A Taste of Summer

There are some foods that just say summer to me. Fruit, garden vegetables, salads, anything grilled...I love them all. Of course there's my mom's famous potato salad and baked beans that I can never quite replicate. And watermelon....oh I just could eat it all day. Here's some of our favorites this summer:


For a Laurel activity we went and picked cherries in an orchard about 30 minutes away. The cherries were just falling off into our hands. It was messy but so fun and delicious! Here's Mallory and I after pitting some for a yummy cherry cobbler.

Corn on the cob is one of my favorites and you can get it fresh on almost any corner around here. Shucking corn always reminds me of summers on my grandma's back porch in Beaver.

Some of the "bounty" from our garden. OK, so it's not much, but we're learning. We've had plenty of zucchini, a few tomatoes, but several other things never grew very well. Next year we'll definitely prepare the soil better (I told you so, Mark!) and fertilize more. It's been really fun going out in the evenings and checking to see what's growing.

Last week we had a fun day at Settler's Park in Meridian. The kids climbed, splashed in the water and played tennis.

The highlight for me was the shaved ice we got at the end. Nothing says summer to me like a Tiger's Blood shaved ice, yum!

So what are your favorite tastes of summer? Hope your last days of summer are filled with special treats!

Are you ready for some football?

Seriously, how cute is this kid in his oversized jersey? He wants to wear it every day! The boys are going to play football this fall. Dallin's first practice was yesterday and he actually looked pretty good! (Of course, being the biggest and oldest kid on the team doesn't hurt!) I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, D or Mark, who was definitely reliving his kid grid days. When we came home Mark made all the kids put on their tennis shoes for some football FHE fun:

I hate to see these beautiful summer nights end, but I do love fall (and that always includes football!)

According to Weather.com...

It is currently 56 degrees in Meridian right now with a projected high of 61. Phoenix? High of 103 (which is actually a cooling trend there!) I don't say this to brag (Trevor) but so that when it's the middle of January and I'm hating my life I can remember why I live in Idaho.

Goodbye to Grandma

Mark and I really enjoyed our weekend back in Beaver for Grandma Yardley's funeral. I thought the service was wonderful, tearful at times but mostly just a celebration of a life well-lived. She was an amazing woman who packed so much life into her 97 years, nobody could ever keep up with her. Such a great example of service, community-mindedness and love. It was so fun being with all of my siblings and favorite cousins again.

Our fantastic (and brave!) friends the Burks took all four of our kids with them on a three-day campout in McCall. Sounds like everyone had more fun than if Mom and Dad had been there! Thank you again, Michelle and Roman, we owe you big time!

So now we're in the home stretch of our summer, four weeks left until school starts. Thankfully we don't have any more road trips planned but now I have to put up with the "I'm bored"s and "There's nothing to do"s. Help!