First Half of July

Richie celebrated his 33rd birthday! We had a lovely dinner at his parent's house on Sunday, eating delicious fish tacos outside. Later on that week we went on a date to buy him some sweet boots he's been pining for at Nordstrom Rack, went and got dinner, and then took the kids to do our once a year, massive food storage re-stock. This was our biggest one yet, and although the end price tag shocked us a bit, we had fun later that night stocking our shelves with our store bought goods. When we get to canning in earnest in a month or so, our food storage room will be lookin' good.


We went bowling with the Crosby's for Alec's birthday! So fun to have them close enough to get together casually like this!!! Ben was Benson's favorite, even preferring him to me. :)


Our neighbors invited us to do a lemonade stand on the 3rd of July, when the city's 4th of July parade passed right on the street behind us. We figured the kids would make good money setting up a little stand on the corner. They did pretty well! And it was our first experience with an actual parade. Richie and I are not big parade people. Crowds, it's hot, noise...We're just party poopers I guess. But Miles loved grabbing all the candy he could and was totally enthralled the whole time. Benson, Richie and Gwen were gone for most of it because Gwen had a soccer game. Overall, not a bad parade experience.


We took some more friends kayaking to celebrate Richie's birthday. It was all fun and games until Richie was loading the kayaks in the back of the truck, and shattered the back windshield. Happy birthday to him! We had some rhubarb crisp with ice cream later though, so it's all good. :)


Took some friends to the massive park/splash pad in Bluffdale. It's a fantastic park, but it's so huge and busy I'm anxious almost the entire time. :)


Had another great FHE with friends. It's such a fun, easy activity, I wish we thought to do it more often than we do. We invited 3 families in the ward over, including a new family who just moved in. I was trying to get together a bunch of ladies that I minister to so we could all get to know each other a bit better. We had leftover water bottles from the 4th, I made some peanut butter brownies, pulled out the whiffle ball equipment and Bam! Instant activity. It was a relatively cool evening and we had a really nice time.


Benson learning the art of posing for pictures. :)


Gwen playing at one of her soccer games! So.much.running.


Miles went to scout camp and had a blast! He saved up money and bought himself a sweet pocket knife, a stuffed snake, some junk food, and shared the rest with his friends. He came home dirty and worn out both days. Signs of a good time.


Gwen counted up her money the other day and realized she had enough in her spending section to trade out for a $100 bill! She was thrilled! I urged her to put it in the bank, with her penchant for losing money. But she wanted to show it to her friends. Luckily I convinced her a day or two later to open a savings account.


We decided to go with our homeschool friends on a bike ride on the Jordan river parkway. I'd never been! We didn't go very far because it was pretty hot, but the rode for a bit and then played at the park for a while. Pretty good way to spend a morning.