Happy Fourth of July!

 This is my first time ever blogging on the Fourth of July! The last time it fell on a Sunday was in 2010, but I didn't start my blog until 2011. 

I love all the cookie shops we have, and they make me want to be creative with flavors. One iconic treat is the red, white, and blue ice pop, which have the flavors of cherry, lemon or lime, and blue raspberry. I wanted to turn that into a cookie.

My mom had an old recipe for lemonade cookies from like the 1970s. So last Sunday I made them, then put cherry-flavored baking chips in the batter. (I wanted to make these last year, but I couldn't find the cherry chips.) Then I made a buttercream frosting with raspberry extract and blue food coloring.

I need to work on my food photography skills, I guess. Though I can take some impressive pictures if I try.

I think my family liked them better than I did. They were overly sweet and artificial, and I think the frosting really needs some tweaking. But they were reminiscent of Bomb Pops! I'm really pleased with how the concept turned out, even if I'm disappointed with the flavor outcome.

On Tuesday evening after work, I headed up to Moosehorn Lake in the Uintas, where my parents and nephews were camping. We have camped at Moosehorn for longer than I can remember, but I'm pretty sure this was our first time going in June. I can remember driving by on July 1, 1999, and the campground was closed because it was covered in several feet of snow. This time there was nary a patch of snow in the campground. As I was driving into Kamas, there was a severe cloudburst. I was scared—I couldn't see very well because the rain was so thick, and I worried about hydroplaning. I slowed down, but I worried that other drivers wouldn't and might crash into me.

On Wednesday, it rained off and on all day. We had wanted to climb Bald Mountain, but we couldn't. My nephews were disappointed. But we were able to spend some time out in our inflatable boats between showers. I came home Wednesday night since I had to be at work the next morning, and my nephews decided to come home with me because they were bored, leaving my parents by themselves for the last night.

On Thursday, I did my fourth kit from Utah Taste Off, this time a red, white, and blue one. I had my nephews participate, and Franklin (13) said he felt fancy being a food reviewer. But my nephews complained about some of the treats being too sweet. They don't have the incurable sweet tooth I have.

That same day, I had a lucky, "right place at the right time" experience. I had clocked out at work, but as I was pulling out of the employee parking lot, I second-guessed myself. So I pulled off into the public parking lot to make sure I had indeed clocked out. Since I stopped to check, I found myself behind a slow-moving pickup truck. "Ugh," I thought, "I did clock out, but since I stopped to check, now I'm behind this slow truck! I didn't need to check!" But then I noticed that the tailgate was open, and there were things that could potentially fall out. So when we got to the stop sign out of the park, I parked my car and went up to him and said, "The back of your truck is open!" So he went and closed it. If I had not felt a need to double check that I had clocked out, then I would not have been able to tell him his truck was open—and would anyone else have done it? (I can't decide whether it's good or bad that I didn't tell him, "It appears that your blinker lights aren't working." 🙄)

Yesterday, July 3, was the traditional North Salt Lake July 3 fireworks after last year's hiatus. I took my nephews and niece up to visit the food trucks. I'm pretty sure it was busier than usual, but I think we also got there later, so the food trucks had lots more people. My nephews and niece got their food, and then I got food from the slowest food truck. But while I was waiting in line, I found myself next to Brady and Megan Parks of the band the National Parks. I said to them, "Are you guys working on a new album?" So we had a brief conversation; I told them they were in my top five favorite artists, and they complimented my patriotic outfit (flag hat, patriotic shirt, flag shorts, flag socks, flag shoes). Was that creepy? I tried not to be creepy. And then later another guy came and asked for a picture with Brady. 

It was fun to be at this tradition again. My nephews like the fireworks but are concerned about the pollution impact.

Then today, for the Fourth of July, I wore my flag suit to church and got several compliments. I also had to teach the Course 15 Sunday School. I still haven't figured out the best way to teach teenagers and get them to participate. Oh well.

This afternoon we made various Fourth of July foods and took them to my sister's house to eat outside. I made some apple pies using the pie filling my mom made from the apples that fell on the ground after last fall's windstorm. I already posted this on Facebook, but after I was done cutting out the stars for the top crust, I randomly threw the remaining dough on top. I later realized it made a perfect turkey, complete with head, wattle, feet, wing, and feathers. I could not have made a better turkey if I had tried. Ben Franklin would be proud.

It cracks me up every time I look at it.

We ate the pie with vanilla frozen yogurt, and my cousin Quin was eating when he said, "I'm done!" There was a spider in the puddle of frozen yogurt on his plate! We have no idea how it got in there. But I didn't get to take a picture before my sister forcefully threw it away. 

I have been reading a book called Celebrating the Fourth all about the Fourth of July between 1777 and 1826. During this period, the iconic holiday foods were turtle soup and ice cream. Turtle soup is obviously obsolete, but ice cream has kind of taken on a life of its own. I have often seen ice cream in accounts of July 4 and July 24 celebrations of the nineteenth century in my research. And I can think of many more recent pop-culture references connecting ice cream with Independence Day. In recent years, I have seen many decorations and pieces of clothing with patriotic ice cream images. So it appears that ice cream is definitely a Fourth of July food. But it just seems so generic and broad to be that special.

Tonight my mom and I watched We the People on Netflix, which is like an updated version of Schoolhouse Rock: ten animated songs about different aspects of American civics. It is executive produced by the Obamas, and a lot of the musical style is R&B and hip-hop. I love Schoolhouse Rock. I even bought a used copy of the America Rock CD to add to my Fourth of July playlist; it is a little dated, but overall I think it has held up very well. So what do I think about We the People? I really like it, and I hope to add its songs to my playlist next Independence Day. But I feel like the animation tries too hard to be trendy, so I don't think it will age as well as Schoolhouse Rock. It's fairly neutral, but at times it does lean a little to the left, which made me, a left-leaning person, mildly uncomfortable. But I would give it 7/10.

Ever since I started officially celebrating Pioneer Day six years ago, it has made the end of the Fourth of July less sad, because the red, white, and blue extends three more weeks!