July Festivities

July Festivities July 10, 2018

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 2:07 pm

The beginning of July is full of lots of celebrating for our family. We have the Independence Day holiday, my dad’s birthday and Jeremy & I’s anniversary all in the span of a few days. And on top of that, we celebrated my Grandma’s birthday in the middle of that as well (even though her birthday was at the end of June). It made the week one giant party.

We celebrated my dad’s birthday over the course of two days. We had my immediate family all together on the 4th so celebrated with everyone then. We also couldn’t ignore Grandpa on his real birthday, so we celebrated a bit that day too. Owen loves blowing out the candles on birthday desserts, so two celebrations meant double the candles. For the 4th, we dressed the boys in matching Old Navy red shirts and let them buy a small amount of fireworks. We aren’t really into the concept of blowing up our money, so our display was small, but the kids enjoyed it. Of course, we had sparklers and pop-its as well.

We brainstormed lots of different options for celebrating our anniversary, but truthfully, with a July wedding date, our anniversary is always right around a major church event, so our minds are busy in other places. Also, our anniversary was on a Sunday, so church takes a up a good chunk of that day. We decided on a movie and dinner locally on Friday. Jeremy loves the Marvel superheros and he mourned the fact that he hadn’t seen the newest Avengers movie yet, so that made the choice somewhat easy (I’m not too into the dinosaur option… I’ll leave that for DVD). We went to the Olympic Club in Centralia where they have couches and chairs instead of traditional movie theater seats. This was my first time visiting and while I enjoyed the experience and the movie, I’m just a smidge too short for the seating there. I need that sloped set-up a regular theater provides. Short person problems. Because building the house took up so much of our free time over the last year, our “dates” have been few and far between. Even though it wasn’t a fancy way to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary, it was nice to do something on our own without the kids. We laughed and talked at regular volume and enjoyed a meal where we didn’t have to share what was on our plates. I’m so blessed to have Jeremy by my side through all the ups and downs of life! He’s the best!

Saturday was a fun day spent at Mt. Rainier. My grandma loves the mountain and it was her choice for a family gathering to celebrate her 85th birthday. The boys enjoyed riding their bikes around the picnic area and hiking down to the rushing river to throw rocks in it. We had lots of a good food and good conversation. We ended our time with a drive up to Paradise to explore the visitor center and find snow. My sister and brother-in-law where able to make it to this gathering. It’s a special and rare treat to see them twice in one week. Like a said, it was a week of endless partying!

Now we’re into VBA week! This is Owen’s first VBA and he is loving it. Jeremy and his team are creating an awesome environment for kids to have fun and learn about God’s love. Graham and I are getting to be one-on-one buddies again just like the school year. As much as I was worried about Owen being home all summer, I have quickly adapted to having him around all the time. I miss him while he is away, but I know he is having a blast so it’s all good. Graham wishes he could to VBA as well, but he is too young. I’m doing my best to make sure he has a good time while brother is away. Yesterday, Graham and I went to a MOPS & MOMSnext play date in the park and today I spent part of the morning building him a giant train set in the living room. He is having a good time despite feeling left behind. His VBA days are just around the corner.

Here are some picture highlights from our party week!