The Garzquists: July 4th-21

Dustin and I watched the 4th of July fireworks at Sugar House Park near our house.

The next weekend I headed up to Idaho for a family reunion. Dustin stayed home to make sure our pets didn't keel over since our A/C still wasn't fixed. I met up with my amazing friend Shawna for breakfast and some playtime with her furry babies. Then I went up to Mountain River Ranch for the family reunion. It was a good time filled with food, visiting, a horse race, and an auction. It was good to see my cousins Sarah and Macy with their families (together, for a change!). I also took my niece Juniper to Despicable Me 2 (which was a good time, but not a great movie).

Sandy's an old, sweet girl

Ray and I were best friends! He didn't want me to stop petting him

I love my Shawna!

Markus is such a happy kiddo!

Miss Layla is a wiggly girl. It was hard to get a picture

Our baby quail hatched the weekend of the family reunion, so we've been keeping an eye on them. We saw four at first, but only two or three since then, so we think one of the neighborhood kitties got himself a little snack. We're hoping these last little three pull through to adulthood. They're fun to watch wander around the neighborhood. My vegetable garden has also been doing really well. I've already harvested a few zucchini and yellow squash. My tomato plants are now towering over their cages and a few have tomatoes starting to turn red. I've even found a preying mantis in residence in my Romas.

My garden is getting pretty crazy

Our air conditioner did finally get fixed after two weeks of hot, hot misery. Our kitties were trying to find any cool surface upon which to flop their little bodies and yowling at us to inform us of their discomfort. Sophie got her second Bark Box, which had some pretty cool things in it like a squashable silicone bowl for traveling, a treat dispensing toy (which I kind of like better than the Kong, since Sophie really only uses it to get the treats out and not chew on the actual toy), and of course, a bunch of different treats.

Dustin and I also met up in Pioneer Park with my cousin Mishael and her boyfriend Santiago for the first of SLC's Twilight Concert series, Belle and Sebastian.

Mom, you still haven't given me the big bone from the last BarkBox!

These guys were ready for the a/c to be fixed.

At the Belle and Sebastian concert

We've been doing a lot of hiking on our weekends spent at home. Two weekends ago we went up to Summit Park on both Saturday and Sunday (you may remember Summit Park from our snowshoeing adventures last winter). We enjoyed all the pretty wildflowers and butterflies and even had brunch at a local restaurant. Last weekend we finally made it back to Mill Creek Canyon. This time we were prepared for the heat and a long walk with our Camelbak and Sophie's nalgene water bottle. We did the Grandeur Peak trail, which is 6-ish miles round trip and an elevation gain of over 2,500'. It was a lot of fun, but it got really hot and poor Sophie had to be carried about 1/2 mile on the way back until we could get her to a creek to cool down. She recovered great and walked the rest of the way to the car, but definitely crashed in the car and then on the couch when we got home. We found a lot of lizards and huge dragonflies and even one snake (happily, it was NOT a rattlesnake and Dustin got it to slither its way off the trail so we could continue on our way).

We'll continue the outdoor adventuring this weekend with a motorcycle trip through Yellowstone National Park. I'm hoping to finally see some wolves in the Park. Miss Sophie will be staying at home with her cousin Mishael so that we can do some hiking (and have room in the Forester for all the gear!)

Summit Park: