July Happenings

July killed me.  Not sure why, but it did.  I'm so so glad it's over.  I'm even posting about it sooner than normal so I can just be done.  It's not like it was a horrible month.  We had fun.  We did stuff.  I guess all of the pandemic everything finally caught up to me and I've had enough!

We celebrated birthdays for the boys.  Zack turned 16 and managed to get his license a week after his birthday.  Not too bad in pandemic life.  I think he really loves driving by himself.  And I really love that he can drive himself.  Like it's pretty awesome.  Jake had a birthday.  They're both so low key about birthdays it makes it hard to make things exciting.  We had grandparents come up on Sunday, the day before Zack's birthday, so we could celebrate both birthdays.  Zack got a car for his birthday.  It's a white 2000 Jeep Cherokee.  He was excited as I think he was trying to figure out how to save money for a car.  Even though I'm pretty sure we told him he was getting one.  So that was his birthday present.  That he got before his actual birthday.  So on his actual birthday he went to work.  Which must mean he's getting old.  Zack has been working full-time this summer framing for Jake.  It's pretty grueling, hard work.  Especially in the heat.  He's exhausted when he gets home.  And then two days a week gets to turn right around to go to mountain bike practice.  He's a trooper and a tough kid.  I'm glad he's learning to work hard and earning lots of money.

I think the biggest news of the month is that we finally got a boat!!  I'd mostly given up hope.  Let's just say the stars aligned and the right boat came available here in Midway.  It's yellow and the people we bought it from used to own a honey business, so it's name is Bumblebee.  We've only taken it out a couple of times, but so far we're loving it.  We've had some funny stories of trying to figure things out.  Mostly involving me.  Like it took me 5 attempts to get the boat on the trailer the first time, so that was awesome.  And then one time I couldn't get it to start.  Tried over and over.  Jake was looking at everything, but we couldn't see anything wrong.  Jake was of course expounding on how horrible boats are and this is why you don't get a boat.  I was about to flag down another boat when Jake realized I'd left the boat in gear, not in neutral.  We flipped it to neutral and it started right up.  I will never live this down.  We're trying to figure out surfing.  We have no idea what we're doing other than that I watched a few Youtube videos.  So we're pretty much clueless.  But the kids are loving it and that was the plan.

We had a big family bbq at our house when the Balls were in town.  It was great fun to have everyone here.  There were a million kids, lots of adults, and lots of chaos.  Just how it's supposed to be.  And our family's dream came true when everyone stayed to light fireworks!  It was a Christmas miracle!

Zack's new car.  He won't let us name it.  He has great plans to fix it up.  Nothing has happened yet

The girls insisted on shoving this huge floaty in the car to go to Red Ledges.  Sage and her friend were stuffed in the back.

Waiting for Memorial Hill fireworks

Kate made her first cheesecake.  We need to work some kinks out, but I was pretty impressed!

We hiked to Stewart Falls

I got home from mountain biking and Sage ran out and said turn around!  A balloon just landed!  We need to go find it!

Zack took all of the grandparents for a ride.  Not sure how they all fit.  It was pretty awesome

My boys really like to pose for pictures

Kate and Sage spent a long time working on this.  Apparently it's hard

Bumblebee!!

Pandemic license

Early morning boating in the cold

Zack always wants to go faster on the tube.  I remembered this tube being bigger since our kids were so little.  We've since purchased one that more than one person can fit on.

Our theater was full!  This made me so happy!

We let off lots of fireworks.  Great fun!

Thinning the apple tree at the office

Early morning hike to Bloods Lake