I'm so behind, I'm surprised I'm not on Xanax for the anxiety. I'm not good at being brief, but in the interest of catching up, I'm going to try and keep my jabbering to a minimum! (Then again, we all know how good I am about no details, ha.)
When July hit, I felt an acute awareness of my pending departure to Africa and tried to amp up the summer activities/family time.
We had the BEST afternoon, swimming at Mesquite pool. There was hardly anyone there and the boys played together great, while Olive wore out this kiddie slide.
The only hiccup was this artificial leg that a girl took off to go swimming. Collin noticed it and immediately had 1,293 questions. Then I watched him "nonchalantly" walk around the entire pool, scoping it out for the girl. It all ended in hysterical tears as he thought he might "catch" whatever it was this girl had that made her lose her leg. SIGH. If I could just teach a little more empathy and a little less hysteria, we'd all be good.
Also, I don't know what it was about this moment, but watching Olive walk up to the slide made her seem like such a BIG kid. I just can't seem to handle her growing up.
Speaking of growing up... what she wouldn't give to have her own, legit purse. She insisted on carrying mine, which was arguably half her own weight.
Just more blackmail for the bliggity blog.
4th of July church attire! The boys did not think my blue bracelet qualified me as "patriotic".
On the actual 4th of July, Travis woke up early to meet my dad and brothers for some golf.
That left me riding solo to the ward's breakfast. They had delicious, red velvet and cinnabon pancakes and a fire truck for the kids to crawl all over!
This firefighter seemed to take an extra special interest in Olive. Can't blame him. ;)
The sun was not on our side that morning.
They had a little "parade" following the fire truck that the kids decorated their bikes for. *ahem, that I decorated their bikes for*.
Olive was on board until that truck started up and let it's siren go. Then she was headed in the opposite direction!!
We were all MELTING and I was ready to hightail it home, but then the bishop announced it was sno cone time. I laughed and literally thought he was joking.
Nope!
Out came the sno cone machine and we were pumping out crunchy, sticky ice in minutes.
WHAT, was I thinking?
That evening we swam at my parents pool. It's always entertaining when the grown ups get in and actually play. We tried Ice-holes and seeing who could make the most laps around the pool, holding their breath, haha. David schooled us all and we are officially mad at him for not giving Michael Phelps a run for his money.
I can't even remember the last time we drove to see the fireworks! We snagged a good spot off of Mesa Dr. and University and parked in the church parking lot. Us girls walked over to McDonald's for some ice cream and witnessed a restaurant full of rough examples of why you stay in school and say no to drugs. Yikes.
We hooked our phone up to our car's speakers to blast "America the Beautiful" while the fireworks were going off. David's voice cracking- pubescent rendition was just the icing on the cake. Lucky us, it also drained our battery, making for some angry, previously friendly, folks while we tried to jump it. Apparently we all love Americans until they need to partially block traffic for 2 min. jumping a battery. Sheesh.
It was a 5 second, magnificent snuggle until Weston decided I was too hot.
Our Pogo passes expired the end of July and we still hadn't gone to Sunsplash!
Marcie watched Olive so we could actually take the boys together on some slides. Travis had the foresight to get the boys water shoes this time so we didn't have to play "Hot Lava" all day, hopping from one piece of shade to the next.
Unfortunately, I woke up that morning with my back was killing, so the Dippin' Dots were my highlight.
When USA Gymnastics is randomly closed for open gym, and the kids are about to mutiny against you, you slum it at Jumpstreet. The honest to goodness, WORST trampoline park in the valley.
We are the lamest kids on the block because we have no backyard pool to invite neighbor friends to. So I finally got my act together and planned a fun water day with friends in the backyard. I ordered film canisters to make rocket ships out of. You put a little bit of water in them with a piece of
Alka-seltzer, then turn it upside down so the cap is on the ground and wait. In about 5-10 seconds it will burst open and fly into the air! The Cubscouts loved it, so I hoped they would too. It was a hit!
Then it was water balloon time. I tried to have them play tossing games with them first, to make them last longer.
Then I unveiled the tarp!! (Which is still in a crumpled mess on the side of the yard, btw) They probably spent the most time on this. Add some popsicles and you have a mighty fine water day. Three cheers for the sweaty mom!
July 7, 2016 made 10 years of marriage for us!!!
Pretty much a completely regular day. Trav had told me he wanted to surprise me with a day trip to Universal Studios so we could go to Harry Potter World, but didn't book the tickets for fear it would stress me out with leaving for Africa in 3 days. Wise man. But I was so surprised... and just that he thought of it and wanted to do it for me was the sweetest gift everrrrrr!!!!
I had gotten a babysitter so I could go see Janae to have my back adjusted and realized it was right during his lunch break so I called him and offered to split the time with him. His hip had really been bothering him. He said sure and just as I was pulling in the driveway with the babysitter, I saw him pull up too! He was supposed to meet me at Janae's. But instead he emerged with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a burrito from Los Taquitos for me! My jaw dropped. You'd think I'd have expected flowers but for whatever reason, it honestly hadn't crossed my mind. I was so so surprised! If you know me, you know I have a mad love of a good bean and cheese burrito, so this gesture, in and of itself, meant so much to me! It's the little things. Then we got ourselves a little massage courtesy of Janae and spent the evening watching our wedding video with the kids. I had made brownies since that's what we had at our reception and we all had a big bowl of brownies and ice cream while we watched. After the kids were in bed I put on a new video that I had made for our 10 year anniversary. It took me FOREVER to make, but it was so fun to go through pictures of the last 10 years of us together. Not going to say I didn't get teary eyed several times. Hopefully, I can keep this up for every 10 years we are married. I really, truly love Travis with all my heart and don't know how I got so lucky. He is SO sweet and thoughtful to me, always putting me first and doing so happily. Even growing up with parents who were happily married , I had no idea a heart could feel this joyful in marriage. I take zero credit and give it all to this guy. I don't deserve him...not even close.
We still had zoo trips available on our Pogo passes so I did the unthinkable. I took the kids to the flippin' Phoenix Zoo in July. The only thing crazier than us being there was the fact that there were OTHER people there too! What in the heck were they thinking. ;)
Do you see the gopher staring Olive down?
Splash pad to the rescue! Wish I could have joined in.
About the time we were melted puddles of flesh I got a call from Ryan (in charge of the Africa group) and I mentioned to him where I was. He laughed and said, "Well, in a couple of days you're going to be seeing those animals up close, in the wild!" I had to laugh because I hadn't even thought of that! My life was starting to feel very surreal.
That weekend, Travis and I got our official, anniversary date. We went to the temple, then tried out a new restaurant called Firebirds, in Chandler. I noticed a table with this delectable looking appetizer and had to have it. It was a lobster, spinach queso and I promise, you've never had a better cheese dip! The chips were light and fried and I was in cholesterol heaven. Travis got some sort of cactus pear lemonade that was sweet enough to pucker your lips, but also hard to put down. I got a French dip sandwich with homemade mac 'n cheese and soaked mushrooms that I was very happy with, but I'll be back just for that queso!
May I share what made my whole life that night as well?!! We stopped into Deseret Book so I could get more garments and on a whim I asked if they still have apron making kits. She said they do and went into the back to get me one!! I've been asking around about this for a long time and no one seemed to know anything about them. I just love seeing people's aprons that have been hand stitched. Now I get to make my own!!! It was like Christmas morning! After opening it all up, I realized what an undertaking this will be, so it may be 2020 before I'm actually using it, but oh well!! I'm doing a jig that that I finally got a kit!!
Thanks to those gals at SeeItTryItLoveIt, I heard about a new, awesome donut place in Scottsdale called The Local Donut. Since I was going to miss out on my birthday, breakfast donuts, I decided we better hustle on over and get some ASAP. ;) Marcie came with and they didn't disappoint! It was a smaller place than I had pictured but the fare was not little. The creme brulee one was pretty amazing but you just can't seem to beat maple bacon in my book. I'm giving it two tongues up!
Since this was my last day with the family before leaving, the fun continued from there! We used our Pogo passes yet again to try out Skateland!
It was a disaster, haha!
It still cost a pretty penny, even though we brought 3 pairs of our skates.
The kids could barely stand up straight, let alone skate.
They charge $5 a piece for these pipe stand things!
And they all had blisters in about 6 minutes.
But we got ourselves a picture that could make you think it was a grand ol' time!
Collin fell and cried, and gave up a few times but ultimately got the hang of it.
Luckily, I still had the umbrella stroller in the back of the car and we used that to just push the other two around instead.
Then our skate time ended about 45 minutes after we got there.
You can't say we didn't try.
After that we went to see Finding Dory, then, while I can't actually remember, we probably got Gecko Grill or something for dinner. Ha.
After ignoring the inevitable all day, it was finally time to do some mad laundry and packing. The majority got done on Sunday and then we headed to the Evans' for family dinner before Travis dropped me off at the airport. And I guess these 4 were sitting so cute and nice for the prayer, that we had to take a picture. ;)
I did it!! It may be September.. but I finally blogged about July!!! (Well, 10 days of it.)
Boo-ya!
