July in Review

The major events of July consisted of: Craig flying out to AZ and driving back across country with Aunt Jen so they could haul out our piano, camping stuff, and tools; Fourth of July; Firemen's Carnival; Blueberry picking; and a trip to the Disney store.

Bubble time! They're just about too old for these pics so I had to sneak one in. (Like Vash's pirate hook?)

Vash lost his second tooth in July... and proceeded to accidentally swallow it when he ate his breakfast!

For Fourth of July we took Aunt Jen to the Twin Lake's Heritage Festival. We looked at all the booths, ate yummy food, and listened to a band that was way into saxophone and drum solos. 

Of course the kids had to get face paint.

Excluding the Fisch because he's still just not sure about it. (He was much happier to have the balloon.)

Rhyla called this her Frozen Butterfly. She kept asking to make sure it was still intact after she did anything.

Super kids!

Fischer's favorite part of the whole affair was this petting zoo. He did his best to pet every animal in the place. And he darn near accomplished this because Aunt Jen bought them animal feed and those things get ALL UP IN your business when you have feed!

Rhyla did not like the idea of letting them eat out of her hands. 

Hugging the baby goats. 

After the festival, we had a BBQ, and set off fireworks. We might have watched a movie as well, but I'm too pregnant brained to remember for sure if we did...

When Fisch plays in the water table, he basically lives in it.

And for how much she loved her face paint, she was all too happy to wash it off by getting hit with water balloons and playing in the water table. 

Nine o'clock and still waiting for it to be dark enough for fireworks. Somehow this is the only picture I got of Jen while she was in town. 

Fireworks! Vash and Rhyla loved them, but Fischer shook because they made him nervous.

When it got really hot I let the kids live in their swim suits and soak each other with the hose/ water rocket stand.

Helping daddy with a project.

Bug collecting. The kid will grab at any bug, no matter the size or level of danger. (Bees are a big concern of mine.)

A day at the mall means ridiculously expensive coin rides. 

But I can't say no when this is how happy it makes them.

Even Vash will ride, despite thinking he's getting too big.

And July wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Fireman's Carnival.

Brothers ride together.

Fischer enjoyed this a lot more than he's letting on.

My girl is always happy when her ride vehicle is pink.

Fischer was tall enough to ride this but had to be taken off because he kept slipping down to the bottom of the ride when Rhyla spun it too fast!

He's a maniac, maniac for spinning! And he's spinning like he's never... Ok, I'll stop.

The operator of this ride cracked these two up. He convinced them the dragon was alive and wouldn't come back into the station no matter how many times he called him. 

My dare devils on the big kid swings. (Makes me miss the giant orange at California Adventure, lol. Of course it's Mickey's swings now.)

Happy to bounce on the farm.

Grandma spoiled them and even payed for them to play a game and win prizes. 

This kid has a thing for riding backwards... 

As you can see, he's pretty stinking excited.

This one has taken to falling asleep any where. 

I mean, this is the ottoman and he konked out INSIDE of it.

Sharing the "kindle."

Blueberry picking is also a July-must. 

Rhyla found the Blue Ribbon berry, Grandpa said. It was probably the biggest, bluest one I've ever seen for sure.

Even the Fisch got in on the action this year.

And we were lucky to find a bird's nest in one of the bushes! (A couple of the ladies were arguing over which kind of blue laid these, so I'm not sure what they are! Pretty greenish-blue eggs though.)

Helping Grandma and Grandpa in the garden.

Mr. Mustache.

And after picking all those beautiful berries, we had to bake a cobbler. (We ate most of them fresh because the kids loved munching them by the handful and it was less work for me. Although I did make jam and hand some out to friends and neighbors.)

As a random thing, the kids have had a hard time eating their dinner. Especially Rhyla. So I told them that if they ate their dinner every night for a week, they would get Sweet Frog's. You can see how many of them actually earned the trip, lol. (Fischer could have come but he actually doesn't care for ice cream. Funny kid, I know.)  Vash loaded up with chocolate ice cream and just about every topping they offered. 

Movie night with Me-ma and Pe-pa.

I took the kids for a picnic at Twin Lakes one day and this one fell asleep in the stroller. 

Vash was happy because that meant he got to each some of Fischer's leftover fries. (When I said picnic, I should have specified that I got us all Long John Silvers, because I'm pregnant and I do what I want.)

Rhyla spent most of the time fishing.

Napping with his favorite pillow on the couch. He's our only kid that will do this. Vash and Rhyla HAD to sleep in their beds. This one? Not so much.

When it got too hot to play outside, we did Sea Base days.

They got some new equipment and rearranged things over the summer. 

One thing these kids have NO trouble eating is pizza. Between me and the three of them, we demolished a large. 

Loves driving the ice cream truck. 

And resting in the ball pit. (I was too pregnant to chase the biggins around the big gym.)

I wanted to have a water party but after the monsoons our yard was just ruined. I went ahead and got the kids a little pool and a slip'n'slide anyway.

Fun fact? Swimming tuckers out babies.

Hey, remember the time I didn't want anything except ice cream for dinner so I took the kids to the mall and got Dairy Queen? Yeah, they remember too.

And they might ask about that sometimes. 

Or a lot of times. (In my defense, my parents met us there and got them some Chinese food too. So I was really the only one who had nothing of nutritional value for dinner.)

Beep beep!

The aforementioned pool broke and my mother was kind enough to replace it with a new one. Rhyla liked this one better because it had mermaids instead of jungle animals. I was happy to see that the boys didn't care one way or the other.

I think they played in this just about every day until it started getting cold. 

For the record: 28 weeks pregnant, baby #4. (I was headed to Zumba.)

We managed to catch the ice cream man one day... because ICE CREAM.

Fischer ended up stealing Grandma's banana split bar, which is apparently the only ice cream he'll eat.

Later in the month was our Pioneer Day picnic at the church. Vash found a toad. And no, I would not let him take it home.

If you look really closely over the little girl's arm, you can see Fischer wearing Grandpa's hat and looking skeptically at the weird animal which keeps peeing on everyone.

Mr. Hat and No pants.

A day of swimming tuckers out the biggins too. See what she's sleeping on?

Fischer saw and wanted his Pooh bear back. The kid sat there and whined until I traded her pillows out, lol. 

Movie time.

Since we knew we'd have to skip out of the Halloween part this year, I took the kids out to the Disney store to look around, play on the play ground, and get some See's candy. Fischer was only interested in walking the stuffed animals around the store. At one point, he had about seven stuffed into the little seat. Not sure how I missed a picture of that.

Play time. They finally got rid of the big, wooden house that kids climbed on top of to give their mothers heart attacks, and got a soft, much smaller house instead.

The kids made a "pool" table out of bricks and round chalk, after watching Donald in Mathmagic Land. They wanted to play billiards, lol. 

So July was amazing. I'm grateful to live in America and enjoy the many freedoms we're afforded. I'm so grateful for those who serve and protect our country and our rights. I'm grateful to have such wonderful children and family and for the opportunity I have to do so many neat things with them. I hope I can do my part to raise my children well and teach them to be effective and productive citizens that keep our nation great. 

Until next time...