Midsommar...finally!

The last time I attended the Swedish Heritage Society's Midsommar was the summer that Steve and I met...2008.  Since then, we've tried repeatedly to get to it.  It always seems, though, that something always came up.  This year, we committed to ourselves that we were going to go.  It's funny because we had to change the date on some tickets to see Crazy For You so that we could make it, but we did it!
They hold the Midsommar every year at the International Peace Gardens at Jordan Park near the Swedish stugga (little cabin).  We arrived at 5:00 in 100 degree weather.  Luckily, there were lots of trees and a nice breeze blowing.  We watched them put up the pole and then they had some dancers do some dances.  They also did a line dance with anyone that wanted.  We watched those, but Anna and I did dance in the round dances around the pole.  Anna enjoyed running around in circles.  This year they had a live orchestra playing the music, fun!
At 7:00 they served dinner.  Steve stood in line for us while I watched Anna dance to the music that was playing.  She also found a tent pole and decided it made a good fireman pole to slide down.  She had so much fun climbing up on a chair and 'sliding' down the pole.  The dinner was catered by a restaurant.  It was good, but not $12 a piece good.  We split our meal with Anna.
In all, it was a fun evening.  Next time we have a couple of things we'd do differently.  First, I think Anna and I need flower crowns.  It's just not Midsommar without a crown of flowers.  We'd also go a little later and maybe bring our own dinner.
Glad Midsommar!

Fourth of July

We had a nice, quiet 4th of July.  Fireworks were banned in Stansbury because of the fire risks, plus we're not quite sure if Anna's ready for how loud they are.  She already freaks out with the Emergency Broadcast tests every Wednesday out here.
We started off the day with breakfast at Denny's.  Steve always takes us out on holidays to give me a little holiday from cooking.  We had fun in a mostly empty restaurant, eating yummy pancakes and bacon.
Unfortunately, later that morning, I did not feel very well at all.  I got all dizzy and nauseous.  I laid on the couch all morning while Anna watched cartoons and Steve played chess on the computer.  I felt much better in the afternoon.
For dinner, we headed up to Settlement Canyon.  It's just beyond Tooele and so much cooler up there than down here.  We found a nice shady site and cooked sausages for dinner.  We also ate chips and a TON of cherries.  It was funny to watch Anna try to figure out how to eat the cherry but not the pit.  We ended up with a pile of semi-chewed cherry on a napkin.
After dinner, we hiked from there back toward the entrance.  There was a little playground that we stopped at and Anna played.  Steve walked back to our dinner site to get the car.  We really enjoyed going up there.  It was nice and cool and we had a lot of fun.

More Construction

I've been pretty quiet about the house for a little while because there hasn't been a whole lot to report.  They have been putting in the electrical, plumbing, and insulation.  Then they got busy putting up the drywall and smoothing that all out.  That took forever it feels like.

However, we do have some exciting developments just recently.  The stonework for the outside of the house got put up!  Also, we've been inside and found shelving installed, wood flooring and tile laid, and doors and baseboards up.  So exciting!  Here are a couple of pictures.

Catching Up

So I've looked at my posts here and realized that it's been a very long time since I've made regular posts.  So...I'm going to do some posts, starting with the most recent and working backward to catch up.  This is the first.  I just have to show everyone my very first zucchini!  I planted yellow zucchini at the beginning of the summer and picked my very first one last night.  Steve thinks I'm funny for being so excited, but this is the first time I've grown something other than lettuce and herbs.  Yay!