Holy Heat!

It has been one hot summer, with very little rainfall throughout the month of June to cool things off.  Unfortunately, just one week after visiting our cousin's house in Black Forest, a fire sparked and spread quickly, damaging/destroying almost 500 structures.  In Colorado alone, there were 10 fires burning simultaneously.  Thankfully July has brought rain almost every afternoon, and aside from the mudslides going on in Manitou as a result of the burn scar from last year's fires, things are settling down here in Colorado.

This is a picture from our front porch of the smoke we all endured during the Black Forest Fire.  The fire was about 10 miles from our home.  Our entire city smelled like a campfire.  But considering that many of our friends were evacuated and lost their homes, we are not complaining about a little smoke.

As the barometer has continued to rise, we've been doing everything we can to stay cool.  Laurie had us over for brunch and a little pool time in her backyard.  It was so relaxing to just sit in the sun with our feet in the pool.

We've been making the best of the water restrictions here in Colorado.  Our grass has suffered a bit, and we skipped the veggie garden this summer, but our perennials have come in beautifully.  I am so thankful I listened to Trenton that first year we moved into this house.  All I wanted to buy was annual flowers because I'm more of an instant gratification kind of gal.  He insisted we balance it out with plants that would come back each year, and they have continued to faithfully return bigger and brighter than the year before.  I had to include a picture of Lyla enjoying summer vegetables.  Broccoli is not her favorite. 

This past week, we had the pleasure of watching over Stephen and Jessica while Doug and Christy went on a cruise to the Bahamas.  We spent the majority of our time doing anything we could to stay cool.  We did a lot of shopping, snacking, watching movies, and playing at the splash park. We enjoyed a couple really intense thunderstorms.  Emma's fear of the thunder has finally given way to fascination and she loves to sit on the deck and watch the rain.  I think that's cute.   Despite the pouring rain going on outside, we all had a hankering for some ice-cream- and it was totally worth it.
The last night we had Stephen and Jessica, we took the kids mini-golfing.  Lyla had more fun than I've ever seen her have.  The place was pretty slow that night, so she had the entire golf-course to herself like a giant, personal jungle gym.

Ben was more interested in actually playing.  He wanted to know which techniques worked best and he tried to be as accurate as he could.  I was impressed with my little three year old man.

One of my favorite moments from the week was when we all got back from church.  We were all so hot!  Everyone got in their comfy clothes, sprawled out on the couches, and drifted off to sleep in our perfectly chilly, air-conditioned home.  Having air-conditioning installed was the most wonderful investment we ever made.

We had so much fun with these kids.  I'm glad they're my family.