July 2012 Round-Up

Time to round-up July 2012! July was a month chock full of activity - an incredibly busy month overall with a lot of big changes coming for our family.

We started out July by heading to the water park. With Byron back in school working on his Master's degree, we don't have a ton of fun time with him. But on this day, we decided to spend a day at the pool. It was well worth it.

We had a fun time on the 4th...

Tank wars are the boys' favorite each year...

Our neighborhood is crazy with fireworks, so we didn't have to travel anywhere to see an amazing show.

We went back to KC for a family visit with lots of swimming.

We brought back a cousin to spend the week with us. The 3 boys had so much fun playing together. I think it made their whole summer.

The boys did swimming lessons.

Baseball, baseball, and more baseball. This was our last month for Saltdogs little league. We really enjoyed it. We especially loved the night games - when we started the season, I thought it would so late for the boys to be up, but by the end, I was just thankful that it was so much cooler for baseball after the sun went down. Plus, playing under the lights is a neat experience.

 
A special, amazing surprise - at our last game, Ndamukong Suh from the Detroit Lions (and former Huskers player) walked onto the baseball field and asked to pitch a few innings of our game.

The boys were all in awe - Ndamukong is a HUGE guy and was so fun to see with all the little guys. Nathan ended up playing pitcher right next to Ndamukong, while Jack was catcher.

We ended the baseball season with a little celebration and medals.

We took a long-awaited family vacation to California to see Grandma Neen.

We stayed in Oceanside, about halfway between LA and San Diego, and spent a lot of time at the beach, 2 days at Legoland, saw the Royals beat the Angels (whoo-hoo!), and played with Grandma. We met Grandma's fiance, Colin, as well - so happy for them!

That's Nathan under the wave, learning to body surf...

Jack and Nathan turned 9 this month. We are so very proud of the smart, happy boys they are - and the smart, happy men they're becoming.

Grandpa Al, Grandma Bonnie, Grandma Ruby, and Uncle Kyle were able to come over and help us celebrate the boys' birthday - a super spy party at the YMCA with a rock-climbing adventure.

Other than a minor cake debacle on my part (where I dumped the cupcakes, had a meltdown, and was rescued by Bonnie and Grandma), the party was a super success. Fun was had by all - and not a single soon-to-be 3rd-grade boy noticed the cupcakes were a little smushed under all that frosting.

I'm cheating a little to put the party in July since it was technically in August, but it only seems fair to highlight it with the boys' actual birthday. :)

The end of the month brought the big change for our family that I mentioned earlier - we're officially moving to Denver. Byron was promoted to a new job located there, and we're going to take this opportunity to move a new city before the boys get too much farther in school. We're planning to stay there until the boys are out of high school. Unless we can move back to KC. :) We're already deep into the relocation process just a few weeks into August, so it won't be long until we're in the mountains...