July Wrap Up

I know there is still a week left in July but this month has already been full enough to count as two months for me. And this upcoming week is full of work and that's no fun so I thought this would be a good time to recap the last three + weeks of the events I didn't already post.

July started out with my dad and I heading up to girls camp for a week. There where over 140 young women ages 12-18 and it was an eventful week. We took off Monday night after the fourth of July weekend and made it up to camp in time for dessert. Everything seemed calm and peaceful so we settled into our assignments and got ready for the week. My dad was a floater that week, being given any assignments they needed a guy to do. He helped build a playhouse with other men and the young women which was donated last week to the Sacramento Children's receiving home. That was a neat project. Then he controlled the zip line one afternoon at the "pond" (they call it a pond, I think it's just a really big mud puddle - yuck) and was given the nickname Captain Zipper. He also went repelling with the oldest group of girls on Wed. Even though it was super hot that day I think he had a great time. I was over the 3rd year girls, which was about 35+ girls ages 13 and 14. Even though it was the largest group in numbers, the girls all where very helpfully and enthusiastic which was so nice for me as their leader. I didn't expect the week to be a problem being pregnant, but the altitude did effect me a bit, plus the heat was intense, and there was no where to go to get out of the mugginess. That made it for a long week, but overall, it was a good time for all. July is also a big birthday month in my family. We seem to like to do things in bunches. May is of course mother's day, but then it's also my Mom's b.day, Tanner's b.day and my b.day all within a week of each other. Then we do it again in July. Danica's b.day is the 6th, my Dad's is the 10th and Ty's is the 13th. We finally helped Eric out who was all alone in Nov. Now he'll have the baby to share his month with him and my Grandma and Thanksgiving take up the end of that month. So anyway, because of camp we split the b.day's up into two Sundays. We had a small family party for Dee the Sunday before we left. She turned the big 2-0 and she's so stinkin' cute! Then we did the camp thing and when we got home we celebrated my dad's the following Sunday and we included Ty in with that one too. My grandma had just gotten into town for the week that Sunday afternoon as well to join the festivities. It was a nice family event.
While the two older people didn't do a huge party of any kind, the littler one of the three wanted a big shindig. Ty turned 4 this year and I was all for throwing him a big party. The poor kid has had to cancel his party for two years in a row due to extreme heatwaves the week of his party. And while he was only 2 and 3 those years and he didn't really get what was going on, this year, he was getting a party, period and he was so excited for it. As many of you here in the Sacramento area remember though, his party followed the week of 113+ days and the fires where so bad you couldn't see the end of the street because of the smoke. This was the week I was at camp and couldn't believe we might have to cancel again! Gratefully the breeze kicked up Thur. night and by Sat. it was much much better. We had a big carnival themed party and the kids had a great time. They had a tattoo station and a treasure pit and a balloon face decorating station as well as the trampoline and other fun games in our backyard. My favorite part of the party was the giant popcorn boxes we had outside the front of the house. It was my big project I did before the party and it was my pride and joy. I'm a dork, I know, but I don't care. Ty had such a great time I was glad he finally got his party and thanks to all his friends who came.So that's a wrap-up of the "events" for the month. The rest of the month was filled with visits by Great Grandma, work and various summer time activities. Overall, it was a crazy, super fun month!