How I Spent My Summer Vacation: July

If you are wondering how I can possibly remember what and when we did stuff this summer, I'll let you in on a secret. Doug and I unload all of our digital photos into files marked by month & year, so I open up the July 2010 photo file to see what we did that was photo worthy. Granted, we usually do other things that I may forget to bring my camera to, but I try to get pictures at major things as well as take a few for fun here and there. It really helps my aging brain keep track of things, lol.

That said, July was a slim month in the photo file. The month started off with crazy heavy rains continuing from June. In fact, flash flooding covered many blocks of the city on the 4th of July. Fireworks plans kept getting shifted and delayed, which resulted in people dragging out their front yard fun longer than usual. Sean is absolutely terrified of fireworks, so we have spent the last several years just staying holed up at home in the evenings around the 4th to try to keep him comfortable. We did go over to our friends' house for a cook out during the day and the children just loved getting soaked in the flood water. (sidenote- eeeew!)




I had a Mommy Meltdown on the 5th when the new neighbors across the street from our house launched a loud and lengthy celebration with explosives directly under the our bedroom windows until 10 PM. Yeah, I turned crazy lady and went out in my jammies to yell at them. *shakeshead* Too many nights of tolerating the disturbance reached it's peak.

We had a nice visit with my mom in July. She came to stay with us to help me get the kids in for their annual physicals. She brought my nephew, Adam, along so that was extra fun for the kids. I can't tell you how much of a blessing it has been for her to be retired. She has helped us out so much with the kids this past year. They just adore her and never get tired of spending time with her. I really need to work harder at taking photos of her with the kids, because it will be so nice to have physical mementos of this time with her too.

At the end of July, we went to a family reunion with extended relatives of Doug's. It was nice to see everyone gathered up together and get to know some of the distant cousins. Unfortunately I didn't assert myself and ask to do a group photo of everyone. The best photos I got were just of the kids playing on the playground outside. I hate when I miss opportunities like that. I guess I just got too distracted with these little goofballs.

The kids had some weird bugs that month, too. Ella had a bad allergic reaction to something, coincidentally on the same day as she had vaccinations even though the doctor says that it wasn't caused by the vaccines. Her face and a bit of her chest broke out in a rash that took several days and Benadryl to ease away. Sean got a yucky sinus, ear, and eye infection that required meds. Aidan had a stomach virus that lasted a day but amazingly didn't spread to anyone else. Summer illnesses are just so unfair, aren't they?

Ella has a persistent interest in viewing photos of herself on the digital camera, so I end up with lots of little portraits of her and sometimes the boys. Two favs:



Gosh they are growing up so darn fast!