July

We had a fun filled 4th of July. 

This year started a bit differently. My nephew, Kaleb, and I ran in a 5k. It was a Super Hero dash, and we both sported our Captain America shirts. It was a hot morning, but we both pushed through and finished. We loved having our families there cheering us on to the finish.  And I treasured that one on one time with him. He's such a kind, thoughtful boy.

 I think I was that red for a couple hours after the race.

 

From there we rushed over to Hastings where we had a family reunion. One afternoon was spent swimming at an uncle's house, and the other day was swimming at a water park . Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to prove it, but I went down some water slides. My girls were shocked. :)

 My dessert for the family dinner.

 We celebrated with fireworks at the boys' house and our house.

 For years at least one of the girls have found fireworks to be too loud.

 This is our neighbor, Kenny, who lives across the street. (Don't tell him I took a picture and put it on the blog. ) He is a kind man that we all care about. He enjoyed the nice evening watching us let off our fireworks. I simply want to remember him.

 Hmm...should I be ashamed to admit that the girls thought this pooing pig was so funny? And we paid money for this?

 

 Rest of July...

We went to a park with both Aunt S's and their boys. Here are the monkey bars the girls learned to cross. My mother's heart realized how much time has passed, and how much they've grown.

 

We climbed the tower.

More swimming fun. Brandon even went with us one evening.

 Sadie continued her horse lessons. Here she is with her favorite horse, Jesse.

 Don't you just want to pet the velvety nose?

 

What's in the big box? 

 After all these years of piano, we finally got a full sized keyboard! Analise just loves it, and she sound quite good playing, too. :)

 

And I don't remember the reason for this picture, but it makes me laugh. I'm glad I took it. 

 The girls and I had five days of VBS in the evenings. I taught the Bible lessons to the elementary kids again this year. It's a lot of prep work, but it's also very rewarding.

 

Analise has played the piano for years with the mindset of playing the drums in middle school. Once upon a time, the middle school music teachers required percussion players to have had at least two years for piano. This year they changed the requirement but instead had students try out for percussion. She was a bit nervous but did well and got a spot as a drummer! She was over the moon excited! A shout out thanks to Pops for helping her prepare and to Braylen for giving her your drum kit. 

 

 Also in July, we took a Luke family trip to Tabernash, CO. It was a fun filled week making wonderful memories. I made a scrapbook for Maisie, so I won't post all the pictures on here. (I know my two readers are so disappointed. Hah!)