Fairs, Cakes, and Activities

So last week Justin was gone at Sons of Helaman, a camp for young men about 14 years old from church. He came home late Friday night unscathed, claiming to have lost 5 pounds. Now, I'm sure he did lose 5 pounds, but I can't understand how he expects me to really notice that amount. They say you don't look noticeably different until you have lost 10% of your body weight. So, since he doesn't weigh 50 pounds to begin with, I must admit I didn't notice the 5 pounds. If that makes me a bad wife, then I'm sorry. He had fun, and I've heard the boys rave about their experience, so it must have been great!

Levi and I did our usual play all day, pool in the afternoon, dinner with Nana in the evening almost every day. We too enjoyed ourselves! However, the Friday before Justin came home we had an unfortunate experience with another tenant at my complex. We were all down at the pool, and my brother and his family had joined us. We were all having fun, splashing, laughing, and Levi would occasionally squeal with delight. Sounds innocent, right? Well a man came down from his apartment and told us we had to "Shut him up" in reference to Levi. He even started shaking his cane at Levi. We explained to him that we lived here too, and we were outside, and Levi was only 2, he can't expect us to be silent while playing outside... in public! He persisted with his comment to shut Levi up, and we told him over and over again to talk to the manager if he wanted. I was glad I had so many family there, especially my brother, to back me up since Justin was gone. Well, I called Justin right away and told him. He phoned the manager when we got back and the manager said to let him know right away if it ever happens again. This isn't the first encounter with this man, and I feel our encounters become worse and worse and weirder and weirder.

Saturday we relaxed a bit in the morning, and headed to the Linn County Fair in the afternoon. Levi loved all the animals yet again. He wished he could have played longer in the corn, but he really could have stayed there all day if we let him. The picnic set up I included is of a display we saw at fair, someone made it all out of fondant, which means it is all completely edible! Pretty good! I don't care for fondant, so I wouldn't eat it, but it was impressive.

Monday evening we headed to our Ward's Pioneer Day activity. We invited my whole family to join since they both lived close to the park we were at. I made two things for the BBQ, baked beans and a dino cake. I made a dino cake because I wanted to practice it for my nephew's birthday. I've offered to make him his 3rd birthday cake in a couple weeks, and I wanted to be prepared. It came out alright, but I plan to use different colors on his cake. The baked beans on the other hand came out awful, as my brother exclaimed during the BBQ (not knowing I made them). I was fine with his comment because he was just being honest, and I didn't like them either. They were too sweet, the beans (after being soaked for over 12 hours in water, and 10 hours in their sauce) came out a little hard, and it was still a little too soupy. But you live and learn. Now I know not to trust a recipe online that simply gives me one direction (mix ingredients and simmer for X time). The recipe really needed a lot more attention than that, and I learned that quick.

Anyway, that is all from us. Hope you all are enjoying your summer!