July 2020

 July started off hot as it always does here in Alabama...just like we like it! July and August are probably two of my favorite months.  It rarely rains and it's always warm so you never have to make plans around the weather, remind the kids to grab a jacket, or even tell them to wear socks and shoes.  We started the month visiting Hay's Nature Preserve.  It was such a neat place.  They have the coolest natural playground and some neat nature trails, and this paved trail.  We took Duke with us.  We walked about 3 miles total.  This was in the home stretch...Duke was worn out and Dawson carried him! Spoiled puppy.

Pretty views.

Nora Kate has still been very busy baking.  This was delicious even if the middle did fall thanks to boys in and out of the house slamming the door. It is a Lemon Blueberry Loaf she made with the blueberries we picked.

Baseball was initially supposed to begin in March and run through the very end of May, well, thanks to covid they delayed our season and so Clayton played baseball May through the 3rd of July...HOT HOT HOT! But we didn't mind.  Here's our self proclaimed "baseballer" ready for his last game!

After the game!

His buddy Cooper was on his team this year too!

After showers one night we turned on a movie for the kids...Duke cozied right up like a person to watch the movie too.

Duke's first road trip.  We were hoping he would be an easy traveling dog, and he is!

We went to Tennessee on July 4th to visit and of course Duke came with us.

He slept in the floor most of the way.

We did fireworks with Aunt Emily, Eric, Zoe, and Zachary.

Cousins

Nana made a 4th of July cake.

Of course this guy loved the sparklers.

Happy 4th of July!

We visited Lolly. We got to see her new house for the first time!

The next day John and I headed back to Alabama and the kids stayed with Nana and Grandad for a few days of fun grandparent time.  While they were gone John worked and I did tons of projects and organizing around the house, got in a long run, and John and I managed to sneak in a couple dates in the evenings.  Our dates included kayaking on the river (thanks to our neighbors lending us their kayaks), cycling 10 miles along the beautiful Rails to Trails followed by watching Hamilton on tv, and going to the shooting range where John has been wanting to take me forever.

Here's a view from where we kayaked.

The kids had tons of fun too.  Nana and Grandad took them Glamping.

Duke really missed the kids.  He kept going to their rooms looking for them.  Here he is looking for Clayton.

Here is a picture along the 10 miles of trails John and I cycled.

The kids were busy glamping in Tennessee.

S'mores

After Glamping they had fun playing at Nana and Grandad's house.  Here Clayton and Grandad are playing Uno.

Glamping..chopping a tiny stick.

This is their GLAMP site.

Nora Kate got a pedi.

They caught fish in the river.

Hot chocolate for breakfast

Cooling off in the river.

The kids got home and couldn't wait to tell us about all their fun!

That next week our favorite farm, Isom's, had you-pick days for their most delicious item-their peaches! We couldn't resist and got there bright and early one morning before it got super hot to pick a big basket of peaches!

These should last a few days...haha!

Clayton has been working hard with me and on the ipad practicing letter sounds.

After playing outside in the Alabama heat, these two had similar ideas of how to cool off on the hardwood.

My sweet baby learned to swim this summer without his puddle jumper.  He's been on his way to this for a while now, but this summer every day that we went to the pool I had him do "swim lessons with Mommy." I told him he would get a reward when he learned to swim all the way across the deep end without stopping.  He knew exactly what he wanted his reward to be..."frog goggles like my friend Ruby." I managed to find the same goggles on amazon and he was so proud of himself and his new goggles!

We have had LOTS of hummingbird visitors.

SOOO many wonderful pool days.

Our friend Ruby celebrated her 4th birthday.

There's always gotta be one who doesn't wear their mask properly! Haha

One evening we drove up to Scottsboro.  Beautiful sunset along the lake.

One day we didn't have much planned.  I told the kids at 8am we should make homemade dog treats for Duke. I had seen a recipe where you slice sweet potatoes SUPER thin and bake the low and slow in the oven and they're healthy and yummy for dogs.  The kids were all excited about this.  I was doing to do the slicing the mandolin slicer and the kids would arrange them on the baking sheets.  Four slices in and I cut the end of my thumb off....like the whole end/side...through the thumb nail.  OH, even typing this makes me cringe.  I never knew this could hurt so badly.  I couldn't get the bleeding to stop and had to call John to come home from work so I could go get it seen.  This was horrible painful, but by the point I'm writing this healing has started happening and it's looking for normal.  It was rough though. 

The following week, Isom's had you pick grapes.  I couldn't resist this because I've never picked grapes.  Clayton turned out to be the perfect grape picker because he's just the right height to get under the vines.

Carrying our giant basket of grapes

We invited our neighbor Clayton's friend, Cooper, over and made homemade ice cream in a bag and of course they had to enjoy it immediately!

July was a very fun month! It feels as if it flew by, and I can't believe in looking at the August calendar that we are approaching the first day of school.