June started off a little slow for me, but it seemed like in no time at all someone had hit the fast forward button!  Take a look…

FAVORITE #1

At the beginning of the month, and for a few weeks in, the Celebrity tomatoes were putting out the most mouth-watering slicers!  It was definitely BLT season around here for a few weeks.

 

FAVORITE #2

Speaking of the garden putting out great tomatoes, we also had our resident spider hanging out between two of the tomato plants for most of June.  I acknowledged him/her every day when I went out to harvest and reassured him I was not there to harm him.

One day I went out, and it took me a few beats to figure out what he had captured in his web.  But once I figured it out, I was so proud of him!

It’s a little blurry, but Spidey had captured himself a grasshopper!  I try to catch them out there all the time, but they’re usually too fast for me.  Way to go, Spidey!  If only he could eat squirrels, too.

 

FAVORITE #3

The daylilies are so pretty in June, and they’re one of my favorite things during the month, because they’re so cheerful.  I didn’t quite get them at their peak, but here they are a little past it at mid-month.

 

FAVORITE #4

I was rear-ended around mid-May, and had been without my car for over a month while it was being repaired.  I didn’t get a rental, figuring Big Eagle and I could share his truck, which we did.  Most of the time he chauffeured me around.  It worked out fine.  However, I was really happy to FINALLY have my car back!

The collision place did a GREAT job!  It actually felt a little strange at first to be behind the wheel, but that didn’t last long.

 

FAVORITE #5

We were (and still are) big into salsa-making season around here!  It’s so nice to have Big Eagle helping me out with it now that he’s retired.  We pretty much have it down to a system.  While I’m working with the tomatoes to get the liquid out of the guts and get them processed, he gets all the other ingredients ready to put through the processor.

You can see my workstation in the background with the tomatoes, while Big Eagle assembles and prepares all the other ingredients.  We’ve done 3 batches of salsa so far.  Once we became inundated with tomatoes, I switched to making and freezing tomato soup because it’s so much quicker.  But I’m pretty sure we’ll get in at least one more batch of salsa.  This is a summertime favorite!

 

FAVORITE #6

We didn’t see our kids or grandkids at all in June, but I loved keeping up with them via technology!  Our granddaughters attended a three-week camp in upstate New York during the month.  I enjoyed emailing with them while they were there.  They had so many wonderful experiences!  Paul’s mom was able to go to the culmination event at the end of their camp time where they were able to display some of the things they’d learned.  She texted me some pictures, and I chose two of them to show here.

Helen is the second one in from the foreground on flute!

 

Edie did some aerial training!  She looks like a natural!

Our son Danny and his family traveled to Norway in June.  Here they are in the Lofoten Islands.  The mountain behind them is called The Goat.

I love this picture! 😍

 

FAVORITE #7

The ability to be spontaneous can sometimes add so much more to life!  My sister Susan texted me a little over a week into June to see if we would be interested in joining her in Vegas for the Cirque de Soleil Beatles Love Show.  My response was literally, “Sure, why not?”  We had been planning a road trip, but we could put that on hold.  And I’m so glad we did!

Susan booked tickets for the June 28th show.  That was a Friday.  We flew to Vegas the day before.  Susan had a connecting flight at D/FW that put the three of us on the same plane to Vegas.  We left her at the airport, as she was going to wait for her daughter Emily to get in from Hawaii.  We met up with them later for dinner at the hotel, where my brother Tom also joined us.  I’ll break this trip down into three parts that correspond with the days.

Friday 6/28

Friday morning we puttered around our hotel room a little while before getting dressed and going down for breakfast.  We stayed at the Mirage since that’s where the show was performed.  After breakfast, we walked around the hotel to check everything out.  When we came upon the theater, we had a little fun with some of the promotional decor.

 

 

The colors kept changing on this display.  Fun!

 

A little past noon, we met up with Susan and Emily at the hotel entrance.  Susan and Big Eagle helped the mermaid maintain some modesty. 😂

 

 

The four of us walked to the Arte Museum.  I loved all of the rooms in the museum, but this one was particularly fun.  Color sheets were provided with different animals on them.  You could color an animal, and then scan it into this live sketchbook and watch your animal join the others as they all moved through the jungle!  I colored a zebra, and Big Eagle colored Leo the lion.

 

The star raindrops room was another favorite.  The colors reflected on the hanging paper art were continually changing.  In this picture, you can see Big Eagle standing in the midst of it all.

These last two pictures inside the museum were taken during the Garden Light of Las Vegas.

 

 

When we finished at the museum, we walked to Ole Red for a late lunch/early dinner.  This is Blake Shelton’s bar/restaurant/music venue, and it was great!  The drinks were good, the food was amazing, and the live music was fantastic!

The waiter took this one of the four of us:

 

 

 

 

When we got back to the Mirage, it was time to rest, refresh, and get ready for the show!  My brother Jack had arrived that morning.  He and Tom were staying together at Circus, Circus, and they met up with us outside the theater.

 

And what a show it was!  Amazing, enchanting, captivating, enthralling…all the things!  There was so much to take in, and of course, the music was the absolute best!  No flash photography was allowed, and honestly, it was nice to just be able to immerse myself in the show.  I can see why people have been to it more than once.  I would love to see it again.  Unfortunately, the last performance will be this Sunday, July 7th, on Ringo’s 84th birthday.  The show had an 18-year run!

 

Saturday, June 29th

Saturday morning after breakfast, we walked to the lobby to post some mail. On the way there, I noticed the LOVE advertisement at the top of the hotel as I looked up through the atrium.

Then we went to scope out the pool area.  OMG, it was HUGE!  And there, I again saw the LOVE ad at the top of the hotel.

We found a really good spot behind one of the bars where there was just one row of loungers, and they were in the shade away from the majority of the people.  So we put down a few items to save our seats and hurried up to change into our suits.  We spent a super-relaxing morning intermittently lounging and plunging ourselves in the cool pool water.

Around 1:00, we went back to our room and got cleaned up.  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon just strolling around the strip, ducking in and out of casinos, playing a few slots here and there.  We came upon Hell’s Kitchen, where I snapped this pic of Big Eagle.

 

We returned to our hotel for an Italian dinner, then walked back to one of the casinos where we liked a particular slot machine and proceeded to give it a donation. 🤪  Then we were supposed to meet up with the rest of the group to watch the volcano explode, but they weren’t there yet, and we were SO hot and tired that we decided to forego the volcano.  We went into the air-conditioning and got a gelato instead.  Yum!

We met up with the others after that and sat around and visited for a while.  Jack had the idea to take one last picture before we all parted ways.  We wouldn’t be seeing him and Tom again before they left, but we would see Susan and Emily in the morning at the airport.

A short trip, but such a fun one!

 

Sunday, June 30th

We had an 8 a.m. flight home in the morning, so we were up early to catch a shuttle to the airport.  Susan and Emily came along later and met us at our gate.

 

Susan had a connecting flight again in Dallas on her way back to Florida, and she was on our same flight again, actually on our same row, but across the aisle.  Emily was flying back to Hawaii, so we said our good-byes to her before boarding our plane.

I spent so much time admiring the views from my window seat during the first half of our flight home!

The picture doesn’t do it justice, but gazing out at the Grand Canyon and all of the other land features was really engaging!

 

And just like that, it’s July!  And we’re already almost a full week in!  I hope you are enjoying your summer.  If you’d like to share what you’ve been up to, I’d love to read about it in the comments.  Have a great rest of the weekend!