The Rest of the Fourth of July Trip

 

We enjoyed a great beach day at Sea Gull Beach on July 3rd. It was warm and sunny out—perfect beach weather! It was crowded, but we got there early enough to get a decent spot. We used our new Cool Cabanas tent for the first time, and it worked great. I love it!

Abundant, easy-to-set-up shade and fresh open air and views: yes, yes, yes!

It was my first married summer in three years, and my first happily married summer in many years. 

I don't take it for granted!

Later that day, we enjoyed an early, delicious, and filling dinner at one of our favorite places, Brazilian Grill.

The hydrangeas in the backyard had bloomed nicely.

I saw this adorable and cleverly named beach-themed mint chocolate chip ice cream cake at Lighthouse Keeper's Pantry and decided I wanted it to be my birthday cake later that month (and it was—post to come next week! 😄)

We visited the massive weeping beech tree in Yarmouth Port.

After the Fourth, everyone left (including Sam, who was going on a vacation with a friend), leaving just David and me for a couple of days. We went out for dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant that I like. My chimichanga was deliciosa!

The dishwasher died. Even Mr. Handyman Extraordinaire wasn't able to fix it. I left a note on it for that month's renters.

R.I.P.

We got some house projects done. David really is quite the fix-it guy, and I'm grateful for his skills. He is methodical and meticulous!

A pretty view of hydrangeas right outside the bathroom window. 😄

The Fourth of July 2026: The 250th!

 I was excited for America's 250th birthday and anniversary! I love this country, and I count it as one of my greatest blessings to live here and be an American.

We spent the long weekend of the Fourth on Cape Cod like the good old days when we'd do that every year. It was a mostly sunny, nice, warm day.

We put together a patriotic puzzle the day before.

Voila!

David made delicious waffles for breakfast with red (homemade strawberry sauce), white (whipped cream), and blue (fresh blueberries) toppings. Yum!

I enjoyed not only eating red, white, and blue, but also wearing it. 😄

The colors theme continued with these treats I picked up at Lighthouse Keeper's Pantry. 

David wore blue and took an afternoon siesta. 😄

We had a good old-fashioned barbecue dinner with hot dogs, pork chops, corn on the cob, and potato salad.

A fitting dessert made by Hayley.

John got in on the patriotic action too while on his mission in Colorado. 

In the evening, we were very pleasantly surprised that the fireworks down on the beach were so good. Years ago, the annual Fourth of July fireworks over the water were canceled because of an environmental issue with nesting birds. It was a major bummer, and I've really missed those magical fireworks down at "our beach." I didn't realize that the locals put on shows of their own, or maybe they just did really good ones this year for the 250th. In any case, it was awesome! 

David took most of these pictures. They do the fireworks justice!

It was a fun and memorable Fourth of July and 250th celebration of the greatest country on earth! 

💖🤍🩵

June 2026 Randoms

 

How cool is this!?

A younger David at his family's lake house in Montana. 😍

He was more around my age when this picture was taken.

I was tasked with decorating the summer reading sign-up table at the library. I think I did a pretty good job, EXCEPT that I put the flowers thing on backward, which you can see if you look closely below. Aargh!

We went to a good pizza place to celebrate my sister Jennifer's birthday. I got a Mexican street corn pizza, and it was delicious!

The other half of the pizza was David's, and I think it was cheeseburger (or something like that).

David and I shared a strawberry shortcake dessert.

It was really special to see Elder Bednar in person. He gave an awesome and memorable talk. That's an actual Apostle of the Lord right there, and likely a future prophet of His church.

The drugstore in my town is gone and is being replaced by this:

I miss the drugstore; I went there for decades.

I love a good cupcake, and this one was good! Cream cheese frosting, yes, yes, yes.

David's pictures of the temple:

Speaking of which, the late sunset sky was pretty on our drive home from the temple.

I believe this, all of it.

Funny descriptions of different types of bees...

I want to have chickens someday, but only with David's help, so this was fitting.

😆

Look at how cute and young John, Jennifer, and I were! We were on Martha's Vineyard.

That was my last good year of hair before it stopped growing normally and crapped out on me.

Choose optimism!

Healthy life advice from a book I read, condensed into a few lines:

I wanted to document my clear and glowing skin because I'm vain like that. Though my hair has special needs, my skin does not.