It's Still Hot but Summer Is Officially Over...

 How time flies...this summer has been a weird one. Moving really messed with our summer rhythm this year. We have been fixing things up, fixing things that have broken, figuring out how the sprinklers work, how to best mow our lawn that's on very big incline...Plus unpacking and decorating...meeting the neighbors...Our AC unit went out during the big heat wave of over 100 degrees for a few days. I love hiking during the summer and between the long spring and moving...yeah, just didn't happen as a family like we usually do. 

But we did make it down to the Shakespearean Festival a few hours south of us with some friends. G performed a shortened version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in his drama class in May so he was excited to see the full Shakespearean version at the Festival. It was so good. It's the first time any of had been and we weren't disappointed. And we did manage a hike or two while we were down there for the weekend! So one little getaway before G goes back to school...on Monday! He starts high school! 9th grade...how did that happen?!

Trail to Thor's Hideout

Thor's throne at the end!

Globe Theater where we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream

Cedar Breaks National Monument in Southern Utah

We went for a morning hike by our AirBnb called Thor's Hideout. We went early so the heat wasn't too bad. Then we went to see Cedar Breaks National Monument that was just a bit up the road as well. Gorgeous mountain views! We also saw some local Paiute petroglyphs. There were a ton all along the mountain side. I put up the interpretations from the archaeological side as well as from the Paiute side. Super fascinating to read through these. It was lovely to get away for even a small amount of time this summer.

Books

I read:

• The Creeping Shadow by Jonathan Stroud (Lockwood & Co. #4)
• The Empty Grave by Jonathan Stroud (Lockwood & Co. #5)
• A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Phantoms by Dean Koontz
• Little Eve by Catriona Ward

I really enjoyed finishing off the Lockwood & Co. series. G finished it off right before I did so once I was done we were able to discuss and wish for more one day! I'm sad Netflix canceled the series. I thought they did a really great job with it.

My neighbor across the street from me loves to read (bonus) and loves horror movies (extra bonus) so we read Dean Koontz' Phantoms together and we discovered a movie was made based off this book in the late 90s! What?! With Ben Affleck!? Peter O'Toole? Why had I never heard of it before? Well, the book was fun and different but the movie was silly...but hey we had fun watching a super young Ben Affleck and Liev Schreiber!

I've been reading mostly horror and mysteries this summer...it's been really good for me. "Little Eve" was great and creepy and weird. T. Kingfisher's books never disappoint. Always funny with some weird creepy bits to keep things interesting.

Remarkably Bright Creatures was one that took me a few months to finish. I listened to it and some of the voices didn't quite jive but it was cute and I loved Maurice the Octopus! I wanted more of his story and voice but alas it was a bit trite overall. Not sure why I disagreed with so many who just raved about this book. I didn't particularly like Cameron who was written like he was 16...I kept forgetting how old he actually was in the book. It was really off-putting. Seems like other people who didn't like it as much complained about the same thing. Oh well. 

Reading

• American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird. I've been wanting to read this for awhile but especially once the movie came out. It's really really interesting. Bird is a great writer who keeps us engaged and keeps Oppenheimer's story going.
• John Adams by David McCullough. Who knew John Adams was so down-to-earth? I had no clue. McCullough brings his story to life. It's huge. Hopefully I can get it done before September is over...
• The Mistress of Bhatia House (Perveen Mistry #4) by Sujata Massey.
• Fire (Graceling #2) by Kristin Cashore. Reading this one with G at night...it's weird. It's not our favorite, especially since Graceling was so fantastic, but we have more books in this series to get to so onward and upward!

Movies

We saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in the theater...It was fine but the CGI was terrible. But it was a nice send off to the character of Indy.

Polite Society was really fun! It premiered at Sundance and I think I saw it on Peacock but it is well worth a watch.

Aftersun was a beautiful little film. Also highly recommend seeing that one.

Insidious: The Red Door. Saw this one in the theater twice! The first two movies were the best in the series. It then went of the rails a bit but this one brings the first two to a close. Lots of great jump scares, too. Definitely worth it if you have enjoyed the series.

We also introduced G to Tommy Boy for the first time! He really enjoyed it, which makes me happy. It's one of my favorite comedies of the 90s. Win!

TV

I've been catching up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Joe Pickett, and The Lincoln Lawyer. Only Murders in the Building's new season just started as well. With the writer's and actor's strike, looks like I'll have more time to catch up this Fall... DH and I still need to catch up on Ted Lasso, Barry, What We Do in the Shadows, and The Witcher. 

I'm joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.