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Hot town, summer in the city… (tell me you don’t have that old song running through your head now; and if you don’t, don’t tell me- I’ll feel really old).

We live in Phoenix.  On purpose, really!  Brandon and I grew up here and we really do love it!  Most of our family is here, great friends, church community, you get the idea.  Our roots are here and its home for us.

Now every place has its good and bad.  You just make sure the good outweighs the bad.  For us, the “bad” is summer.  Yet, honestly, I’ll take heat over cold temps and snow any day!  (I commend you all who live in snowy places.) And for those of us who live here, we brag that at least it’s a “dry heat.”  For those of you who haven’t experienced a summer in Arizona, I’ll give you one word to sum it up: oven.  It’s seriously like being in an oven.  When you open an oven and maybe some air flow and heat come into your face, yep, kind of like that.

The good is that not much is better to me than a bright, sunny day.  I love sunshine and blue skies. Oh and amazing sunsets- we have those, too.

I have fair skin.  Fair with freckles and if not lathered up in sunscreen, if out for an extended period of time, I WILL burn.  I used to kid myself and pretend that I didn’t have super fair skin.  Oh, the things we try to tell ourselves when we are young.  Growing up here, we pretty much lived by and in the pool the entire summer.  I sometimes managed to get some “color” by summer’s end, but usually not without a burn (or three) and peeling somehow being involved.  My sister has beautiful skin.  She could go outside and get a nice tan with little time and no burn.  She could get the best tan lines.  And for a kid in Phoenix, that was a big deal.

My husband has fair skin.  His two sisters also have beautiful skin and can get beautiful tans.  See the irony here.  The two fair skinned people met, fell in love, and shock of shock, had two fair skinned babies!

Oh my sweet kiddos, you are truly destined for hats and sunscreen! But I wouldn’t have you any other way.

The kids hats pictured above are from Costco.  I love Costco- you’ll learn that if you follow me for long. The hats (for the most part) cover the kids ears and necks.  Super helpful when it’s 110 degrees out.

Any fair skinned friends out there feel me on this?  Bonus if you also grew up in AZ.

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Embrace life!