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

Pools, Pride, and Pho

Mali ~

Summer...summer...summer...time....Summertime! Yes, summer is in full swing up in here!

One of our first orders of business was to establish a plan to attempt to try a new restaurant each Friday. Our first Friday we chose 6-1-Pho and you were smitten. We've been back so many more times since this first visit and you just can't get enough of their pho (I love their banh mi)!

It also just so happened that a local church was having a Christmas in June festival with a drive-in showing of The Grinch in their church parking lot, too. Now, this movie is one that you and Jelysa have been dying to see together ever since last December so it was perfect. We took Jelysa (and her brother Jeffrey) with us and had a fun Friday night. Surprisingly, we *all* enjoyed the movie. It was really cute!

your freaky licorice trick

stretching out to watch the movie

The next morning, you, Lao Lao, and I also pedaled our booties into Westerville for the Farmer's Market and rewarded ourselves with some delicious, freshly made crepes. You've been asking to try crepes for some time, (although you were calling them Spanish pancakes), and so you were thrilled (ok, maybe moderately excited with a slight side of whining) to ride the 12 miles (round trip) to wrap your lips around this deliciousness!

yummmmm

Lao Lao decided to jazz up her helmet on the way home

Of course, along with our adventures, I can't forget to throw some Grizz spam into the blog as well. She is getting so big ~ check out her tongue!

She's recently decided that she likes to steal the ripening blueberries from our bush.

caught in the act!

And when she's not stealing blueberries, she's busy looking cute on the stairs with Suzy.

Or getting a kinder version of a time-out with Mom. Ha.

Ok,  back to us. If it's June, you know it's Pride month up in our house! One of my favorite times of year! Of course, we attended the parade and it was glorious. As usual.

bought you a rainbow squid hat from a vendor, but it was so
hot, I don't know that you wore it much

waiting for the parade with Ana

I seriously love this kid right here

Lao Lao and I also decided to participate in the Free Hugs movement this year. Entirely too many kids (and adults) are rejected or disowned by their families for simply being themselves and living authentic lives along the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Our family firmly believes that this should never happen to anyone, but sadly it still does. Because of this, the Free Hugs (and in particular, the Free Mom Hugs) movement was born. Doing a quick Google search will tell you all you want to know about this beautiful movement and its story.

Anyway, we were inspired and so Lao Lao and I decided to bring our own signs and open arms/warm hugs to Pride and spread love, acceptance, and support to any and all who needed or wanted it. Let me just tell you that it was one of the most touching and profoundingly moving Pride parades I have attended. So many hugs, smiles, and tears. I don't think I will ever go to another Pride parade without my Free Mom Hugs sign. It was impactful on so many levels. I'll never be the same and I am so grateful.

Well, after Pride weekend had come to a close, guess where we headed a few days later. Yep, you guessed it. 6-1-Pho...remember how I told you we kept going back this month? Yeah, this was us introducing Daddy to its noodle-y deliciousness. Yum!

It was so hot, we also hit the pool with our new rafts...a taco, a rainbow, and a panda (except I think I was still blowing your panda up when the picture below was snapped). Of course, we took friends with us...Ana, Carter, and Alyssa from the 'hood.

parental units in the sun

chatting it up with Carter on the taco

snuggle session with Mama and the taco

I discovered the wonders of doggie ice cream this month as well which was a perfect treat to cool off the pups. As you can see, Grizz approves.

Maybe it will stop her from chewing up pillows? ...Nah.

I also took you to the pool on another steamy, hot day and this was you, sitting with me and peering under the beach chair, cracking yourself up as you looked at my butt squeezing through the slats of the chair like biscuit dough about ready to pop out of a canister. Hahaha!

After the pool, I took you and Ana to Fourth Fridays where we ate dinner and then you got to chat with paramedics in an ambulance and investigate a real firetruck. Very cool.

The pool is expensive so on one particular day...we made due with what we had in the garage. Popsicles and a plastic dog pool in the driveway. Swimming...hillbilly style

You, Daddy, and I also headed over to Sharon Woods one evening for a family date of canoeing. They have free canoeing on certain days at the park and it was a really neat experience. Can't beat free!

you and I contributed some artwork to their paths while we
waited for our turn on the canoes

The following are some texts that you and I exchanged while I was at work one morning. They made me smile and warmed my heart.

And finally, Audrey Ayi had a birthday this month (the 28th). We did take her out for a belated birthday dinner, but she also came over on another day and swooped in to pick you up for a fun date as well. I love that you can spend time with her, just the two of you, like this. Makes me so happy.

playing at the library

Love you, Monkey.
Happy Summer!
Mama