Lakeside- earlier this month

First niece to be baptized in the Garner family was Ms. Maesyn. Nate and Heidi's oldest daughter. They live up in Lakeside/ Showlow area so the whole family hiked up.

It was a beautiful cool Summer weekend with lots of playing children, grown up visiting and food! We got some lovely rain as well.

Heidi has done a fabulous job making their home feel nice and cozy- notice I copied her red dish towel idea.

Here's a random bunch of photos from the quick trip.

Kitchen updates

When it's summertime and I'm done traveling and having lunch dates and outta money... I do easy, cheap home improvement projects. And by me I mean me and a lot of Hunter helping.

So the first of my end of summer projects was the kitchen. We made valences out of refrigerator boxes, batting, fabric and a lot of staples. And I tell you these things added so much more to the kitchen than I ever imagined! And if I knew how easy they were I would've done them years ago!

Hunter also installed a lovely ceiling fan which helps so much when cooking in this heat!

Then I found this darling red dish towel at World Market when framed spiced up the cabinet shelf.

As if the fridge and pantry weren't enough reasons to keep me in the kitchen all day long, these fun changes have made this my favorite room in the house now!

Full House

Our really good friends Aaron and Kaci ditched us about a year ago to live in Utah.  We're still wondering why.  They are down for a good old Summertime visit and we had a fabulous night full of watermelon football, catching up, babies, Buzzword, Pass the Popcorn (a new favorite) and chocolate chip cookies.    Always happy to have these fine couples in our house:

Starting top left- the Cardons, top right- the Pears with baby Maddison, bottom left- the Holgates (baby Jackson was asleep in a bedroom) and bottom right- my adorable other half who I promise has had no serious head injuries lately despite the look on his face.  

Come back to AZ, Cardons. Please?? 

Children

This Summer I've been super happy that I've been able to spend time with children!  I love kids and will happily tend them for friends and family when they need it.  Earlier this Summer I watched Stephanie's girls, remember?  I learned a ton had a great time with them. 

A couple weeks ago, Hunter and I watched his nieces and nephew for three nights- ages 8, 5 and 3. Again, it was very educational.  This time the kids were older and we had them all day and all night.  Here are some things I learned:

- whenever you go anywhere, all of a sudden you have a car full of tote bags carrying all sorts of stuff.

- your dishes and laundry quadruple

- everywhere you go someone has to go to the bathroom

- car seats are a huge pain

- babysitters are expensive (yes we got a babysitter, don't judge)

- somehow crayons get in your purse

- a large QT or Harkins cup is now a bathtub staple item

- Disney movies are not as enjoyable when you have no choice

- kitchen chairs get moved around the entire house to reach high things

- kids can find candy ANYWHERE and they eat it

- swimming gives kids stomach aches

- boredom initiates creativity

I'm sure there's more and I might come back and edit in some more insights if I remember them.  

But the best part is that I felt like I needed to be on my best behavior with the kids around.  I made sure I was positive, happy and a good listening ear.  Because children are very observant and they need attention, acknowledgment and love from adults.   

Can't wait to learn more from my own babies someday! 

my husband is funny

While exploring Boston, Hunter and I came upon this street-show-opera-singing man who started singing Ave Maria.  

Hunter had to spice it up.  

I was dying.  

Check us out

Here are some of my favorite photos of Hunter and me lately.   It's a little vain- but so are blogs.

What really happened on the Fourth this year

Hunter and I are patriotic people.  And we are party people.  The Fourth is seriously one of our favorite days.  Yet, in this busy busy, fun FUN Summer we've had- we missed the fact that we hadn't planned any parties or get togethers for Independence Day.

Without a barbecue, swimming or family time- Hunter and I still believe that we paid tribute to our Land of the Free with some time together.

We first hung our Flag on the house and said the Pledge of Allegiance.  It was cloudy and unexpectedly cool for July in AZ, but we know that means nothing to us natives.  We took advantage of the cool clouds and did yard work.  Um, correct me if I'm wrong but I believe yard work is TOTALLY American- taking care of your property that is rightfully owned.  Classic, right?

Then it started to rain.

Then it started to pour.

And we just kept working!  It was awesome.

We took Old Glory inside for respect.  Showered up and did some shopping in bulk- another attribute of Americans.

I also took a cool down in the freezer.  

We went home fired up our toaster oven and had a delicious meal of taquitos and corn dogs while we watched The Sandlot.  I love that movie.  It is Summer all compact into one movie.  

I especially love the part where they play Baseball on the Fourth of July while fireworks are shooting all around them and Ray Charles is singing America the Beautiful.  

Speaking of beautiful spacious skies- we drove by the Gilbert Temple on our way to watch fireworks at the Gilbert Soccer Complex.  And look!  How gorgeous!  It was one of those times where I just knew no camera could catch how stunning this looked.  Because of the rain in the morning it was now a perfectly clear and crisp sunset with creamy blue skies throwing their light on the white Temple.  

The soccer complex was a great place to be for fireworks.  It's out in south Gilbert where it's all still fields with an occasional school or hospital going up.  So there's no obstructing views in any direction for miles and miles!  

Hunter and I plopped down with our lawn chairs and some snacks.  

The sunset was amazing.

The weather was also MIRACULOUS.  And I do not use that word lightly.  I have NEVER ever experienced a Summer day in Arizona- let alone a Holiday- where the evening temperatures are below like 89 degrees!  And I kid you not- it was about 77 when we left our car to walk to the soccer field.  And that was BEFORE the sunset.  Another blessing from that rain!  

I was just so happy.  

Hunter got a snow cone. 

Anyways- it got dark, fireworks were awesome.  I LOVE fireworks.  And it was cool to see all the shows in the valley off in the distance.  

And we all know photos of fireworks just are never the same as really being there.  So I made sure I was enjoying really being there and kept my camera in my pocket and my hand in Hunter's.  

We spent the last few hours of the Holiday at the Garner's having deviled eggs and homemade ice cream.   Happy Fourth!