July

We spent 4th of July at Liz and Scott’s.  It’s always a great time there!  Em and her crew weren’t there and we missed them, but John and Jill joined us!

Lexi went up north with a friend, so she said her good bye’s to Adrienne a few days early.

We finally got to see Joni and the girls!  Natalie was in heaven.  Kate took right to her and was on her hip all night.  Even though Nat’s baby of preference would be Ava, she was happy to have any real live baby to dote on!

We let Adrienne choose dinner for her last night at home.  She chose Sukiyaki, which is a family fave, but then we all felt bad having it without Lexi! 

It’s not like this trip snuck up on us or anything.  I literally have no idea why we weren’t more prepared.  Three days before we were frantically ordering the last things we needed on Amazon.  It was so fun to see the suitcase full of donations that I knew the girls would be crazy over!

The next morning I dropped my first born baby off at the airport to embark on an around the world adventure by herself.  I felt very confident in her and honestly had not one hesitation about her going.  However, I have done this same trip to Sri Lanka, and knew there would be challenges along the way.  What a joy to have raised a human capable of this at just 19 years of age. 

I will do a separate post with all the amazing pictures from her time there, but spoiler alert…the travel was hard…

…but oh so worth it!

Life went on here even though we were tracking flights and time changes and potential wifi connections!  Lexi came home and we had dinner out and a walk around Milford.

Rainbow loom was still going strong!  Sof figured out how to make all sorts of stuff from YouTube videos!

Joni brought the kids over to swim.  The happiest of the bunch was Lexi who got to stay back at the house with Ava.

We can’t get enough of these babies, so a library date was in order.

Did you even go to the library if you don’t do lunch and Tropical Smoothie?  These two thought they were very cool because they got to go order their smoothies alone while we paid our bill next door.  When I came to check on them I was promptly shooed away! 

We slid into Grand Haven on Emmerson’s 12th birthday.  Just in time to celebrate and share some of this amazing cake.  It was absolutely as tasty as it was beautiful!

Ryan and Grace were there with Shbe, and she loves the attention from the kids!

We had pizza and presents and of course singing and cake!

We don’t need a reason to celebrate, but we’re sure glad you gave us one Emme! 

Our Grand Haven trip was actually just a weekend get away this year.  It was all we could fit in with activities and other trips.  Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate at all!  We didn’t get our perfect beach day, but there are so many other things we enjoy!  Mark and I started both mornings off in the coffee shop.

My mom and Em got the kids down to Great Harvest for their monkey bread. 

Em and I did a lot of shopping and the kids had their shopping time with Grandma.

We went out to dinner at Kirby because Lexi has to have her stir-fry!

We were so lucky the rain cleared for the musical fountain.  It was our only night to see it!

We did get on the beach for a few hours the next day.  It wasn’t ideal(water was 58!) but it was something!

Sof has been obsessed with fishing!  Mark promised her they would go in Grand Haven.  She was the first one to catch a fish and she was hooked! 

   When we got home from Grand Haven it was obvious that Scratches wasn’t doing well.  We had known for awhile she probably didn’t have long, and we made the decision to put her down on July 25.  Mark and Lexi took her, and Sof and I stayed home and made some rocks memorializing her.   She was a great pet and the whole neighborhood loved her!  Everyone was so sad!  She had a great life and was very loved!

I celebrated my 45th year.  I am well aware that if you round 45 it goes up to 50 not down to 40.  Not one bit bothered.  Every year brings more confidence in who I am and I welcome all the new challenges in the year ahead! 

We hung out with just Paige for an afternoon.  There is no age I love more than 3.  Except maybe 4.  Basically if you’re between 3-5 I’m smitten.  She was living her best life making forts with the big girls.

We all love this little nugget as well.  We can’t keep our hands off her.

My shopping buddy.

Sof went to a birthday party for her friend Lilah from cheer.

Between their schedule and ours, we’ve barely seen John and Jill!  We finally decided dinner on a Sunday was how we could make it happen! 

At the end of the month Amy and I took a day trip to Grand Haven.  I felt so cheated out of my beach day and we found the perfect day to make up for it!  Aunt Sally was still at the camper so we plopped down with them on the beach and the kids had a blast.  It was big ships day for the Coast Guard festival so we got to see them come in! 

We went downtown and shopped a bit, had dinner, and picked out candy!  We’re lucky we weren’t there for days waiting on these kids!

This feels like summer!