Red, White, and Blue

The first week of July offered new experiences with the red, white, and blue...

RED:

the color of my face after running my first post-pregnancy 5K. Turns out July is NOT the best month to run a race in downtown Shreveport...who knew??? I ran with friends from our ward and we were quite the site with three adults pushing three kids in three strollers. I felt like Andre the Giant in Princess Bride: Evwybody MOVE!!!

Judd & Brooke, Me & Caleb, Amy & Rylan

WHITE:

The color of David's official 2nd year doctor's coat complete with personalized embroidery. When you're a first year, they don't waste money having your name embroidered on your coat since the mortality rate is so high. Now I guess he's worth the extra $2:)

BLUE:

The color of the berries we picked in the mid-day sun from Shuqualak Farms (pronounced "sugar lock").

I had never picked blueberries before and learned a couple valuable lessons after our first time:

1)a fancy holster on which to clip your bucket works better than orange twine wrapped around your waist (that's what we used when picking raspberries in the summer as kids). As the orchard owner said in reference to the holster, "That there'll turn you right inta a TWO handed picka!" And that it DID.

2)at mid-day in Louisiana in July it's near impossible to keep yourself from overheating while picking blueberries and 7 month old babies don't appreciate being dragged along for the adventure...until they get their first taste of a blueberry popsicle which makes everything better.

Our attempt to cool Caleb off (note the battery-operated fan attached to the stroller canopy...also note the great scarecrow in the background:)

On a more serious note, we have made friends with many people who are stationed at the air force base here and our appreciation for all those who sacrifice for our freedom has increased tremendously. Thank you for protecting our red, white, and blue!

If you can't take the heat...

...you shouldn't have moved to Louisiana! That's what I tell myself each day I hear the weather man tell me that the 7-day forecast consists of heat, more heat, and the worst possible heat with a high probability of heat stroke and 100% chance of increasing your electric bill by 200%. On the plus side: at least this summer I'm not pregnant:)

We took Caleb for his first dip in the pool and he was brimming with enthusiasm (you just have to know how to interpret his poker face:)

Then we found this awesome blow-up pool for the backyard and David got creative with our balloon pump.

I think the ability for boys to imagine anything can be a gun must be innate because I certainly didn't teach my boy how to lock and load.

A dry run with the pool (pun intended)

Then it was out in the heat.

not so sure

not so bad

ooo, so nice!

Other ways to beat the heat include bumping our morning jog up from 9am (when it's 95 degrees) to 7am (when it's a mere 90 degrees)

and having the Dallas cousins push you around their nicely air-conditioned house in a walker that suspends your feet several inches above the ground. Thanks, girls!

That's it for now, gotta go have a popsicle!