Our Tenth Family Day! ...What?!

Happy, happy July, M!

Always a fun month for us what with the 4th of July, Doo Dah, time at the pool, and the biggest celebration for us...Family Day! Can you believe that this year makes 10 years for us as a family?! Amazing!

This year we spent Family Day by beginning at the local farmer's market with Lao Lao, then some go-karts and bumper boats at Magic Mountain, then 6-1-Pho, some pool time, and finale'd at a drive-in movie where we watched Toy Story 4 (which you loved)! It was a busy and super perfect day and way to celebrate the best thing to come into our lives...YOU!

soaking wet after bumper boats

go-karts with Dad

Lao Lao's gaining on you!

go-karts with Mom

I love this picture so much...your face cracks me up!

So, I skipped ahead a couple days by starting with our Family Day celebration...but rewind just a bit to 4th of July and Doo Dah. A staple for our Independence Day celebration. 

your face...ha ha. squinting without your glasses

Always some interesting participants in the parade.

what?! ha ha.

Super random photo alert...Daddy and Joe during one of our date night dinners. Included in your blog as a reminder...if you do one thing in your life...get a friendship like Daddy and Joe's. Buds since 1st grade and still going strong. They're so silly.

Along with our usual July shenanigans, we had an expected but incredibly welcome surprise as well...we got to have Malcolm as our house guest for several days as he traveled back through Ohio again. With it being summertime, you and Daddy got to spend so much more time with him and it was such a gift. He lives in the moment, embraces life, exudes kindness and authenticity in every breath, and brings incredibly positive energy, giant smiles, and the biggest hugs you can imagine. It was a treat to have him here with us for such an extended visit. We all enjoyed him tremendously.

pool time

so silly! it's like 'elf on the shelf' ~ Malcolm edition

here you are helping Malcolm clean and organize our refrigerator...
(I was so thrilled and thankful when I got home!)
hard to believe but he can even make something like this fun!

sushi!

happy family!

After Malcolm left, we buckled down on getting you ready for the new school year. School shopping was fun and while at the mall, we decided we needed a break and treated ourselves to one of those crazy spas where the fish nibble all the dead skin off your feet. (Eeek!) Actually, it was really neat, not weird at all (once you got used to it), and worked like a charm! All of our feet felt amazing when we were done.

the moment you dipped your feet in

Along with getting new school clothes and supplies...we also wanted to get you a fresh haircut. Since our friend Shannon is learning to become a barber, he agreed to come over and help us out. You loved seeing his barber kit and having him 'bust your wig' (as he says). He he. The first picture below is actually a text exchange between you and me where I was asking you what you wanted him to do and then messed with you a little bit. Ha ha. 

it's barber shop time!

The following are a couple more text screenshots between Daddy and me. Just some funnies from our life. There are always funnies of some kind. 

here I was talking about us trying to fix our sink

just a post from your Instagram story that I
thought was cool

proof that at 11 years old, you still love to snuggle, even if
it's a little different now and you just share my pillow

Grizz and GG

now GG is trying to get in on the pillow sharing action

you and Sam swimming during a family graduation party

While we had a lot of great times this month...it ended with a bit of a rough patch. One night about 11:30 pm as we were all heading to bed, Daddy tripped over a dog toy and fell down our stairs, tearing his quad tendon. Yikes, right?! We all ended up heading to the hospital, actually two hospitals, in the middle of the night and got home about 4am. We've had a few different appointments and found that Daddy will need surgery and quite a bit of physical therapy, but will be ok. Whew! You've been a trooper during our late night hospital runs and in playing nurse to Daddy with all of the various things he needs help with right now. I'm so proud of how much empathy and kindness you have in you. 

Now for the bittersweet. The salt in the wound to this was that Daddy is switching jobs (which is an awesome thing!) and ended up having 3 weeks off between his employers so that you both could spend more time together before school begins (also an awesome thing). Unfortunately, this injury happened only a week into this plan, but fortunately, you and Dad were able to enjoy a few fun times together before the sh*t hit the fan, so to speak. I'm glad you got to have at least some adventures together...as you can see below. 

breakfast at Delaney's...your current favorite

fishing with your cousin and Daddy

canoeing at Trapper John's!

look how cute you two are...aww!

Well...by next summer Daddy should be well-healed and back to himself again. Let's start planning all the ways we'll make up for the bump in the road this summer. Ok? Ok!

Now, I have to run...I think Daddy is calling his nurses (us!) for some help. Ha ha. Just kidding. 

Love you, kiddo!

Mama