Some Collateral Damage

It's not to often that the thermometer in my car reads 74-degrees in July, but that's exactly what happened today.  We had quite the rainstorm today, and it even took down one of the trees in our backyard.  The afternoon swim I had promised Alexa was off the docket, as the tree was resting in a portion of the pool.  After the weeks of unrelenting heat, a downed tree didn't seem like too significant of a price to pay for a much-needed break from the heat.

Damon was taking a much needed mid-morning nap after a pretty late night, so Alexa and I decided it would be the perfect opportunity to do some back to school shopping.  I don't know if it was the rain or the cool weather, but Alexa agreeably decided to tag along with me to Nordstrom Rack as well.  That doesn't happen very often; normally she is not a fan of clothes shopping whatsoever.  However, today she was a very eager helper and was happy to "hold my merchandise" (her exact words)....I foresee a very expensive daughter in the not-so-distant future.  It didn't take long inside Nordstrom Rack to uncover her ulterior motive - - she quickly made her way to the kids' shoe department and girls' clothing.  She even stopped to coo at a cute little boys' outfit, commenting how she thought Granty would look cute in it.  Aww :(  One sparkly dress later, we were on our way to Target.

As we drove home from Target,she was admiring all of the puddles from her vantage point in the back seat.  I knew exactly what her next request was going to be before she even spoke a word.  Sure enough, after a quick lunch she had pulled her Hello Kitty rainboots from her closet and begged me to take her puddle-hopping around the neighborhood.  Of course, I was happy to oblige.... :)

In search of the perfect puddle.....

Enjoying some poor drainage in our front yard.