Summertime blues? Not at this house!

Yes, it's a ''dry heat''...well, it was until the last week of June. Then the wonderful humid monsoon season came along. I've always loved the rain and awesome thunderstorms that roll in! But the stickiness, not so much. Granted it's not nearly as sticky as the mid-western and new England states, all of which I somehow managed to visit in the middle of the summer. Go figure. (Spring break in Florida is fabulous though!) I'm still not sure which weather I loathe to go shopping in, or come out of church in the middle of the afternoon to try to cool down the oven of a car for a tired 1 year old in. Sooooo thankful for AC!!!

Humidity or blow dryer heat? 105 and 30% humidity, or 115 and 2%? They are both pretty miserable. There are loads of fun things to do inside, but after a while you need a change. So, since living in Alaska for 5 months isn't an option right now, and since Arizona has plenty of beautiful cooler places to visit that aren't too far from home, here are a few ways that we have been trying to beat the heat this year.


Memorial Day Quist Family swim party. It was actually not too bad that day. It was Evelyn's first swim! She's probably thinking, "I'm not so sure Mom...", but she loved splashing a few minutes later.
Also in May, at a backyard birthday party for cousin Koltyn Johnson, my sis-in-law Heather took some impromptu family pictures. Note that we are in the shade.















On the 4th of July we only ventured out when the sun went down. Evelyn was a bit terrified of the fireworks...
July 10-12th Ryan was at Scout Camp running a pellet shooting range because they were on private land where they weren't allowed to shoot rifles. He had a lot of fun and took a few photos that are on his ipod. He took the whole week off to spend time with Evelyn and I. It was still not long after his 3 work weeks in June of living at Roosevelt Dam, so it was really, really great! We went up to fish at Willow Springs Lake on the 14th. I caught 1 trout, but not much else was biting. We saw a bald eagle, a couple of hawks, and I wish I had a picture of Evelyn's eyes when she saw the chipmunk! We had tons of fun!











On the 18th of July my brother Matthew turned 26...yikes! I love my courageous, opinionated, handsome baby brother to pieces! And he loves his little niece too.

Coming soon... our adventures in camping!

they know...

I realized just how amazing it is to me that Evelyn at 11 months old pointed to a picture of the Savior and said "Jesh." Not that it's uncommon or that I think she's unusually intelligent, but ...well, she knows who He is. For a few months every diaper change was a wrestling match unless I could get her to look at a picture of Christ, that now has a place in her view on the dresser. When she was 6 weeks old the first non-talking thing that she smiled at was a picture of the Savior. Anyone who has a bit of experience with babies can tell you a dozen or more instances like this. It's something that makes me pause and wonder what we would all be aspiring to if we really realized, as infants do, who the Savior is and who we are to Him. I suppose that's just part of what makes a baby be a baby.

the "cows"

Down the street from my parents house is a field owned by some wonderful older members of their ward. They regularly keep a couple a steers for butchering, which most of the children in the neighborhood refer to as the "cows". When my sisters kids were younger we would often go on walks to see the cows and sometimes bring old lettuce or fruit to try to feed them. I had never done this with Evelyn, so one day in June during the 3 weeks that Ryan was up working at Roosevelt Dam, we passed a few minutes of time taking a walk to see the "cows." While we were there Evelyn said "Moo" very clearly for the first time. On the way back it even sprinkled a little, which felt great! It was just one of those little things I will always remember.

finallly!

Yes, I am finally posting pictures of our completed fence and backyard gate. Ryan started this project last June and just put the finishing touches on the gate a few weeks ago. The fence between our house and our neighbor to the West was in pretty bad shape, and part of it had kind of sunk from the yard getting completely saturated from a broken sprinkler. As a birthday present Ryan's dad gave his time and skill, and a whole lot of metal, to help us enclose the yard with a gate. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Here are progressive pictures of this project that we are very happy to have complete.

Happy Birthday Evelyn Lee!

Here are the birthday pictures!




You'll need to copy and paste the address to see the slide show since I'm not very blog savvy. Hope you enjoy all the crazy photos!

http://www.slide.com/r/6KhHlmop1z9KiU1UaNnsS32PZg9p7XPt?map=2&cy=un

Since Ryan was working and staying at Roosevelt Dam for the week we drove up and spent the night to enjoy her big day with just each other. We had a great time on Saturday when all the family and a few friends came over for a backyard party too. Thanks sooo much to my sister-in-law Heather for the most awesome cupcakes and my friend Kelsey for the adorable cake! Here are a few of my favorite pictures and a few videos.

1 year old! then and now

last year at this time...

now...


last year...

now...

then...

now...

We can hardly believe our little baby has blessed our lives for a whole year now. It has been the most wonderful year of our lives and we know it will just keep getting better.
Happy Birthday to our sweet Evelyn! (birthday pictures to come)