picture of them with a picture of the picture. We didn't bring the actual 20x30 picture on the ship....it would be too big!!!
Our second port of call was Cozumel, Mexico! Here we went and checked out the Mayan Ruins at Tulum. This place was so cool, and it was so fun for Scottie and I to compare these ruins to the other ones we saw on our last cruise in Costa Maya. Tulum was huge and and had a breath taking view of the ocean!!! Seriously the Nephites/Lamanites couldn't have selected a better location for their city.
Tulum was so great because you could actually envision how the city actually looked when it was inhabited. Our guide said the pathways/roads were even in the exact same spot as they once were originally.
Of course an O-H-I-O picture was needed from a place with this amazing view!!!
We ended our Tulum experience with a very brief and I mean brief (right family!!!) drip in the ocean.
After we got back from Tulum we had a little bit of time left to explore Cozumel and Scottie decided he wanted to be a little bit adventurous and suggested we swim in the No Swimming area. Austin and I decided to be rebels too and joined in the fun:)
In front of our cruise ship...a pretty amazing picture huh?
On the last night of our cruise my family watched the sunset together. It was really beautiful.
After we got back to Miami, we still had the whole day to spend together was a family before our flights brought us back to reality...so we decided to hit up South Beach. It was a relaxing and fun way to end our vacation.
April, Me, and Jill (my fun sister in law)
Here is my family once again in front of our Trusty van. This time the party is over and we are saying goodbye at the airport. We had such a great time together and I am so grateful to my parents for giving us this amazing experience. Some of my favorite parts of the trip were the sentimental things we did together like; the nightly family devotionals, secret pals, and church together on Sunday. My Dad said " I have learned that when we feel the spirit, we will make commitments and be willing to keep those commitments. It is interesting that you bond with those that you are having those spiritual experiences with. I think that is why it is so important for couples/families to constantly be having spiritual experiences together." I couldn't agree more with him and I am grateful that my parents worked these spiritual experiences in, so my family could feel the spirit and bond together. Here's to a wonderful vacation!!!
