I adore summer. I love it. Nothing in the world makes me happier than the thought of not having to wear socks for months on end. I had a wonderful weekend this weekend, maybe the best one since coming to Wyoming. Now, I have not forgotten my gripes about my funny little town, I'm sure I will rant about it again in the future. Above is a picture of the Tetons, in western Wyoming. I've only been there twice, but mark my words, there will be camping this summer, and lots of it. At least once here. On Saturday, Peter, as is custom in this house, cooked me breakfast (heart shaped, sunny side up eggs - don't those sound happy? I got him the heart shaped egg pan. It's awesome). I also got coffee and orange juice and smoked sausage served to me while I played Mario in my pyjamas. Then we jumped in the car and went to the mountains. We can get there in under an hour, and we hiked around, and tried to scout out good camping spots, while nearly getting our car stuck in some very deep leftover snow and huge amounts of mud. There's no cell service there, had we been stuck, we'd have had to dig ourselves out with a window scraper and a travel mug. I have no idea how we got through, but we laughed like crazy when we did. Peter all tense and trying to drive (those who know Peter can attest to that he's funniest when he's tense and frustrated.) and me screaming, "keep your speed up! you can do it! good work" and thinking, "yeah we're screwed. we're going to have to live in our car until July out here." It was just so funny. We stopped in a little town and got Italian soda's and hung out in the sunshine. Did I mention it was about 20-22 degrees all weekend? Glorious. We drove home and hung out, my friend Cary came over and we finished season 3 of the Gilmore Girls, and then I got to hang out with my sweet husband the rest of the evening. 
Yesterday was lovely as well. Peter's mom is out of town, as is his sister in law, which left his brother Andrew and his dad alone, so we had a barbeque at the park after church (the only dark spot in the weekend. Nothing like a fire and brimstone service to make you thankful you're saved - if I even am... never mind.) The guys played baseball while I barbequed over charcoal, something I've never done. I hung out with my little niece, who is going to be four this summer, and is figuring out the finer points of being female. There's the "world is ending, I'm going to sit under this tree and look so very sad" bit. Brought on by being too little to play baseball with the guys. The famous withering look brought on when told that "no, you may not wander out of sight. You're too little. Come play over here." Aparently she's completely grown up now, I hadn't gotten the memo. She's hillarious, and obviously an only child. I love it. We played on the park, I went down slides, we "made water" with a cup of ice in the sun- fascinating. She seems to like me a lot, which is sweet. She named the moon after me the other day, I'm told by her mother. When she asked what the moon was named, Tia told her it was just called the moon. "We should name it....Let's call it Mel!" was her reply. What a kid. I'm still just a "pretty cool" conduit to her Uncle Petey, who should be made king of the whole world, he's just that great. She's completely enamoured, which is adorable. He taught her how to hit a ball with a bat, called "banging" but only if you're three, after that it's inappropriate, and I fell for Peter all over again. What is it about a hot guy with a little girl, teaching her a sport or something, that's so sweet? I got to lay on a blanket in the sunshine and watch them, and try to squelch the urge to "forget the adoption thing first, and let's have a bunch of babies!"We came home late, after renting a movie, picking up a bottle of wine, and we made about 3 1/2 pounds of snow crab legs, which we bravely tried to finish, to no avail. It was delicious though, and they were seriously on sale, likely because no one in Gillette knows what to do with crab, simply because it's not a steak, or a piece of fried chicken...sigh. Either way, we had a wonderful evening, and watched a movie, which I tried to stay awake for. We fell asleep so fast that at 2am Peter woke up and had to turn off all the lights, set our alarm, and turn off the AC for our apartment. It was that nice out...Ahh, summer. I'm never wearing socks again! Life is so so good.
4:59 PM
There is nothing that beats a warm sunny day. I hope we have some of those soon. A cloudy and overcast weekend in these parts of the woods, but not too cool, so that was good.
8:32 PM
Sorry Mel, I came anyway. After reading the warning label, I just had to see what it was all about. Glad to hear yours went better than mine. And mine wasn't all bad, up until noon it was pretty good.
6:28 AM
You sound totally relaxed and ready for summer. I'm glad it's so nice there. Our long range forecast is for lots of sunshine .... somewhere behind the multitude of clouds dropping a multitude of water on the West coast. The temperature is nice, but I am getting a little tired of walking in the rain and coming home with wet feet.
9:05 AM
Goodness, that sounds nice... My weekend, I sat at home most of the time... I can't wait for summer, so that I can hang out at the beach, and go boogie boarding at Long Beach... ahhh... I'm glad that you guys had a great weekend, you deserved it! :)
11:38 AM
Mel, this is one of those times you should be happy you are not here. It just rains here. This spring is the worst. I am so ready for summer to come and all this rain to just stop.