Oh Yeah and the Other Stuff

There were many other little events that have added fun to our summer months - for starters, the day that Chase requested that I purchase a hot sauce from Amazon called "DaBomb." Eating it was basically a dare for himself and his cousin Noah. It's not the kind of hot sauce that tastes good, like, at ALL. It's just so hot that it's just a test to see what you can handle. And this was such a big deal for the boys that we got our whole families together just so we could watch them eat chicken nuggets dipped in this fire from hell. It was pretty dang funny to watch but I want no part of eating that sauce. I don't think anyone does. It's still sitting in our fridge, waiting for the next time someone dares someone else to eat it. I wonder how long I have to keep it. 

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My friend Emily and I had the chance to serve for four hours at the Welfare Square Cannery. It was actually a really long day but I've never done it before so I was glad to get the chance. I spent four long hours making sure spaghetti sauce lids were getting screwed on correctly. It's really boring. But it's much less boring when the lid isn't screwed on tightly and the machine knocks the bottle over. That's much more exciting. 

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We convinced our girls to bring their instruments over to Troy's parent's home to play a couple of pieces for them. I was proud of them for agreeing to play.

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Father's Day was a wonderful day. And we were very lucky. We decided it would be fun to go cook breakfast together up Milcreek Canyon. We kind of thought that the canyon would really be busiest in the afternoon and evening for BBQs and that the morning would be quiet with lots of space available but we were totally wrong - it seemed like the entire population of Salt Lake City was on their way up that canyon. We could not find a spot for a picnic and even the sides of the road were all just packed with cars. We were nervous because the upper half of the canyon had not yet opened so we weren't able to look up at the higher spots. We pulled into the last open area, the Terraces, and totally lucked out by finding three little spots empty. The people right before us took one, we took the next, and the people right behind us took the third. Whew! Incidentally, the people who were right ahead of us were cute friends who lived in our neighborhood until recently and were Emma's primary teachers. Fun to see them.

The cool mountain air was just what we needed. For breakfast we enjoyed Romney's breakfast specialty - the egg sandwich. Thank you instagram or whatever video she watched that taught her how to make a sandwich - sort of like grilled cheese. You butter bread. You butter a pan. You break eggs into the buttered pan, scramble them up, then while they're cooking, put the buttered bread into the eggs, butter side up. Then flip the whole thing over, so the bread starts to fry a little. Add cheese. Flip one side onto the other and then gobble it up. We added avocado. Except Emma. Emma wouldn't eat the avocado. She also would not eat the sandwich. 

We really love our Troy and we really loved going up the canyon and eating breakfast with him to celebrate the wonderful father that he is. 

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On a recent visit to some friends in Bountiful we were shown their summer bucket list. It was so cute. So many fun things like watching sunrises and going for night drives and all sorts of stuff. We especially noticed the item that mentioned becoming an ice cream truck and delivering free popsicles to kids. In Bountiful, you can do this. Drive around and just find kids out playing. Not in SLC - we have to flush the people out of their hidey-holes. But still, we thought we could maybe pull off a similar event. Emma especially was excited by this idea and really latched onto it. She made sure our family made this happen. We went and bought a cooler full of popsicles and creamies and some dry ice. We hopped into the car and started driving around, texting families we knew with kids and dropping by for a hello and some sweet cold treats. We were very careful and wore masks and Emma used tongs to hand out the treats. It was so nice to see so many neighborhood friends - and we even were able to get a few unknown passers-by to stop and choose something. Actually, I was very surprised at how uplifting this was. I mean, it was just popsicles. But we really felt energized and uplifted and connected. It was great fun and I hope to do it again before the summer ends. Good job Emma, sticking to it and not letting this fun chance pass us by.

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For several months now Troy has been talking about getting a scooter - specifically for me. I felt nervous to totally agree with this because I wanted one so badly it felt kind of selfish. But Troy loves me and persisted and kept shopping around for used vespa scooters. He found several on the classified ads but they got sold so fast he couldn't even get a look at one. Finally he found this pretty black vespa being sold at a local scooter shop. It was only one year old and barely had 200 miles on it, if that. (Who would buy a scooter and not drive it?) We went and bought it early in July and Troy drove her home. Now, you have to have a motorcycle license to legally drive a scooter, and I didn't have one. So for a couple of weeks Troy was the only driver and he took me and the girls on a few rides. I was desperate to go get my learner's permit but.....covid rears its ugly head again! The DMV was basically closed. You couldn't go without an appointment and you couldn't get an appointment without filling out an online form to request a phone call to make an appointment. SERIOUSLY. It took some time but I finally got through and got to at least set an appointment. 

I spent a long road trip sitting in the back seat studying my motorcycle license manual and taking practice tests that I was passing with flying colors. However, going in to the DMV was actually terrifying. And I just barely passed my test! It was way harder than I thought it was going to be and I made at least one dumb mistake. But whatever, I got my permit and now have six months in which to take a road test on my little scooter. I'm pretty nervous for that too. But ever since I got my permit I have had a lot of joy as I have driven around town on this lovely little scoot. She of course has a name - that's what we do. We name things. It drives Chase nuts but I can't help it! I'm a namer. Her name is officially Sofie Lauren, named after the gorgeous Italian actress. But I also call her Pinkie. That has a long story behind it that isn't worth telling that makes me laugh. I also call her Scoots MaGoots. I absolutely LOVE going for scoot rides.

So there you go. Other stuff that has been going on this summer.