More summer stuff

I usually make chocolate covered pretzels at Christmas time... but when you have a craving and feel up to the challenge, you go for it!  I also made red, white, and blue striped jell-o!  Okay one morning when I was driving, the sun was shining through the clouds in such a pretty majestic way.  I had to capture the moment and I think I did okay!  This town doesn't have much, but the sky is endless!

On our way to the Pioneer Day parade!  It's a pretty huge deal here for the 24th of July.  I'll take any excuse that let's us eat candy and watch fireworks!  Not to mention deck out in all my patriotic nerd glory.  You can't have too much red, white, and blue!  

Let's talk rain!  We got SOOOOO much that this levee broke!  This is about a mile behind our house.  Not scary for us, but still wild to see out my back window!  We took the kids to see it, looked for about 1 minute then turned and walked away for fear of the ground breaking beneath our feet.  It didn't, we were safe.

This is the view from my front porch.  Then my left side and my right.  It never came up over, but it came so close!  SO much water, then mud!  It accumulated so quickly, I was only outside for maybe half an hour and it grew inches tall!  I was nervous and also amazed.  Thankfully no damage.. for us anyway.  There was some talk of people water proofing their house and packing bags in case they had to evacuate.  I don't think it came down to that for anyone, but I know some people had floors to fix!

When I lived here as a kid ages 14 & 15, I had a close group of girlfriends.  There were 4 of us and only 1 still lives here, (we see each other often and have become even greater friends).  I recently reconnected with another one, this one in the pictures, her name is Becky.  She lives in the valley but her parents are still here so during her last visit, she and her cute family came to see us!  Seeing her after at least 15 years felt more like 15 days.  She's so easy going, laid back, fun, and we just bonded instantly.  We also both have boys, two of which are the same age!  (not the same story for the other 2 BFFs) Biggest bonus of all, our husbands became instant friends!  I don't think that has ever happened with anyone else and we're so grateful for this old/new friendship!

Happy birthday to me!  My mom sent me some sugar cookie flavored m&m's, which was funny because they were a Christmas holiday treat.  So, I guess she saved them for 7 months for me, haha!  They also sent me some puzzle shaped jewelry, and a lei?  So I took some silly photos and sent them to my parents as a thank you!  My mom is the queen of gift giving.  She's always so thoughtful and I hope she knows how much she's appreciated.  Probably not... maybe I'll give her a call and remind her, after I'm done here!

What do you think?  37 doesn't look too bad on me.