a phoenician summer

there are few things quite like an arizonan summer. sure it's hot but secretly, that's like the best part. there is an unspoken unity + respect that bonds every arizonan to one another. making it through summer is like making it through initiation. and if you do, your in. and once you're in, you begin to learn all the little things that make arizona hands down the best place to spend summer. so crank that thermostat up to roughly 118 degrees, shine a really bright light on your face, put on some sunscreen + virtually enjoy a little piece of an arizonan summer. my gift to you.

it's just not summer until nilsen palm day has been said + done. my dad does the cutting, the girls do the hauling. due to the fact that we cut at the beginning of the summer, there are usually several nests filled with baby birds that we relocate? send them off to bigger skies? not sure how to sugar coat that for all you animal lovers out there. but it's better than taking away all their shade and then leaving them to cook in the brutal az sun. at least, that's how we justify it. but before you think us nilsen's have hearts three sizes too small we do try to salvage as many orphans as we can, because that's just the kind of saintly people we are. as long as i can remember, we have had a baby bird every summer. i think our record was three days? we just tried feeding them wet bread + spaghetti noodles because they're like a worm? three points for creativity! but this summer when my dad dropped this ugly little face down from our tallest palm tree and i missed (not the best time to fail me hand eye coordination..) i felt like i owed it to this little guy to be his new mama. that is, if he lived through the internal bleeding after the drop. but you guys, google! why we never resorted to the vast world of knowledge google is, i don't know. maybe we thought we knew everything about raising baby birds because obviously with a tract record like three days, we knew everything we needed to know. but after taking a 'what's your baby bird' test online and doing some research, i discovered this little guy was a mourning dove. and wouldn't you know it, mourning doves don't eat worms. i guess this is where i publicly exclaim that we had been slowly killing every baby bird for the past twenty years because we just assumed every bird ate worms? i blame children's books. but after making a make shift bottle and feeding him baby food, he persevered against all odds. it actually got fun when he wasn't so helpless + featherless. we would open our second story windows + call his name + out of no where he would fly up to us + land on our shoulder. no biggie, we were friends with a wild bird. and let's pretend mourning doves are cooler than pigeons for the sake of my heroism because who likes pigeons? or anything of the sort?

ahhh lakeside. most definitely one of my favorite places on earth. the water, the big blue skies, the scorpion hunting, the time with family. it just doesn't get better than a watery oasis in the middle of no where. (i'm not kidding, literally in the middle of no where. one time we took some people out there who were visiting az for the first time. i guess after pulling off the barren highway + driving into the desert on a dirt road for over a mile led them to believe we were going to murder them + dump their bodies in the middle of the desert + not take them to a lake. because how could a lake be here? in the middle of the desert?) but that's just the beauty of it. 

double wakeboarding with michelle. there are few times i laugh harder + have more fun than when i am behind a boat with her. 

our family doesn't really do doctors. or dentists. not because we are scared or against them but if you aren't dying, you don't go. so when my mom scheduled dentist appointments for us + we hadn't been in over three years... i went armed with the lucky baby. lucky baby being the creepy little thing in my pocket. this originated when michelle had her first collegiate water ski tournament. i found this randomly + thought it was so creepy how could i not do something with it? so i gave it to her + told her it would bring her luck. she got a personal record sooo the baby don't lie. this has been passed around whenever any family member has anything big + it always pulls through. haven't been to the dentist in three years? no problem. no cavities. gee thanks lucky baby.

arizona. monsoons. every sweaty back, every time you can't breath because the car is so hot, every burned foot because no matter how many times you burn them you think you can make it to the mailbox without shoes, is worth these monsoons. the thunder, the lighting, the heavy raindrops that smell unreal. i'm telling you, there is nothing more amazing than an arizona storm.

mountain biking in arizona? um are there even mountains in arizona? yes. and the mountain biking is amazing. this summer me + my sister steph found a place called dirty dog basin. so fun + beyond beautiful. i love the desert.

i was so beyond blessed this summer to have the job i had. i worked with this little cutie last summer but did speech with a couple other families as well, so i only spent about two to three hours with him a day. but when this summer rolled around, we decided to do something a little more permanent. i still did speech with him every morning but then just stayed all day and nannied him + his brother + sister. i had the funnest time + absolutely adore those kids.

if you have known me personally for more than about two minutes, than you know i lalalalaloooove chick-fil-a ice dream cones. they are properly named, these things are a dream. who every said you can't buy happiness lies. you can. you most definitely can. i liked to pretend my sisters would run errands with me just because they can't get enough of my company, but we all know it's because they know if i pass a chick-fil-a i stop + get me + whoever is with me ice cream. and no matter what errands i'm running i find a way to 'oh my! a chick-fil-a is located here? who knew!' i can't say no. i just can't.

how precious is this side by side? me + isaac were born on the same day (a half hour apart). we've grown up together so i can't remember life without him. when i'm up at school i just can't wait to get back to go out with him. he is seriously the funniest person i have ever met + has me smiling for days.

sometimes, summer is just too good to be true. and when you summer in arizona, that's just how we do. if you are sweating sunscreen into your eyes + have a killer tan + have more fun than you thought was humanly possible than welcome. welcome to summer in arizona.