What have we been up to? I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you....

On the 3rd of July, we had Jennifer and her family over for a cookout.  We had burgers, hot dogs, hash brown casserole, and baked beans with hamburger - my mom's baked beans are the best baked beans you will ever eat! Jennifer brought her awesome jalapeno popper dip and patriotic rice krispie treats and we also had banana pudding and fruit pizza.  It was all so good and we had the best time!

Then my brother put on his fireworks display.  It gets better every year.  The show lasted 45 minutes!

After the fireworks, Peter put on his cowboy hat and boots and then serenaded us around the bonfire with a bunch of new country music he has learned.  

This past Friday, Dan and I headed to the movie theater to finally see Top Gun: Maverick.  We both really enjoyed it.  It was the right amount of action and nostalgia. ( I also appreciated that there was no gratuitous sex scenes.  Why do they always have to ruin a good movie with that?  Nobody wants or needs to see that. Do you agree or are Dan and I the only ones that feel that way?) 

I can not believe that the original Top Gun was released in the spring of my junior year of high school. It is mind blowing to me that 36 years has passed so quickly.

Grainy movie theater selfie or it didn't happen.  

It's been so long since we've been to the movies that we were shocked that the seats were recliners with heaters in them.  Also now you have to order you tickets online and you get to pick your seats. That was really nice!  I guess these old fogies need to get out more often!  And you know that Dan complained about the ticket prices the whole time!  :) 

Here is a picture of Sarah on the guard stand at work this past weekend.  She was promoted to guard manager this year and she is really enjoying her new role and the additional responsibilities. 

I made a cherry yum yum this weekend for Sunday dessert.  It was fabulous!  I used a different recipe than normal. Isn't she pretty?

I mentioned a few posts back that I was thinking about getting a window bird feeder so I could officially become a crazy bird lady.  Well, I ordered it right after I wrote about it and it took FOUR AND A HALF WEEKS for the birds to find it. But we had heard that it could take them a while. We were sprinkling seed around it and making a little path to it and it still took almost five weeks. But they've found it and I love to watch them eat.  Someone else loves to watch them eat too...

There's a park less than 15 minutes from our house with a walking track so last night after dinner Dan and I headed there to do a couple of laps.  I'm trying to get back into walking.  I stopped a year and a half ago because I had a raging case of plantar fasciitis.  After over a year of wearing ugly orthopedic flip flops practically 24/7 (I would even put them on in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom), my feet are finally almost back to normal.  I say almost because I still have to wear fairly sensible shoes.  I miss going barefoot. 

My feet were sore right after our 30 minute walk last night but feeling pretty good this morning. I'm hopeful I can start getting back to regular walking soon but I've really been enjoying my YouTube workouts for old menopausal women.  They are only 20 minutes and I can do them without having to leave my house. I have been pretty consistent with them and I find them fairly enjoyable so I will probably just continue to do them for the foreseeable future and go on the occasional walk.

Here was the view from our walk: 

That's all that's been happening around here.  But I would like to leave you with this little heart shaped bread crumb I found when I was cleaning the stove.  So cute!