Summer Flavors

Once upon a time I told myself "It's okay if you don't blog for a while... summer vacation is almost here and then you'll have all sorts of time to blog."  And then summer vacation got here and I used that time to drive to Nebraska.  And sleep.  And go for walks.  And visit friends.  And sleep some more.  And go to the zoo.  Etc.

BUT!  It is finally summer, hooray hooray!  And so yes, in theory (and hopefully in practice hereafter), I will be a little more consistent about blogging.

Also once upon a time, some people that I love very much wrote about the flavors of their past week.  I've been meaning to write this post for over a week and I have all the cute pictures to back it up, so thanks Dad and Dene' for loving me anyway even though I never blog with you on time ;)

What flavor has your week been?  Our past week weeks have tasted like SUMMER!  Oh I love summer.  Well, I love the idea of summer.  And I love early summer, when you get the occasional blazing day but there's still some cool weather to be had--and I don't feel like I'm going to die of heatstroke because I went for a walk later than 6:30am.  And how convenient--that's exactly the kind of summer we're having right now!

My summer flavors have been brauts and long island ice teas set to the back drop of bright flowers and little boys enjoying fresh air and sunshine and the sand box.

Liam's summer tastes like steak.  Literally.  His first experience with meat was definitely a hit (much more so than sweet potatoes or bananas... but I'm not at all surprised to have another little carnivore on my hands).

Michael's summer tastes like "lemon juice," but in a good way.  That's what he calls lemonade, and in typical Michael fashion he refuses to budge.  It probably also tastes like sunscreen and sand, but in toddler-land that might be a good thing too.

not pictured: trusty lemon juice

Alex's summer tastes like freedom and cookies.  Freedom from any cares and worries concerning grad school, and the cookies I baked to celebrate.

photo credit: Cici

A note on the cookies... chocolate chip were Alex's request (and my mom's amazing recipe, called Cowboy Cookies for some unknown reason--still unknown, because I keep forgetting to ask her) and the chocolate chocolate cookies were my latest cookie experiment: Nutella chocolate chip cookies, which I discovered on Ana's blog.  If you check out the recipe you may notice that my cookies look a little different than the promised finished product.  Okay, a lot different.  I'm blaming it on the altitude.  But they still tasted pretty amazing, so I'm calling the experiment a culinary, if not visual, success.

We are all thoroughly enjoying the many tastes of summer!!!