I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of the summer months.  I’m a total lightweight when it comes to high heat.  But Sloan has softened my heart towards all that is summer.  We spent every spare moment outside, mostly playing with Sloan’s new water table.  I could kiss whoever invited water tables right on the mouth.
We’ve been visiting the pool often, mostly to get Sloan more comfortable with the water when we go to Lake Powell with the Hendersons.   She’s my daughter:  she loves accessories.  And summertime accessories especially.  If she’s not wearing sunglasses, she’s not about to have her after-nap snack.  One of the first things we did when we got back from our family Eurotrip was to take Sloan to the Zoo.  I haven’t been to the Zoo in years.  Sloan was true to form:  she cared more about the other toddlers than any of the animals.

We’ve had a couple places on our list to try – one being Chronic Tacos in Sugarhouse.  It’s no Lonestar, but it was quite good!  Sloan gave her kid’s quesadilla an A+.

It doesn’t make sense, but I’ve been on a baking kick lately.  Zach calls it a “roll”…because I’ve made homemade bread 5 times over the course of a few weeks.  I found the most amazing recipe for Bowl Bread [because you bake it in two Pyrex bowls in the oven] and we all can’t get enough of it.

I even tried my hand at Cutler’s glazed sugar cookies.  They were good – but not as good as the real deal.  That’s because there is crack in Cutler’s sugar cookies.  Pure, unfiltered crack.

Summer makes me even lazier when it comes to cooking genuine meals for the three of us – but I’m hooked on a crockpot mango chicken taco recipe I found.  Just add chicken breasts and a container of Trader Joe’s frozen mango salsa and you’ve got dinner.

We also took Sloan to her first gymnastic class a few weeks at Flip’s in Bountiful.  It went ok.  Suffice to say that Sloan has enough energy to be a pro – but lacks discipline.  Her USA get-up totally killed it, though.

We got to visit Mimi and Papa a couple of Sundays ago.  Some of Sloan’s highlights were jumping on the tramp with Papa and completely covering herself and all her clothing in berry juices.  RIP to those white cut-off shorts…

Amongst all the family time, we had a great Father’s Day weekend.  We got to celebrate our #1 Dad up in Park City for the weekend.  We ate sushi for dinner [Sloan had her first taste of a California roll and didn’t hate it], tried our hand at bowling, put Sloan to bed, and used our monitor to go out on the deck and roast s’mores only 15 feet away from our room.

The next morning we woke up and went on a nearby hike.  The early hours meant the temps were lower and for a second it felt like it was still spring.

We spent the rest of the day up in Ogden with the Hendersons celebrating Mark and the other dad’s for an early Father’s Day BBQ.  Sloan basically set up camp at the little splash pad the entire time.

She is not quite ready for the mountain yet.  She doesn’t understand the concept of gravity WHATSOEVER.

We had a fantastic holiday on Sunday for Father’s Day.  Sloan gave Zach extra loves on his big day.

Sloan also went to nursery for the first time and didn’t even notice we left her.  Like didn’t even whine or turn her head to look at us as we walked out the door.  I was kind of bugged about it, I’ll be honest.  Sometimes a mom wants to feel needed – but I couldn’t have been more proud of her.  I tried to get a decent photo of us, but this was the longest she would sit still in my arms.

I loved peeking in on her through the tiny window in the door.  She was having the time of her life.  

We had Sunday dinner that evening at my aunt and uncle’s house.

We had a cluster of birthday’s to celebrate the last few weeks as well.  We went up to Ogden for our brother-in-law’s 40th birthday.  It was at Tona with all his family and friends, we were so glad to be able to attend.  His cake was incredible:  golf and sushi.  Kelly has great taste.

Later we went out to eat for my brother’s birthday at From Scratch.  Sloan loves Bubba, and chants his name on the daily.

And because my dad’s birthday was on Sunday, we had them both over to our house for Sunday dinner.  I made chocolate cake [more bread] and we ate a meal made up of almost 100 percent carbohydrates.  Sloan is my little baking assistant.  She loves to watch the mixer do it’s magic and usually assists me by rummaging through the drawers that she can reach into and tossing whatever the contents are at me.

I feel like I’ve missed a lot of what we have done the last few weeks.  I have a few new projects that I’ve been hired to do, which is always exciting and overwhelming, but we’re managing.  June has come and gone and July and August will fly even faster, I’m convinced.  We’re just doing all that we can to enjoy all the time together with family and friends.