We got some pictures back from Gray and Julia's week at camp. They had a wonderful time! Both agreed that their favorite part was the 'red shark' banana boat ride. They loved all the water activities and just fun times with their group in their cabins. We got them back on July 4th morning. Everything during pickup went as smoothly as drop off and they kept all the parents apart and outside. I'm so glad they got to go. They definitely want to go back next year. Gray wants to go for 2 weeks!
We got home with the kids and needed to get right to family July 4th lunch at Stacy's. It was hot and the middle ones were pretty tired, but the food was great and we enjoyed being with family. Oh, and Emoni's new puppy kept the kids happy! Such a cutie.
Yes, the middle ones were worn out....
In fact, Gray fell asleep after dinner and I could barely get him up for evening festivities.
Before our friends came for s'mores and fireworks, we finished up painting this bench that Matt crafted from his old truck box. Lots of projects during quarantine!!
We loved using the patio with two neighbor families that we have seen often during quarantine. It's hard to know what's okay to do and what's not, but we've gradually moved to spending outside time with the same group of families that our kids spend time with. We had a fire, played, made s'mores, and then...
...we broke out the fireworks. So fun! They seemed to go on for quite awhile to me, but the next day Gray insisted they only lasted minutes and we needed more next year. He even had me take him to Food Lion and Walmart to check for fireworks he could buy, but alas, they were all sold out.
Camp buds, back together again...
After the weekend's festivities, we had some normal things to attend to. All 4 kids had checkups between Monday and Tuesday. Back when I scheduled them, I thought, "Oh July. Everything will be back to normal in July." Umm....
The kids did great with their masks and girls were a big comfort to each other for their shots. After seeing big sister handle hers with ease, Allie sat through two shots, holding Julia's hands and didn't make a bit of a fuss. Our little one weighs 30 pounds now! She's not on the charts for weight or height, but we are happy she is growing on her own curve. The boys have grown a lot, particularly Joshua, whose weight lifting contributed to him jumping up quite a bit on the charts. Thankful for good reports for everyone!
This was a week of things not going right, taking things for repairs, spending time on customer service calls, and reminded me of the brokenness of this life, as has been common in 2020. Most of the issues are just minor inconveniences with our "stuff"- a bike with a part bent into the back wheel so that it's unusable, a new phone that required lots of time and several tries to get set up, lost home videos due to a broken hard drive. They are not a big deal but just have made me a little crazy. There are other things too, hard things that friends are going through that are made even harder with all the difficulties this year has brought. And more and more people around here are getting the virus, making it harder for folks in charge to know what to do next, particularly about school. Life is just a mess for so many. Hopefully next week we will get some definites about school plans so I know when and how I will go back to work and the kids to school. In the meantime, our kids are living the life in spite of most of their activities being canceled and few places we can go. They are getting outside tons and bonding with friends. We are thankful for the memories they are building this crazy summer. Also, Matt started his new job this week and he is enjoying being home every night! He's learning a lot so far and having steady work each day. We are so glad that he can adjust to a normal schedule.
And best of all, we got some great news this week in my extended family. My sister's family, who have been waiting for years to adopt from Haiti, finally received their referral- an adorable 3 1/2 year old boy. Another example of brokenness, but also redemption that comes when we say yes to loving others the way Jesus does- radically. We can't wait to meet him one day!!
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