Payne Acres

Last week our pasture got its autumn mowing. We were eating dinner when we looked out the window and saw the perfect lighting for a photo op. I love all of the little bales of grass lined up tidy in our field --- add the kids and you have the perfect quilt. Mow does rhyme with sew. And I have been trying to do more of the latter these days!

On August 10th, Rich and I celebrated our 19th Anniversary. One of our favorite backup plans for when we can't make it out on "the day" is to have a romantic dinner under the willow tree. Kate helped me decorate and then played our waitress. Kate and Jeff made the paper butterflies hanging under the tree and the table decorations, which were beautiful! The only distraction of the evening was the monkey who kept appearing to spy on us. He was mostly dropping it to sip the sparkling apple cider and taste the homemade key lime pie. We don't mind monkeys too much, especially the ones with curly hair. The waitress:

The monkey:

I have more summer photos coming. We took a trip to Alaska, and I will post those soon. In July, I needed to make more space on my computer and accidentally deleted all of my photos on my computer. My recycle bin was turned off, and so I lost everything. After the initial shock and some tears (me, not Rich), we began the process of recovering and restoring.

In July, Rich, Ryan and I spent some vacation days in Wyoming...on our Stake's temple trip via Wyoming. It was a great experience, and I have uploaded a few shots from the trail.

Ryan after his mud spa treatment. See, this really was vacationing with a purpose!

At Sixth's Crossing, Rich and I did our own river crossing re-enactment. Uh, doesn't he look like he is about to bust a gut. I tried really hard to be light for the entire picture.