July Jumble

July 6: Swimming at a friends pool after swim lessons – the kids really did have a great time even if they don’t look too thrilled.

July 6-7:  Abigail called me when I was hanging out at a friends pool and told me that some friends had an extra ticket to the Shawn Mendes concert in Portland that night and asked if she could go.  Two of the girls had just graduated from high school and the third was one of the graduates younger sisters and Abigail’s close friend.  They were leaving in 30 minutes.  I had no time to think about it, but fully trusted the girls and gave her the green light.  Shocking, right?  Had this been planned in advance I wouldn’t have considering sending my 15 year old in a car with three teenage girls to another state, to attend a music concert, sleep in a hotel overnight, and then drive home the next day.  Perhaps it was our love of getting a good deal that I really couldn’t pass up a free trip.  Who knows?  She went.  She loved it.  And she returned safe and happy the next day.

July 7:  Jason attended a birthday party at a local pottery store.  Each of the boys got to pick out something to paint that was under $25 {gulp}.  Jason picked out a basketball piggybank.  Apparently, Jason took it slow cause we had to go back a few days later for him to finish it before they put it in the kiln. 

July 9:  Family Selfie

July 10: Abigail also chose Cheesecake Factory for her lunch date.  We were also able to squeeze in a little shopping where we found matching hats on clearance.  On the way home we stopped by Cold Stone to redeem my bogo birthday coupon – added bonus was the birthday gift card a friend sent me.  We had such a fun afternoon together!

July 11:  There was LOTS of reading going on this summer.  We seemed to visit the library more than once a week to exchange books.  The kids flew through the summer reading program within the first couple weeks of summer.  I sure love this scene.

Cow Appreciation Day fell on the same day as 7/11 (Free Slurpee Day) = FREE dinner!

July 12:  I remember taking this picture of Carly and feeling so, so grateful for her.  Our summer was busy and I often relied on her to help with the kids.  She’s going to be an awesome mom someday!

July 13:  The kids were just a tad bit excited for our first outdoor movie night of the season.

They even spotted one of the Finding Dory movie characters before the show.

July 15:  Our summer was pretty packed so we had to change things up a bit this year and have the Fletcher Family Pool Party during early afternoon instead of an evening like years past.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a date that we could get our whole family there so we were missing Abigail as she was still on trek.  Hallie was able to pick up a lifeguarding shift while we were there.  We didn’t make her save any lives or anything.

July 17-20:  The girls participated in the Gold Medal Squared Volleyball Camp hosted by our local high school this week.  The camp was held from 8am-5:30pm – an exhausting week packed full of polishing up their skills for the upcoming season.

July 20:  I’ve been making healthy smoothies for over 5 years (minus when I was pregnant with Drew and couldn’t stomach them).  The kids like them ok – Drew thinks they are yummy and drinks one nearly every day.  Considering he can be somewhat picky about dinnertime I know with his smoothie intake the kid gets plenty of healthy vitamins.

July 22:  GNO (Girls Night Out) gone outdoors.  My first time hiking up Poo Poo Point (yes, that’s it real name).  It was the perfect hike to give us a good workout but still be able to carry on a conversation. 

We stayed at the top for a while and watched people take off paragliding.  It was a busy day in the skies!

We refueled at Café Rio afterwards.

July 24 - 28: Justin couldn’t take any days off work while I was at young women’s camp with the girls so Jason, Katie and Drew went to Steve & Kate’s Day Camp in Bellevue.  Five days, 10 hours each day.  Thankfully there were lots of activities for the kids to enjoy – Jason sewed himself a pillow one day and Katie’s favorite thing she did at camp was coding and they both loved the mashed potatoes offered with lunch each day.

July 26: While the girls and I were at camp, my friend Susanne had a few of the Dad’s (and all their kiddos) over one night for dinner.  I don’t think Justin had to prepare the kids a single meal all week while I was gone.

July 28:  Dinner (or perhaps just ice-cream?) with Dad at Dick’s

July 29:  As I mentioned my friend Laura brings her daughter back to WA from TX each summer to attend camp.  While Emilee is at camp, Laura gets to play all week.  Since both Sommer and I were at camp our only chance to catch-up with Laura was the day we got home.  We took our girls with us to dinner at Café Rio.  When we got back to Sommer’s we got out of the car to take a couple farewell pictures.

Benjamin was outside cleaning up the yard and pulled out a blowtorch to burn some weeds.  Sommer advised him against it.   Within moments he’d caught a tree on fire between their house and the neighbors and boy did that tree burn fast.  Laura immediately called the fire department, Benjamin and Sommer scrambled to get the water hose turned on as high as possible, neighbors poured out of their homes grabbing buckets and hoses, smoke was billowing down the street.  It was chaos.  By the time the fire truck arrived they’d gotten the fire under control, but it was seriously close to their homes and could have gotten out of control very quickly.  Of course Laura documented it.  Too bad we didn’t get video of the fire, cause now that a few months have passed we can joke about the situation and the video would be pretty entertaining.  It even made the newspaper.