my fav holiday

the 24th of july. known only to utahn's and latter-day saints. full of small town parades and carnivals and bbq's. my kind of holiday.

ever since i can remember the parade has gone down the street in front of my parents' house so the entire extended family congregates at 8 a.m. for breakfast, the parade at 10 a.m., carnival activities at noon, and a bbq at 3 p.m. it may or may not turn into a 12 hour affair. that's a lot of findlay family time. 

we missed a lot of family this year but had a fun time with those who made it:



didn't get pictures of our fish pond, popcorn stand, or game of human battleship. or my poor niece when she got caught in the middle of a water fight with us and one of the floats in the parade. found her drenched and crying on the blanket when things calmed down. whoops.

favorite memory from last year: the m&m game got a little intense and my cousin connor sat back hard in his chair and kept going back falling and hitting the table with the 5 gallon jug of homemade cream soda and knocking it over. everyone jumped more concerned about saving the soda leaving connor to get up on his own saying, 'don't worry about me'. maybe you had to be there.

a waffle series: salted caramel

maybe it's a girl thing or maybe it's my addiction to salt (if i could eat popcorn for every meal i would) but salted caramel is so yummy. a little unexpected flavor but i think unexpected is the trend right now.

chocolate cookie with a subtle caramel frosting drizzled with caramel and topped with sea salt.

26 and such a good day

i struggled turning 25 and worried i would be the same with 26 but had such a good day i hardly thought about how old i was turning.

with trina and mason in town we did a birthday dinner with dutch oven pizza, s'mores, and lemon custad aggie ice cream and just spent the evening chilling in the back yard at my parents. the night was perfect.

this picture represents julie and mason so well, one not interested, the other eating.

and what more can you ask for on your birthday than a few surprises from someone far away:



i have a feeling it's going to be a good year.

a waffle series: the neapolitan

i love the strawberry most in neapolitan ice cream and this cookie definitely doesn't lack in strawberry flavoring. 

mini chocolate cookies with a strawberry infused buttercream drizzled with white chocolate. 

a little disclaimer: this cookie is still in the works so you may see another version in the future.

a new mario game

my sundays aren't normally too crazy but yesterday was an exception. started at 9:30 a.m. and ended at 9:00 p.m. but it was a great day. caught this picture while out doing visits with the r.s. presidency:

he said they were waiting for trick-or-treaters. and they'd even had some already. all i kept thinking about was the 90 degree weather and his long sleeves and hat. but he was having fun and that's all that matters. seriously so funny.

i hope my kids have some crazy ideas like this little man. and that i don't stop them from doing them.

apostate emails

what does it say about the quality of friend you are when you receive an email with the subject line: hafta send an apostate email geez. and this is from the missionary who is only supposed to email family and the rest of us rely on the snail mail of canada. but it had been so long since she's heard from me she felt the need to break the rules and deny herself the blessings associated with it.

i'm a horrible friend. any way to get her those blessings back?

a waffle series: the turtle

a variation on the classic, generally for a more mature audience (what kid likes nuts?)

chocolate cookie with chocolate frosting topped with pecan halves and a caramel drizzle.