DDR

There is this new game called Dance Dance Revolution that people are doing. Or maybe it's just new to me. You look at the TV and follow arrows that come slowly to really fast (depending on your level) onto the screen in 4 different directions. It's all set to music.

My neighbor, Eric, has been trying to get a "DDR" night together since I've been back. He was even trying to get my parents to do it. It's actually really fun even though it highlights my lack of rhythm. But it strikes me as funny that grown men are so into it. My neighbor's friend is so good at it that he rarely misses a step. That might indicate that too many hours have been spent alone with DDR!

S'MORES

This is for my international friends! While in Lesotho, we were talking about s'mores and how they are an essential food for camping and summertime here. I was trying to describe a graham cracker and we found that the closest thing they had was a whole wheat digestive cracker - that sounds healthy, but I don't think it is. It is similar in taste to a graham cracker, but different in shape and texture.

S'more ingredients....ready and waiting!

Roast the marshmallows - right over the coals is the best place, but here I am over the fire. Some people like them blackened from catching on fire. I like mine puffy and brown.


This was a couple of weekends later...it was raining outside and we wanted s'mores, so we roasted the marshmallows over the stove. It works great!

Are you salivating yet?!

My roommate, Jennifer, enjoying the finished product!

Glimpses of home

Sedona and her young friend, Canyon, were competing to see who could retrieve the tennis ball fastest. Since Canyon always won, we used 2 tennis balls which worked much better! Sedona loses about 8 years when she gets in the water to "play ball"!

My parents were here for the first week and a half after I came home. My dad has my little weights in his hands - he is always seeking more exercise! This was the night after I arrived back in Colorado. We took the dogs for a walk on a trail near my house. The scenery, smells and sounds were all new again to me, yet at the same time so familiar. I have missed Colorado!

July is peak wildflower season here. I missed going out to see the multicolored fields of flowers this year, but here are some little beauties that I encountered.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain
America, America, God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea

Pikes Peak...from which America the Beautiful was inspired and written....