Summer in Utah:

The summer is in full swing in Utah.  While June was rather mild for a Utah summer, July has seen most days in the high 90's or 100.  Hot yes, but given great summer reasons to get out and do, the heat is more something to endure than avoid.  July 4th parades abound in every city small and large across the states.  The Centerville parade is one we have visited on and off throughout the last two or so decades we have lived here.   There are the clowns, school bands, horses (not so many this year though), along with a number of "advertisement" floats and decorated cars for local merchants.  I mean Wallmart drove a big semi down the street!! Our grandson, Ethan, was in the parade this year as he participated with his cub scout troop.  A few boys in the troop came first  carrying the flag.  Ethan followed with a banner naming fallen solders from the local area.  He is on the right.

     

Along with farmer's markets, and art festivals there are the weekly car shows around town.  Considering all the quilt shows that Roger has tagged along with me, I needed to show the same support as we visited one at a new shopping venue close to home (Kim, this will be one of our stops this fall!).  Roger went back with Ethan last week.  As far as Roger and Ethan are concerned, these are all gearing up to August and  Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Ethan wanted to camp out there, but after some convincing, decided taking their bikes for the day would do as well.

Of course, the best part of the summer is going up to the cabin!!  It is always about 10 degrees cooler in the mountains and peaceful.  Deer have walked through our property while we have been sitting on the deck and hummingbirds are often buzzing around the feeder Roger has put up on the deck.  Bring a book, go for a walk, or even bring up the sewing machine and work madly on a project.  All good.

Another best part of the summer is having everyone over for treats and a sprinkler party.  While the girls (Ana, Ingrid, Livi and Racquel) placed outside, Ethen stayed in for a while to read National Geographic.  The donuts finally enticed him out. 

There have been Jurassic Park movie marathons, trips to museums and the aviary as well as to a favorite fishing hole.  Needless to say, Roger is a fantastic grandfather - fishing is not my thing.

What's kept me busy this summer is the quilt group that I head.  We had our annual July dinner last week where we displayed the "mystery block" quilt along quilts that a number of the members did.  Another great husband (Diane's) put together a type of cloths line from which we could hang the quilts with cloth pins.  It was supposed to rain all that day, but the day remained bright and sunny until the dinner was over and the quilts were taken down.  Then we had a downpour.  Perfect timing.