July

July has been HOT. We're talking triple digits and no rain for weeks. So we've mostly been inside for the past few weeks. We've tried to keep busy with fun things like hide and seek.

Dallin can squeeze into the best hiding spots.

 But still, Dallin is getting bored from being inside all day, which makes him grumpy, which makes ME grumpy, plus being hot all day equals me not in the mood to take pictures or blog. Hence the lack of posts. 

We did venture outdoors a few times:

Staying cool by dipping feet in water and wearing no pants (at least for Dallin).

The weekend before the 4th of July, a church just behind our house does a big fireworks celebration. So we ate our dinner out on the back patio.

Connor had pureed peas... He loved them for some reason. (I hate peas, FYI.)

As part of the celebration, a parachuter flew in with a flag.

The view from our backyard.

We brought one of our couches outside so we could sit and enjoy the fireworks.

We had to wait a while for it to get dark though. 

It was a pretty good show. It was definitely a perk to be able to watch it from our own home. Tons of people come to watch every year and our neighborhood streets were lined with cars. People were parked right in front of our house watching from inside their cars. I think we had a better view. And we didn't have to deal with traffic after the show.

On the actual Independence Day, we went to a BBQ at a friends house, ate lots of yummy food and then went home. We didn't feel like staying out late to see the city's fireworks display.

We went to a church picnic and there was a dessert contest. I made a Peach Cobbler. It was amazingly delicious, the best peach cobbler I've ever had. I thought for sure I would win. The dessert that did win? It had a fudgy brownie like layer, chocolate pudding on that, and topped with cool whip. Are you kidding me? That beat my peach cobbler?! I do have to admit the winning dessert was very tasty (especially if the maker of the dessert reads this blog) and I can see why people liked it. But really?! Maybe I watch too many Food Network competitions. It's about more than just taste (and I still think mine had superior taste). You should get points for originality (buttermilk in the topping gave just the right tang paired with the sweet peaches, and almond extract gave the filling more depth and flavor), skill and effort (all from scratch! It took 30 minutes just to peel and cut the fresh peaches) and presentation (an egg wash and sugar sprinkled on top made the cobbler look perfectly golden brown and shiny. Mmmmmm...).  The same thing happened last year at the picnic/dessert competition. I made lemon bars (again from scratch, fresh lemons) and they lost out to brownies. BROWNIES!! I'm not sharing my delicious desserts anymore.

Moral of the story: I am bad at losing.