My Top-Ten List of Reasons to Love Summer

Living in extreme heat conditions can make me forget about the wonders of summer. This is my sixth summer in the Phoenix area, and I still don’t think I’m used to it. Can one ever get accustomed to such harsh heat? I have to wait a few minutes after I start the car so the steering wheel can be touched without burning my fingers! And if you touch the metal part of the seatbelt, you’re going to feel it. Just letting you know.

I’ll tell you this, though. I would much rather deal with 113-degree temperatures and sunny skies than minus fifty and icy roads in North Dakota. I still don’t know how I did that for four long winters!

I remember as a kid, summer time was such a wonderful three months. I’ll mingle in my childhood reasoning along with some updated ones in my Top-Ten List of Reasons to Love Summer.

10. Pool Pass. Yes, I own a pool now. But owning a pool really stinks. I would much rather use the city pool pass from my childhood to swim all day, every day, with my brother and sister. We played mermaids, dolphins, pirates, hide-and-seek, and Olympic swimmers. And that was all just in the first hour. After a wonderful day of pool time, we then scrounged and scrimped and saved in order to buy some penny candy at Garrett Honda or some tater tots from Reed’s Drive-In across the street before the loooooooong bike ride home at eight o’clock each evening. It’s amazing how tired you get after nine hours of non-stop swimming!

9. Fresh Fruit. I love that the grocery store smells like peaches and cherries and watermelon as soon as I walk in. It makes me crave all that sun-grown goodness. Did I mention avocados? Because those are pretty stinkin’ awesome during the summer, too. I love them year-round, but they’re actually affordable when they’re in season!

8. The Ranch. They were the best two summers of my life, spent with siblings and cousins on a ranch with my grandparents, hours away from any civilization. We didn’t have electricity, we used an outhouse, and our drinking water came from a rusty tank buried in the ground. A tiny amount of Country Time Lemonade was used to tint the flavor so that we wouldn’t notice the rust. It didn’t work, and I still hate lemon in my water as a result! We played, swam in The Crick, ate, worked, swam some more, and simply loved life. I have such special memories of The Ranch and will always love summer because of it.

7. Softball. When I was a kid, I played softball alllllllll summer long. I was in the city’s Little League and couldn’t wait for that magical time each year when I got to don catcher’s gear and swing a bat. Man, I love softball. All of those summers paid off when I made the high school team for four years!

6. Green Grass. Of course, this isn’t a consideration in my present living conditions. We water it and it is green, but it’s way too hot to go outside to enjoy it. Back in the day, however, I loved green grass all summer long. It was especially fun laying on the cool grass under the clouds and pointing out shapes. Ah, the simple pleasures of a television-free childhood.

5. Ute Stampede. Each summer, in the small town in which I was raised, the largest event of the year takes place. The Ute Stampede Rodeo makes the town population quadruple as old and young alike come home to enjoy the three-day event on the second weekend in July. Rodeos, parades, craft fairs, fireworks, carnivals, Texas Tornado Lemonade. You want it, they got it. I always looked forward to the Stampede. It’s been years since I’ve been now. Check out this awesome video of the Stampede made by a school friend’s Hubby, Donny Martin. He’s a pilot, too, so I approve.

4. Ice Cream. But we all know that this is not just a summer treat for me. Somehow, though, it just tastes better when it’s hot outside. If we’re getting specific here, and I’m always fine with specifics when it comes to ice cream, then let’s announce my official favorite summer ice cream as the Schwann’s Silvermint bars. I always want to flag the Schwann guy down when I pass him on the street. Miraculously, this hasn’t happened yet.

3. Fireworks and Hubbys. Four years ago this month, some guy I’d been dating got down on one knee and proposed marriage to me. After a gigantic fireworks display. Pretty cool, huh? I said yes.

2. Family BBQs. Like the one I’m attending today to celebrate the Fourth of July. Swimming in the pool, eating delicious food, and enjoying sweet babies. What more could you ask for on a summer day?

1. Corn on the Cob. My new favorite vegetable. Just make sure there’s plenty of butter, salt, and pepper to go around. Holy smokes.

Happy Independence Day!

How to Get to Seattle From Bremerton

Since we had no work plans for the week, I got approval to head north to visit family. That family just so happened to be staying on a giant yacht in a marina in Vancouver, British Columbia! When they found out that I was so close and had the week to do whatever I wanted, I was invited up for a short stay.

Isn’t that fun?! Sometimes my life doesn’t even seem real because I get to do such fun stuff.

This is a picture of the Bremerton Transportation Center just a few hundred feet from my hotel. I am glad it was so close. I had no jacket, it was forty-four degrees, it was pouring rain, and it was 4:30 AM.

After I boarded the ferry, I took a picture of my luggage. It was soaking wet from just that short walk run to the ferry dock! I love rain. But…be warned. Apparently the rain had adverse affects on the pictures from my entire week. I think a little water got on my lense and stayed there for most of my photos. Sorry. I am just now seeing it now that they are large on my computer screen.

Isn’t that annoying?

No ticket is required for trips into Seattle, but I didn’t know that and bought one anyway. I’m glad I did, since my return trip a few days later was really rushed to get to the ferry in time. It was nice to know that my ticket was already purchased.

What does this mean? It means that next time I’m in Bremerton, I can go to Seattle for the day and back for only $7.70!

The ferry was pretty neat. There were lots of people on board heading into the city for a day of work. Of course, most of them camped out for the hour-long ride and slept. These aren’t homeless people…they are paying ferry customers!

Except the guy on the right in flannel. He very well could be homeless.

Who can sleep when there is this much excitement about going to Vancouver? During my entire trip north, I felt like I was on an adventure. I felt so spontaneous! Never mind that I had all of the ferry and train schedules memorized, just in case. It was really fun. I never do last-minute trips like this, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Maybe I need to get out more?

We are half-way to Seattle. And it’s only 5:00 AM.

I tried to head out to the front of the ferry during the ride to get a good picture, but it was pouring rain and rather nippy for someone wearing a t-shirt. This is all you get, folks.

We wound our way through several peninsulas before getting into open water just before landing at Seattle.

Have I mentioned that Seattle is one of my favorite cities ever? I love it here.

Hello, beautiful Seattle! No, I’m not staying long today, thanks. I am headed to catch a train at King Station. Why, thank you. I will ride your ferris wheel next time I’m here.

Thank you very much.

Here is wonderful downtown. I am giving you the awful ferry lights glare free-of-charge. This could have been a pretty cool picture without those lights getting in the way…

Just after my ferry arrived, another one arrived in the dock next to us. Lots of people are crazy enough to be up this early! Seattle is one hopping city!

Have I mentioned that I like Seattle? No? Well, I do.

After I disembarked with my luggage, I turned around inside the ramp to take a picture. Rain does terrible things to cameras, and I don’t think that Hubby would let me get the camera of my dreams just because of a little rain on my point-and-shoot. I’ll have to be more careful next time.

I wasn’t playing the part of tourist at all. After I took the picture, the ramp worker asked if I had just gotten off or was trying to get on. I took that as my cue to head out of the ferry station.

Just kidding. I took more pictures first. Take that, Ramp Lady.

Do you see all those numbered lanes beneath me? Those are folks lining up to board the ferry back to Bremerton. And that is a pretty view of downtown Seattle.

Man, I love Seattle. Look at the clouds on the tops of the skyscrapers! Isn’t that cool?!

Look how politely everyone waits his turn? Even bicyclers can ride over on the ferry!

I had a 0.7-mile walk to King Station from the ferry station. I considered taking a bus, but none of the locals would acknowledge me to help with directions because I was the idiot without an umbrella in pouring rain.

This shot was taken under some supposedly-protected-from-the-rain trees. I  try to capture memories so I can come back and look through these pictures and know exactly what was going on.

I’m getting very close to the train station now! Here I am just a block away from the Amtrak trains at King Station. I know this because of the baseball stadium here. It was on my map and was very close to the station. (Yes, I had a map. I guess I’m not as spontaneous as I thought). Lots of construction going on here. I can’t believe they timed that during the regular baseball season!

It’s kind of like the crazy people in Phoenix who schedule all road maintenance during the summer. Do they not know it’s 120 degrees?!

Ooooo, a clock tower. That looks promising…I think I’m getting closer! Can you believe how light it is for only 5:30 AM? It stays light until about 10:00 PM, and it gets light around 4:45 AM. These northerners have so much light!

Too bad they can’t see any of it, thanks to all the rain clouds…

Yippeeee! I made it in time! My arms were tired from dragging my luggage, but apparently I am in the right place to catch a train out of Seattle.

Yep. Definitely in the right place. I can almost reach out and touch the train station.

With lots of construction outside and inside, it was nice to see that the cool art deco architecture isn’t being harmed. I love old buildings like this. This was my view after buying my train ticket to Vancouver, BC! It just felt nice to be out of the rain.

Canada, here I come!

To Utah Onward Ho!

It's not very often one gets the chance to write "ho" in a post title. I had to jump on this opportunity.

After we left Vegas but before we went to Leatherby's, we drove further north to Annabella, Utah to spend the night with my sister, Charloe, and her family. They have a beautiful home on a hill, located in a quaint little farming suburb of Richfield. Just down the street from their house were two new baby horses, so we went to admire them that evening. We also hopped in the truck to assess the damage of the Sevier River flooding, which is taking over parts of the valley with overflowing water. Thank goodness for sandbags! They certainly had a good winter and have lots of water melting off the mountain. Annabella is pretty, peaceful, and so quiet. We stayed up until almost 2:00 AM talking with Charloe and her drug-dealing pharmacist husband, Brian. What fun people!

The next morning, Monday, we packed up the car with Charloe's oldest kid in the backseat for our continued drive to Nephi. We've known Corban is brilliant since he was obsessed with planets at the ripe old age of three years. He could easily tell you every fact known about each and every planet, its moons, and characteristics. Now that he's six, his latest fascination is with Presidents of the United States. Because he's brilliant, George Washington is his favorite president, too! It was fun to hear his sweet little voice from the backseat quizzing us on presidential facts. Did you know there was a president named Andrew Johnson?! Me, neither.

Tuesday morning meant we started our manual labor for the week. Our entire purpose for this trip was to help my parents get some projects finished on their house. Just a few weeks before we arrived, the decision was made to wait on some major renovations, like flooring and paint, for a few months. So we did what we could to make some small changes around the house. I finally swayed Mom to the evil world of spray paint, and she let T'liese and I update all of the brass fixtures in the house. Some were changed to Satin Nickel while others became a beautiful Oil-Rubbed Bronze. It's hard to pick a favorite because they both look so good (especially next to each other) in the house. Of course, I don't have any "After" shots to prove that statement, but it's common knowledge that getting rid of brass will improve any situation! We even changed some brass and wooden picture frames, too, and printed off some new leaf artwork for her living room. Then we rearranged the furniture and voila! A new room for the price of a few cans of spray paint.

The small local hardware store only carried Krylon spray paint in multiple colors, so that's what we bought. I wasn't impressed and will definitely stick with Rustoleum's Painter's Touch for all of my projects. Sometimes one must work with what small local hardware stores provide! We used Rustoleum's Hammered Black to create the Oil-Rubbed Bronze look, and it turned out amazingly! If I do say so myself...

It was fun to work together as a team to knock out so many small projects. And it's always fun to have someone else jump onto my spray paint bandwagon! Satisfaction is instant with a can in my hands! The entire house looks different with just a few small changes, and I am tickled with the (not pictured) results.

We conveniently timed our visit to Utah during my brother's Little League Baseball Tournament, so we spent several of our evenings at the ballpark watching him play. Though his team lost their last game, Kippy had the game of his life with several in-field plays, killer hits, and fly balls caught. He was a machine! It must run in the family! We all enjoyed cheering him on and watching his game skills in play. Despite being left-handed, he just found out this week that he was named to the All-Star team. Whoop whoop!

More adventures from Nephi coming up soon!