July

 July was another wonderful summer month full of adventure! Heidi came at the first part of the month and we had so much fun while she was here! When Huds first saw her after she got into town he hugged her and wouldn't let go for like 3 solid minutes.

Early one morning, my mom and Heid came with me and the kiddos to hike Donut Falls. I love this hike. It's so beautiful the whole way, it's very kid friendly (Davis did the whole thing himself) and the waterfall is beautiful.

 Funny story, when we got back to *almost* the car, Davis crouched down and refused to move. I asked if I could carry him, to which he gave his usual "okay!" I carried him the last 50 feet to the car. Did the whole dang hike himself (that I frequently tried to carry him during) only to give up with 50 feet to go.

 We had a lovely 4th of July! We did red, white and blue breakfast and then spent the morning working in the yard. Our poor Chase woke up that morning with strep throat and was devastated! Ben and I had it the weekend before, so we were pretty certain what it was, and thankfully the pediatrician on call felt comfortable just calling in a prescription for him instead of insisting we be seen on the holiday. Chase was so upset, since the 4th of July is his very favorite holiday! We still made the most of the day though. He did have to miss out on the slip n slide with our neighbors and the pool party at my parents house. We did bring him up some dinner to enjoy and Papa let him play on his iPad.

Also, we were all the in the pool and getting the BBQ all set up when a HUGE storm blew in! In a matter of minutes it was a complete downpour- it was insane! We quickly moved our whole bbq inside my parents basement- we had like 27 people in there. It was chaos, in a funny memory kind of way.

The rain picked up again right at the first of fireworks, so we packed up and headed home. I watched fireworks right on my bed with Chase and Hudson (who fell asleep within 5 minutes of them starting). I snuggled Chase, someone was setting off a great firework show right across the marsh from us. We talked about positive attitudes and even though how so much of the day didn't go as planned, it was still a great holiday. Hopefully a good lesson was learned!

 We are deep in Harry Potter this summer! We finished the 5th book mid July and Hudson actually asked me to do this little "Harry Potter photoshoot" with him. He is eating those books up! As is Chase. And I'm loving reading it to them. We spend at least 30 minutes every night in their bed immersed in that magical world.

 We did our annual "Friends Camping" trip. My boys look forward to this every year. We went up Little Cottonwood Canyon this year to a really beautiful campsite. We love this wonderful group of friends. We now have 11 kids between our three families and it's a circus, but all the kids get along so well. Davis was completely nuts and made the trip so exhausting for me and Ben, but it was still worth it. However, when it was 11 pm and he was crying "let's go home" we definitely questioned our judgment about bringing him along.

 After one random swim night we threw all the cousins in the shower. I love this cute crew of kiddos!

 Chase got to do a free coding camp at the Apple store! It was so fun for him, he was so enthusiastic. They got to program spheros and he had a great time.

 Oh Davis! On this particular day some neighbor kids came banging on my door and ringing the doorbell and woke him up after like 15 minutes of napping. And then at 5:00 pm he was dead asleep on the couch. We snuggled a little before I insisted he wake up. He's the sweetest.

 On Chase's last day of Apple Camp I took him out on a little date and let him pick the restaurant. Not surprisingly he chose pizza.

 Every time Ben mows the lawn Davis joins him with his little lawnmower (and sometimes also joins our next door neighbor Craig in his lawn mowing as well). I think in Davis's little mind he's actually helping and it's so darling!

 We did our little 24th of July tradition a day early and did fireworks with the Josephs on the 23rd. I was surprised how scared Davis was! He sat in my lap, trembled, and held my hands over his face, occasionally peaking out for a glimpse.

 On the actual 24th we hit up the festivities at Bowmans. The kids loved the face paint (Davis got Mickey on his arm). Hudson's is Black Panther- he's doing "Wakanda forever" with his arms. Chase decided you couldn't see his flag well enough and chopped off his own hair when we got home! (He's since had a remedial haircut and learned his lesson to not cut his own hair). We ate hot dogs and drank lemonade and the boys thought it was the best.

 We ended the 24th with a fun BBQ and swim at Nana and Papa's. The kids were way into smores and ate way too many that night.

July started out insanely busy, but by the end of the month we had finally settled into a "relaxing" summer routine. We got to sleep in a little later (like 7:30!) and we didn't have nearly as many things planned. We spent more time actually at home and the kids bopped around the neighborhood to friends houses. Life was finally moving a little slower and I'm glad we got some time before the craziness of school starts all over again!