July 3rd: A day at the river; there's not much better than hanging out on the dock with these friends.
July 4th and 5th: We escaped reality and headed to the coast with family. You can read all about it here.
July 6th: The girls ran in the second track meet year.
July 7th: My first wedding rehearsal of the month.
July 8th: Laura (my youngest cousin) and Kevin (her high school sweetheart) tied the knot in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Canby. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect event - everything was wonderful start to finish. I hope they enjoyed their day as much as I did. It was the perfect wedding for me to start with - a good mix of work and play. I knew the majority of the wedding guests from various places in life and almost all of my immediate family members were there. It made for a very fun, very memorable night!
July 9th: After a fun week, the Tippins packed up and headed home. We were sad to see them go, but glad they will be coming back for Christmas this year! Benjamin even said my name as he was getting strapped in the car seat! I'm claiming it... first word baby!
July 10th: I hosted a very quaint shower for Sarah and baby Charlie. It was a great afternoon spent with women from her life - laughing, talking, sharing birth stories and baby stories, and celebrating the upcoming arrival of her little man.
July 14th: The second rehearsal of the month... and another in Canby. Theses back-to-back events were ironically held at venues that were less than 1/2 mile away from each other - in the middle of no where. Everything about this rehearsal was routine except the fact that all of the sprinklers were going when we arrived to rehearse on the lawn. Oops! Thankfully it dried quickly in the warm July air and we were able to practice as planned.
July 16th: Merrick spent the day with the girls - including a quick trip to Rood Bridge Park. I spent the day at the lovely St. Josef's Winery in Canby celebrating with Derek and Stefani. It was another gorgeous wedding, though the heavy morning rain threatened to derail our plans. Being the person in the driver's seat meant that I made the call to hold an outdoor wedding (even though it was POURING at the time). Thankfully the sun came out as forecasted and the wedding went off without a hitch. If you care to see pictures from this event, you can check out Heidi's web site: VelVet Owl Photography. If you know where to look you might even catch glimpses of my hands, feet or back. =) And just for fun, here's a video from their wedding as well. Dylan Morgan is another fantastic vendor who we enjoyed working with very much.
July 18th: Skyhawks camp started today for the girls - Baylie, Sophia and Grace signed up together for sports camp. Three hours of soccer, baseball and basketball... and picking flowers, finding caterpillars, eating snacks and taking group trips to the bathroom. It's going to be a great week!
July 19th: After sports camp we decided to do a little raspberry picking. I hadn't really come prepared (ie Claire was wearing white and we didn't have rain boots - yes, rain boots in July would have been helpful in this situation). All-in-all it was a great adventure and we came home with 10 pounds of yummy berries!
By the time my bucket was full this is what Claire had in her bucket... five berries, one stick and a dandelion head. Funny enough, this was more than what was in Grace's bucket. =)
July 20th: One of the perks of being Timber's ticket holders is that we get a few extra games throughout the year. Tonight was our turn to see an English Premier League team take on the Timbers. The downside is that we never get much notice about when these games will be held. I called every babysitter on my list and had no luck finding someone to keep the girls, so we opted to take them with us. I found a great ticket on craigslist for a seat in the section next to ours - and it cost way less than we would have paid a babysitter. The girls seemed to enjoy the game, but did get antsy towards the end. I'm glad that we were able to take them to one game this year, but I am also glad that it worked out to be a non-league game.
July 21st: Poor Kaleb and Claire have been a little left out this week, so Kim and I decided to give them a little special attention today. They got to go on a date... to the park to play and then to Pete's for hot chocolate! Though an entire year separates these too, they are hilarious together... "K-bob and Schlaire."
The girls seem to be really enjoying Skyhawks camp. Today they got their new camp shirts. Sophia and Baylie might not ever wear their shirts again... I am sure I won't be able to get Grace's off of her.
July 22nd: The last day of camp - aka daddy day! All three dads came to watch a bit of camp and see the girls get their certificates. It wasn't anything spectacular, but I love that these girls are growing up with dads who make them feel special and important.
Grace has been begging us to take her training wheels off for a few weeks. She nailed her balance bike in May and we've been lazy about trying the no training wheels thing. Last night Merrick took them off her bike (I was at a meeting so I missed it) but she took off like a pro. Tonight we got to go out all together to ride bikes. We went to the track where she had lots of room to practice with no cars to worry about. Claire rode her bike for a bit too, though she gets bored and distracted easily and soon had more important things to do at the track.
July 24th: After church we headed over to Barb's house for a relaxing day at the river. I think it was after 3 am when I finally crawled into bed last night, so an afternoon of resting on the dock, swimming, and enjoying the boat was very much needed! You just can't beat hot sun, cold water, and good friends.
July 26th: Ever since taking the training wheels off of Grace's bike we have been outside multiple times daily to practice. That means that Claire is "riding" bikes too - which hasn't been so good on her little knees. These particular owies came in two different, but fairly equally horrific falls. Poor girl banged one up badly on Monday night sliding down the the neighbor's driveway and then she fell again on Tuesday afternoon while running down Shannon's driveway.
July 27th: Sometimes Claire wakes up from nap time before Grace and we get to share a few sweet moments together. This doesn't happen often, but I truly enjoy my one-on-one time with my youngest girl whenever I can. On this particular afternoon the girls had fallen asleep before they had time to eat a real lunch, so Claire woke up hungry. We sat together in the warm back yard while she enjoyed a good ol' pb&j sandwich.
The girls also had their last track meet of the season tonight. We've had a lot of fun taking the girls out once a week to run, skip, throw, jump and fly. Grace seems to really enjoy it, though we need to work on her passing skills (she is too polite and doesn't want to run around anyone). Claire loves lining up, running and "crossin' da yine" (crossing the line). Tonight Claire got second place in the 50 meter dash while Grace got third place in the 200 and ran with the big kids in an 800! We can't wait for next summer!
And between events we find plenty of ways to entertain ourselves (and those around us)...
July 28th: Our fifth annual trip to the county fair. I love that we live so close, that it is free, and that it is a tradition. Every year is just a little different, but every year has been memorable. This year the big girls remembered it and Claire sort of got it. And of course, the all LOVED it!
July 29th: This has been a busy week. My last wedding is this weekend... and I have had lots of things to get done. Oh, and the computer died this week. Great. I have been spending time at Merrick's office and Shannon's house trying to get a little work done here and there as I can. In the mean time, I've been trying to occupy my girls' time with various activities that need little-to-no supervision. Today I made a bag of pop corn and gave it to them as a snack. I walked away for a few minutes and came back to find a giant mess. I don't think they had eaten anything... it was just spread around the table, the kitchen, the floor. Today I needed a nanny.
For me the rest of Friday and Saturday were filled by the Greek wedding. Have you seen the movie? All I can say is that it was really accurate. I loved the traditions, the family, the beautiful church, the wonderful food, the gorgeous reception... everything. It was a very long day for Marisa and me, but everything turned out perfectly. We learned a lot about Greek weddings in the process, and hopefully we will get to experience another one someday. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from this event yet... maybe someday. It was stunning!
July 30th: Merrick and the girls spent the day in Newberg for the Old Fashioned Festival. I don't think any pictures were taken, but they enjoyed the parade with the cousins, lunch with grandma and grandpa, and an evening trip to the "chronicle" (aka carnival) where they got to see the annual firework show. By the time everything wrapped up they were exhausted, so they crashed at grandma and grandpa's new house.
July 31st: After finishing up the wedding and getting Marisa home, I got home just before 3 am. The house was dark and empty since my family was sound asleep in a different city. I hate being home alone! I turned on all of the lights, checked under all of the beds and in all of the closets (I'm not joking) and then crawled into bed and turned on a movie. I was still a little wired from our crazy Greek night and needed to wind down a bit before crashing. I didn't sleep long before my alarm went off and I was up, showered and packing clothes for my family before driving to Newberg to meet them for church. We spent the rest of the day resting and relaxing back at the Brownlee's house. Even though I had only slept a few hours I felt great and really enjoyed the day.
And there you have it - July in a nutshell. I'm almost as overwhelmed typing it all out as I was living it. So lest I forget a year from now what this month was like... the house didn't get cleaned, the laundry didn't get folded, we didn't really see our friends or family as much as we would have liked, there were times I wanted to pull out my hair or hide in my closet - which I might have done had I been able to make it through the giant pile of clothes on the floor. A month that included four weddings and rehearsals, multiple work meetings, a baby shower, birthday party, soccer games, track meets, and summer camp on top of every day life was too much for this mama. I like to think that I can do it all and I rarely say no to anything. We survived. We stayed afloat, but I think I inhaled more water than is generally recommended. August will be a welcome break, though it too is packed to the brim and will fly by quickly. Hopefully I will be able to clear my lungs and take a nice deep breath. We shall see...
