Red White and Blue

With the combination of political conventions and Independence Day July has been full of red, white and blue everything.  I love the patriotism around every corner.  More than half the homes on our street have their flags flapping happily.  It's like everyone is waving HELLLLO, WELCOME HOME!  

As we say goodbye to July I'm sneaking in some fun photos from my Aunt's annual July 4th party.  We had such a great time this year, and I'm particularly thankful to have had such a wonderful celebration free of stress, chaos and paramedics.  It was also so lovely to celebrate my Aunt's birthday with a massive amount of cake from the bakery, Chloe and Sophie!

The firework show at the golf course has been a favorite of mine for as long as I can remember; although our Texas neighborhood was a high contender.  Someone always makes an amazing video using a remote helicopter and posts online for everyone to enjoy though, so theres always that. 

 

Ohio Camping

A few weeks ago Kaleb and Aiden took on their second camping adventure in a nearby state park.  It was fun, and EXHAUSTING!!!  Last year was their first time sleeping in a tent and were SO easy going about life in general.  This year, holy smokes, they were crazy busy tornados.

Aiden continued his two month phase of pushing every button on my patience spectrum, which some would say is already much too short.  There were several moments every day I thought about throwing in the towel, packing up and leaving for home.  But, we stayed, the boys had a blast, I got some relaxing hammock time, visited with lots of friends and all was well in the camping world.

Each day I got the boys to nap was a MAJOR success and I was so very thankful, because folks.....lets face it.....I needed them to have that nap much more than they actually needed it.  At just beyond 3.5 years the thought of loosing the late afternoon nap makes the back of the neck hairs stand at attention.

We had another beautiful site, right next to where we camped last year.  It has a perfect path to the bathhouse, and plenty of tiny trails the boys rode their bikes on.  The cicadas were really dying off, but plenty were flying around and Kaleb had a rough first experience.  One landed on his hip and he was frozen in fear, yet sobbing and tears streaming down his sweet cheeks.  As it climbed up his torso we tried to calm him down.  It tried flying away twice and Keith had to keep snatching it out of the air to bring back to show Kman it's a harmless, friendly, fun bug!  He didn't agree to like them until I pet the darn thing and said his wings tickled me.  He laughed and jumped feet first into best friendship with every cicada, dead or alive, that crossed his path the rest of our time there.

An afternoon at the beach, a fun ice-cream social, complete with rainbow sprinkles, a not so fun rainstorm on our last night and way too many mosquito bites later I was never so happy to pack up, come home, do four loads of muddy laundry, shower in a mudless shower and cook in my kitchen.

See ya next year Westbranch.