Our July

 I am writing this as we are a week into school and I sigh. Summer seems so far behind us now. Summer break 2024 was a great one to us. We are in a season of life where everything is a whirlwind. Yet, we are here for it and soaking up every single moment God has granted our family.

We kicked off July with the 4th of July! Normally, my husband is home for this whole week but this year he worked almost all of it. We adjusted well and still filled the few days he was home with so much. We went to the town our school is in and watched their parade and town lunch. Then, we came home for a swim at our pool. Payton made festive 4th of July food. We let the kids stay up late and watch the city's fireworks, a beautiful scene from our house in the country. We didn't know if the show would go on as it was raining and storming off and on. But, it finally lit up the sky in all its glory. We ate s'mores and lit up our own firework show. All in all, it continues as one of our favorite holidays and we favor spending the time at our own home for this. 

Outside of the 4th of July, our next favorite for this month annually is the fair! We love the fair and make sure we are there each day it's there! Only a few days but so worth going for us. 

One evening we went to the carnival with some of our friends. It was a crazy blur of keeping up with children but all had fun and everyone went right to sleep that night at bedtime!

                                                            

We also got our faces painted (see above) at the fair. 

                                                             

One of the only pictures I got of us riding all the rides! I tend to put my phone down and just enjoy life now rather than trying to capture it all. Time is fleeting, my friends!

This year, we hosted cousin camp! My mother brought the grandkids to our house and we all stayed together. It was a quick trip but so blessed. I loved watching all the kids interact and play together. 

                                        

We did so much and I learned that, as a seasoned mom still living in the season, sometimes you have to adapt and meet kids where they are. The picture above had a child who wanted to walk and then decided it was too much walking. Therefore, I made a seat for her. I can't always control the circumstances but we can control our reactions. 

We can't wait until the next time we see them (spoiler alert, we will have some pictures in August of a reunion). It's always time well spent when we are with family.

And then, in the middle of this post, is all the simple every day moments. Just scenes from living our best life at home and out and about:

leisurely walking our side road

Cuddled up for an afternoon movie during the heat of summer

Playing at the park and taking the time to help the baby walk the play structure

Nothing better than a sleeping baby, ever

All the kids participated in our local library lego challenges.

We got out for a sweet treat together after cleaning the house (our preferred reward after this task)

Payton participated in so many library group activities. This one she got to make a camping cupcake before eating her sweet treat. I actually made one, too, as there were extra when I came to pick her up.

All the kids went to a few library programs, one about stars and constellations (no pictures though) and another about raptor birds in our state:

And just a random picture of Avery looking at picutres:

These photos need put back on the walls but, until that happens, Avery can be found looking and oohing and awing at all these old photos of people in her family. She can name each of the people in there. It's so fun to watch her learn and grow and see how her little mind works.

We also got a lot of rain in a short period of time during July. We went to the park to check out how high the small pond is and it was so high! The kids are at the dock in this picture and it is almost flooded. 

We celebrated Riley having a birthday in July! See that post here. He had created the sweetest birthday wish list that I can't help but put on here so I can remember forever:

 

For one of his presents, we took a trip. Our daughter had an eye appointment follow up so we made some fun of the trip as Riley got to take over the planning. So we went to a air and space museum:

We also went to the zoo, one of our favorite places:

                                            

We got out for some pizza and they even made allergy friendly so we ALL got to eat, a total win for all of us:

Our littlest kids were tired and so they went to bed and, for the first time ever, I took the bigger kids out for an excursion downtown walking. We went to grab some donuts together.

I hope the kids remember that one time we snuck out at night to walk, enjoy the city, and ended up with donuts. 

One of the last things we did on this trip and possibly the most important for this trip in particular was that we toured the Husker stadium! It was a real treat for our family and a total highlight of the trip:

We will be talking about this trip for possibly the rest of our lives. It was one in a million and so worth it. 

On this trip, we listened to the Wizard of Oz audiobook as a family. So, we watched the movie as we got back home.

It comes as no surprise to me, but the kids all declared the book to be better and the movie not to match the book enough. So, it goes.

Back at home and well rested from our trip, I realized we needed just a random day at the water. So one morning, I surprised my kids by packing lunch and all our swim gear. Not telling anyone where we were going until just before we left. We loaded and went to spend a good chunk of the day by the water! It was the best surprise and reminded me how good it can be to break away from the daily grind and just work in play. 

                                                  

Who doesn't love looking at these happy faces? I am soaking up every second I get with these babies of mine.

As I end this post, I found so many pictures of flowers and nature on my phone courtesy of Payton and also of me. Just some extra things from around our home:

When we had dogs at our house it was a rare occurrence to see rabbits. Now that it has been years since having a dog, we seem them a lot now. Payton loves taking their pictures and/or trying to catch them in her free time.

That's a wrap on our July! I hope you had a good month, too. 

June Recap

 I was looking at the schedule today and we have less than a month already of summer break. Womp, womp, womp. It has gone too fast for us and we are 100% not ready to go back. So, I am not going to even think about it. Long live summer!

June was so good to us and so full of all the summer fun stuff we love. We actually have so much on our to do list this summer and I am hoping we can get all the bucket list items squeezed in. So, without further ado, our June:

The splash pad (above) and park (below). The kids didn't really want to do the splash pad this year and were convinced they outgrew it. But, I had a random idea to go anyways and told them to do it for Avery. She will want the splash pad, especially in the next few years. And guess what? My kids had a blast! And towards the end, they had friends from school show up which made it even more exciting. 100% worth doing. 

Above they are reading at the park which was a library challenge they were completing. After they read, we got a good walk in. We are also really into fishing this year at the park so now I will load you with tons of fish pictures. I lost track of how many times we went fishing (the kids were in a weekly y group and they convinced dad to take them any chance they could), so we got lots of opportunities this month for fish pictures:

                                                         

                                                            

                                                           

                                                     

                                                             

                                                             

                                                             

                                                             

                                                             

And the biggest fish caught in June goes to...

                                                           

JAYDEN! And I didn't even get a picture of him with the fish but I have this pic. It was huge! He struggled to reel it in. And we were all so proud of him and his catch.

Oh, and the other 2 people not pictured in any fishing escapade. Well, we were walking at the park. Some of those napping (in the stroller) pictures coming below are from those walks. And we snapped pictures and celebrated the kids as they caught fish. But we did capture this one rare shot together between all the fish catching:

                                                           

Back at home, Jayden wowed me with his ability to hold and love on our rooster, who my husband gingerly named Dinner. No one else has fully agreed to this name yet:

Avery continues to bring us lots of joy as we snap any picture of her we can:

I mean, is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby? Maybe a sleeping baby on you. But really there isn't much else sweeter. I know the long nights won't last forever. 

Still a baby fan! She doesn't seem to realize she is a baby! She is the sweetest little mama. 

She is also super into playing in sand right now.

She's growing so fast and totally runs the show here. But, we got so lucky with her. She is very tolerant of all the activities the kids want to do. Including making it to swim at local pools with friends 3 days in a row in the week I am typing this. She is a total trooper and we are so lucky she is mostly go with the flow for us and our crazy ideas. 

One of the times we made it to the pool! The kids had a few friends and has so much fun. 

We also made it to climb the large look out tower one day. We never do this as often as we would like but are thankful for the times we go. No kids struggle with this climb but we reminisced on how Riley was so afraid of heights he struggled to convince himself to walk each set of stairs and then would be glued to the middle concrete wall once he got to the top. How quickly seasons change. It's really so true in so many ways that nothing lasts forever. 

We have enjoyed smores and a fire pit many times this month and it is truly a delight for our family. 

Our town held their local, annual festivities and this was the only picture I got. I guess I was having too much fun. We went to the parade and then the middle of town has lots of kids rides and activities. Then there was a car show and shopping. We look forward to this celebration every year. 

Coffee shop dates for the win! We made it a few times and generally use this time as a treat after we clean the whole house together. It's a win/win for me as I get to come back home to a well cleaned home.

There was one unusually rainy and gloomy day that we couldn't really get outside. So, we made lemonade out of lemons and literally had a tea party. This is the first tea party for Avery! She had a blast and especially loved working on her pouring skills. 

This summer we are also working on the kids watching Avery while I do a quick workout at the gym. They are in the play room and I am just up the stairs if they need me. I snapped this picture as I returned from one morning. I would say, this arrangement has been working out well for all of us. 

Avery and Payton together. Avery is really into lounging. She will happily lay on the couch and a blanket any time she sees them. This may be brief but I do think this is my only child to do this at such a young age. This makes it extra sweet, we all get a kick out of her resting. 

Our community also hosted a family fun day. This day entails bounce houses, laser tag games for the family, hot dogs and popcorn, and kayaks to borrow. I just got pictures at the bounce houses:

One random Sunday, I snuck out for an afternoon matinee to see Inside Out 2 with the big kids. 

I loved all of it. It was a cute movie but I was just so honored to spend some time with my kids doing something that is a very rare treat for us. 

Back at home, we are processing raspberries:

I think all the kids eat their weight in raspberries as they pick. But I did get a little into the freezer this year, a first for us. 

We also picked sour cherries and I made pie! One is sour cherry and one is strawberry rhubarb. They were gone within hours. We also made bread:

                                                   

We made it to several library summer reading programs. The picture above was a wildlife encounter program and the kids got to help with a huge rabbit (I can't recall the actual breed). 

One last picture to round this recap up. A picture of a nest we found:

A beautiful nest spotted but not just any nest. I believe this was a cardinal nest. A true blessing. I was so thankful for this find and getting to watch these babies for the short time we got to see them.

It was a great June! Now, off to July, where we are soaking up the dog days of summer while we can and avoiding any real talk of returning to school.