July started out with a fishing derby at Linn Valley!
The rest of the crew went to Timmy's house over by the dam in order to have a good view to watch the big fireworks show.
It was the most incredible fireworks show ever because there was a giant thunderstorm passing by just barely south of us so there was lightning and thunder as a backdrop to the standard fireworks.
Callie recovered quickly. Thank goodness! I took her and Eleanor home with me the night of the big fireworks show so Callie got some rest and love after the trauma of all the loud noises. But she needed cuddles from Patrick and he could have been a little more gracious.
Callie keeps trying to make friends with kitties and Meg and Layla in particular are not so inclined to go along with this. Sookie walks downstairs sometimes and plops down on the floor and tolerates the excited sniffs and then doesn't do anything so Callie eventually leaves her alone.
The other cats ... do not tolerate the enthusiastic loves. Layla chases Callie down and tries to swipe at her which Callie finds both terrifying and SO SO FUN!
But it's been so great. Bradley finally has someone to smooch to his heart's content.
And Meg mostly stays upstairs so Eleanor has been getting some fantastic kitty cuddles whenever she reads.
Nathan had a fun golf outing with church friends
And Juliet is a maniac at the pool. She likes having people compete over playing with her and awards points to those who get to be the one catching her or having her swim to them. Is she used to being the center of attention? Why yes, yes she is.
Evening sparklers at our house.
Callie was none the worse for wear from her exciting weekend at the lake.
Patrick and Juliet have been having sleepovers lately! Complete with turning the bunk bed into a blanket fort.
And Nathan and I have been enjoying the freedom that comes with having children of a certain age. We left them at home with devices and a home cell phone so we could play tennis and have brunch on a Saturday morning. Delightful!
It was just me and Juliet at the park one nice morning.
Well, and Callie too of course. Juliet gets to walk along holding Callie's leash as long as no other dogs are near.
Juliet's picture was used as advertising for the stand. Cute!
Meanwhile, Patrick was off to Youthfront Day Camp with his buddy Timmy.
Patrick is on the far right in this picture for the shaving cream beard competition.
And Eleanor's friend Judy joined us!
It's sometimes a bit appalling how much attention Juliet gets when I take her places. She went with us to Bradley's eye doctor appointment and they made a big fuss over her and kept bringing out glasses for her to try on as we waited for Bradley's appointment.
Tall Bradley! He got a new prescription but chose the exact same frame because Bradley is a loyal creature.
I decided to make a new dessert. Hot cocoa whipped cream! Which we put on top of steamed milk and then had some marshmallows with it. So delicious!
The biggest surprise was how much Callie has enjoyed the egg chair.
She quickly claimed it as her new favorite doggie chair.
I love the egg chair too! And half of why Callie likes it so much is because we have it by the front window and she can lay down while keeping an eye on everyone walking by outside.
Juliet took to going downstairs to wake up Bradley and Callie in the mornings. Bradley was incredibly sweet about this.
Cousin time! Bradley and Patrick love it so much while the boy cousins are in town. They were all really into playing real life Among Us and I would like to mark this as the summer Emmett introduced my boys to the game Brawl Stars and ruined my life. It's all they talk about.
Apparently this is a part of real life Among Us.
Excited to be with Emmett!
Nathan and Bradley and I made it to a morning at KantCon, our local board game convention.
Bradley was thrilled to get in on a D&D themed dungeon crawler card game.
And I loved getting to have Cat in a Box taught to me.
Bradley destroyed his opponents. Of course. (Although I won too. Can we help that we are both smart and ridiculously good looking?)
Bradley got some awesome minis before we left.
I really hoped we'd make it back later in the day but it was not to be. I love doing the board game stuff but I don't ever want it to come ahead of family time.
This was Nathan's first year getting to go, which was fantastic.
Afternoon lounging in an egg chair. Says something that this many can fit! And I feel very validated for getting the matching foot rest, it gets used all the time.
Medium bossy child at the pool with her Uncle Thomas!
Draconic Dice with nephews.
One child was pretty done with swimming by this point of the summer but I talked her into the beauty that is getting to read by the pool.
Cousin Katie arrived! Joy of joys! I didn't see Juliet very much for the rest of July.
Girl cousins!
Boy cousins. We had all three of my sister's boys over for one morning and I had all the boys go outside quite a bit, which was very necessary.
We did a group trip to Scheels in order to get some tennis rackets for my boys. It was about as calm of an outing as you think it might be.
It turns out you never outgrow the fun of a giant indoor Ferris Wheel.
Group tennis the next morning was a lot of fun. Bradley has lessons on the weekends so we just took the gang of boys cousins to the Lionsgate tennis courts along with a couple of uncles while the girls and little Ethan played on the playground with Grandma.
Katie came over to our house for an afternoon. She and Juliet are very fancy.
We did family pictures with all the kids and grandkids together and then had bonus egg chair picture time at the end.
So fancy!
Callie can't believe how popular her fancy doggy chair is.
Patrick had his final basketball game of the season. All of my siblings went so he had quite the cheer squad. It was very nice that his team won this won, good job performing under pressure.
We were supposed to have a sibling dinner out at a restaurant but I campaigned for takeout and then games at our house. Happily, I'm related to a lot of homebodies so they were very happy with the more casual evening in.
Games were fun!
I wonder who won and who lost this game ...
It had been nine years since all four of us had been together at the same time.
We are so good at natural poses for family pictures.
Bradley got to have a sleepover with Emmett at my parents' house so we let Patrick sleep in the basement with Callie. He was overjoyed, although he was still battling a bit of poison ivy at this point and Bradley was aghast that I let the contaminated person into his room even though I washed all the sheets afterwards. Oops.
The Patrick and Callie love is strong. This dog is so happy with all the ridiculous attention she receives.
Fancy cousin swim time and lounging!
I feel like I keep saying this but I'm so glad all the cousins get along so well. They can all play with each other. Juliet and Riley got in a bit of mousetrap time together right before my sister's boys had to leave to go home.
Katie is a board game champ, she's already playing Sleeping Queens.
We noticed that my mom and Eleanor had a very similar color scheme going on and so I took this photo and walked around showing it to people and had them guess which person was Eleanor and which person was Grandma and I'm not sure if Eleanor thought I was funny or not but she enjoyed it when I pointed out this meant she got to be the boss of everyone.
Bradley and Emmett saying goodbye. Man do these two get each other.
Patrick and Finn. Lots of bonding over tablet games.
And I'm not a total newbie at this, so the toddler eating his popsicle slowly on a toasty day got stripped down to his diaper for the occasion.
Then I gave all the kids pennies and they got to make a wish. My kids are seasoned pros at this and gave a lot of advice to Katie about not telling anyone what her wish was because otherwise it would not come true.
And we got to go to Kaleidoscope for one of their hour-long art sessions! We hadn't gone since I was pregnant with Juliet so all of the kids were very excited to be back.
Bradley may be a bit old for the place now but he still had a very good time. He just wrote Brawl Stars all over everything because that's the new game his cousins had introduced him to and he is a bit obsessed.
We ended up taking over a little table and having a nice art session. So fun!
Fun fact: one of my favorite things about Callie is that she's usually nearby but she doesn't like cuddling on top of people so I can sit down and not have a dog trying to sit on me. However, the kids are desperate for as much Callie cuddle time as they can get. They'll try to pull her on their laps and she'll tolerate it for a minute and then move away. The happy place has become the egg chair because Callie really likes sitting in it and there's space for Callie and a buddy so it's the closest the kids get to full on Callie cuddles.
Although sometimes they do get the chair to themselves. It really is super fancy and fun.
We spent one more weekend down at the lake towards the end of the month and were happy to get to see the Monahans. The girls showed off their poses for me.
Bradley and I played Jaipur.
While Nathan took the golf cart with everyone else to the Lake Shop and they met up with the Svabs and got ice cream.
Eleanor's friend Judy came down for the evening too and impressed us all with the giant catfish she caught almost immediately.
Water fun!
My new favorite picture of Callie. She doesn't love the actual swimming part of things but she really likes being with someone on a paddle board or kayak.
I briefly got her to go on the lily pad with the kids, but that was a bit scary for her still.
My kayak buddy!
Juliet was so excited to get to spend the night at the tarvee.
And Callie spent her first night down at the lake! Eleanor moved down a bunk so she could have Callie on her bed with her. So much joy.
Patrick helped me play Skyjo, except he beat me by a ton and was extremely cocky about it. I was so pleased with him!
Callie's favorite thing in the world is playing tug of war with the kids.
Eleanor is back into rock climbing! A spot opened up on the Thursday night club team so we signed her up and then went back for a fun morning of climbing for just the two of us so she could get back into the swing of things before going to her first official class.
She's a natural, I think she'll really enjoy the rec team.
Meanwhile, Nathan and Patrick left for a weeklong visit to see Boise family.
Patrick settled in with cousin Challis right away.
She was very cute about wanting to help him play the piano.
It's nice to send an adult with just one child on some of these trips because the accommodations are much simpler when it's just two people. There was one spare room in the house and that's what Nathan and Patrick shared, although Challis was willing to be their unofficial roommate.
The dogs were also super happy about Patrick's return and he spent a long time playing with them each day.
They went up to Grandpa Dan's cabin, which is half of why Nathan wants to get to do these trips each time.
Lots of time for games
And guns ... apparently Patrick got pretty good at shooting cans with a BB gun.
Uncle Jake went up to the cabin too
Uncle Tim went up to the cabin as well!
He shot guns and smoked bubble gum on this trip. Apparently this is how you do Idaho right.
I'm told swimming in the lake was chilly but fun!
So much quality time.
And pictures of my 8 year old smoking candy cigarettes. Sigh.
Patrick also learned how to skip rocks.
Patrick is such a doll. He loved time with puppies, babies, and all of the rest of the family.
Games with Aunt Anna!
Patrick was very fancy at the exotic animals petting zoo.
Not sure why there is a statue of a tiger but Patrick was duly impressed.
Getting that souvenir coin at the end.
Got in some good time with the older, super cool cousin gang!
And a spray ground outing towards the end of the trip.
He got to play pickle ball with Tim and Karla and Nathan is all into it now and wants to get to play with me.
Patrick and Karla wrote a story together! Karla is amazing, this was definitely above and beyond for an activity with a grand-nephew.
He made friends with the neighbor kids and got their info so he could play Roblox with them.
And checking out Grandpa Dan's very fancy coin collection! We sent the right kid on this trip, Patrick was thoroughly dazzled.
One more park outing with Challis before he had to head home.
Costa Vida dinner together.
And lots of cuddles before saying goodbye.
Patrick picked out a new hat at the airport - he has now suckered both me and Nathan into hat purchases in airports.
Meanwhile, girl cousins were loving all their time together. Juliet and Katie spent big chunks of each day together towards the end of Katie's visit, which made me a bit nervous because I wanted Katie to get rest time and not have to battle Juliet for Grandma attention but it seemed to be a pretty happy joyous time that worked to the advantage of all involved.
Especially when it involved dippin' dots at Oceans of Fun.
I love how you can tell when this girl has enjoyed a tasty treat.
Sweet Callie cuddles for Bradley!
Callie was very excited about the little kid group baths at my parents' house.
Eleanor helped Juliet and Katie put pretend makeup on.
Meanwhile, Bradley and I got back into Unmatched in a major way and got to play it a bunch because Juliet wasn't around begging to be played with.
I love taking Callie on her walks and we saw a mom and baby deer at the park one morning! Callie was entranced. Possible friend?!
I had another board game class with two fantastic assistant teachers.
And Callie is so sure she is so close to being best buds with our kitties. Must never give up trying!
Most amazing fireworks video ever.
We were very tired after such an exciting weekend.
There are always friends at the lake, especially on a holiday weekend. Ironically after the chaos of the weekend the actual 4th of a July (a Tuesday) was pretty quiet.
We came home that night and got some fancy ice cream at Andy's Frozen Custard although the kids still insist that Dairy Queen blizzards are the best ice cream in all the land.
Callie was none the worse for wear from her exciting weekend at the lake.
The Schneekloths made a quick stop at our house on the way back to Austin, Texas! We had such a fun morning complete with a monster thunderstorm. And Callie followed their poor dog around the entire time and harassed her with her deep and endless love.
Post-thunderstorm evening at the pool!
Eleanor's friend Ava did a shaved ice stand in her driveway and we discovered that Eva was back in town visiting for the week! Eleanor stayed and hung out for most of the afternoon. I love suburban life sometimes.
We got a number of nice pictures from the camp app.
Meanwhile, we were pool pool pool pool. Juliet started going down the big slide and wanted Bradley to catch her.
I'm a sucker for any picture of my children walking around holding hands.
Nathan and Eleanor put together our new egg chair. Egg chair fun has exceeded all of our expectations!
It was pointed out that we had actual professional pictures taken a couple days before this but my folks couldn't pass up one more opportunity for a sibling picture with the four of us together.
We babysat Daniel and Stephanie's kids so they could have an anniversary date while my parents drove the rest of the crew to the airport. Ethan was very unsure about being left with us at first but allowed himself to be bribed with popsicles.
The next day we went to The Coterie Theatre to see Dr. Doolittle. All the kids had fun, but Ethan was possibly the happiest and he chattered loudly and happily to himself the entire time. He was a champ, he was started to lose it a little by the end because he was hungry and it was getting close to nap time but I had apple slices with me and they got passed around. I'm now the mom who brings apple slices with me pretty much whenever we have an outing because they come in handy more often than not.
I had packed lunch food for my crew but Grandma sprung for an ice cream treat for the kids as well.
And he even got to meet her new baby brother, little Jonah!
They had a blast. Nathan came home so happy from this trip.
Honestly I can see why Nathan was just so incredibly happy about this trip. It was lots of family time with people he doesn't get to see very often and they got to go do most of his favorite things together.
Some gentle play time with Rigsby.
Art time together!
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