Summertime

This fall I will be entering 19th grade, more commonly known as my final year of law school. That makes this my last "real" summer. And I have been milking it for all its worth by:

• grilling chicken, corn, and burgers
• sleeping with all the windows open
• reading Newberry award winning children's books one by one
• eating pounds and pounds of peaches, plums, pluots, cherries, nectarines, etc.
• attempting to cook homemade peach jelly
• spending evenings with my dear husband (who is often gone on weeknights during the school year)
• enjoying the long evenings by going for runs after work - speaking of work, I really like my summer job
• scorning the advice that vegetables need 6+ hours of sunlight and growing a garden in a plot gets half that amount
• reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time

I love the summer.

Harry Parter Potty

This frothy, amazing looking beverage is homemade butterbeer. My husband found lots of recipes online, and chose the recipe that claimed to taste like the J.K. Rowling approved butterbeer that's served at the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando.


It was nasty.


We made it last night for a pre-party for the midnight showing of the final Harry Potter movie. (About 75% of the time I mentioned the party, I said "Harry Parter Potty." My husband thought it was cute.) The recipe involved melting brown sugar with butter, rum extract, cider vinegar, and way too much salt, mixing it with cream soda, and topping it with a dollop of whipped cream. What a horrid creation.


But, everything the butterbeer lacked in taste was made up in the movie's awesomeness.

Who are these two weirdos?

The Joy of Siblings

You can be resting on the couch, just minding your own business when suddenly your sister comes along...

Plops down on top of you...

And starts munching on your hair.

And that, my friends, is the joy of siblings. 

Five Days in Colorado

My man and I got to spend an extended Fourth of July weekend in Colorado with family. The weekend was full of:


Nature,

After years of failed attempts, we finally made it on top of Harmonica Arch.

A moon rock.

My big bro and his pup.

I was trying to catch a shot of a lightning fork by using a super slow shutter speed, but I got these awesome clouds instead. I love Colorado thunderstorms.

Family,

I got to see almost twenty of my family members. Here's grandma and my cousins' dog, Baggins.

My happy parents.

And, of course, Food.

shish kabobs!

The best cheesecake ever!

And our dishware: urine collection cups. My mom brought them from her clinic. Hopefully they were unused!

Crazy Bird Lady

I bought a bird feeder, stocked it with seed, and birds starting coming. 

And coming. 

And coming. 

Now we have a veritable menagerie of birds in our tiny backyard. I fear that my neighbors might think that I'm turning into a crazy bird lady, but that's ok. Territorial fights have ensued including one where, according to valid eyewitness testimony from my husband, the blue guy below pushed (weird, huh?) a mourning dove off of our neighbor's roof and then pounced WWF style on top of it. Now that little bird really has something to mourn about.

Here's the cruel, cruel bird.

That's an avocado pit!

More sweet, little birds like this one, please!

And we've been getting hummingbirds.

Last night, my husband and I bought a twenty pound bag of birdseed. We feel like we're feeding a dog. I'm excited to see how quickly the birds devour it.