After multiple months of lock down July felt a bit more normal...maybe. Well besides masks in the stores, not everything open yet, and still more zoom than we have ever had to deal with. For the fourth we got together with Anna and the boys and Mary and Eric. Always fun to celebrate the 4th! Nice weather, yummy food, and of course fire works! This year I got some really fun fireworks from a great stand recommended by a friend.
Here are the pictures from our 4th of July celebration!
Doing some flipping with Grandma's help.
Water balloon fight in the yard!!
S'more time!!
That night we had some of our best ever personal fireworks! I was wishing we could have seen our neighbors fireworks better, but we have too many trees around our house. The kids loved them though and they were really fun!
Stella with her cutie patootie short hair cut!
This was our second trip to Banks lake for the summer. Last year we did 5 nights and didn't have our boat along. This year we did 8 nights and had our boat! But to bring our boat meant I had to the for the first time ever tow a trailer behind our brand new van. Our van pulled the boat like a champ! I was super nervous as we started out. I drove with Olivia and Raelyn in the back. And Claire and Aubrey were in the truck with Hans and Stella. Once we got through Seattle and most of the heavy traffic, I was feeling better when we stopped for gas and a potty break and snapped this picture.
And then we made it over the pass and I thought ok...I think I got this! Then I had an experience I have never had before and hope I never have again. The boat trailer tire blew and I heard the pop and felt the pull and was fortunate to be able to change lanes and pull over quite quickly. So glad I was able to pull over quickly and safely. So glad the blown tire was on the side next to the ditch. So glad that Hans for the first time ever had checked the spare tire for the boat trailer, found it completely empty and had blown it up. So glad, that the nearest town with a great tire place was only 10 miles away.
We were making such great time and I was excited to get there early, but it wasn't to be. We pulled off in Ellensburg and found a great local tire shop that had amazing service and had us in out with 2 new tires in about a half an hour. Then we were back on the road again. And not far down the road we had our next hold up! As we were coming down the road we into the gorge and close to the bridge we came to a total stand still. We spent the next hour inching down the highway till we were across the bridge. They had the bridge narrowed to one lane and there were an accident on an adjoining road that involved a motorcycle and they had a helicopter there, so yeah it was terrible traffic.
We got there about 6 on Friday night. And it was time to relax and have 8 full nights of camping! So much fun!
I wish I could get these pictures all in order, but when you have multiple cameras and you maybe took a whole lot of pictures it is a bit challenging...so in order to get this post done I am just going to let the picture order go a bit. And well we were there for 8 days so one day did kind of run into the next! lol! We had a lot of boat time, a lot of beach time, and a lot of fun in the water. In the evenings, we ate yummy food, played badminton, and enjoyed looking at the stars. My family came for 4 nights of the 8 that we were there. It was fun to have them there and I think they enjoyed their time there. Well without further ado here are some of the highlights in pictures.
Raelyn lost a tooth while we were camping!
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| Little boater dog |
Stella had to go pretty much everywhere we went. At one point we left her in the camper by herself and she pawed at the door the whole time we left her and ripped the screen all apart. So we just had to bring her along where ever we went. She did pretty well being on the boat and beach with us. She is so clinging though to me that she drives me crazy a bit.
The last bit of tubing on the way back to camp.
Had to get a family picture the last night there.
A quick picture of the Mills before leaving camp.
The trip home was much better than the one there...uneventful. We had a great time on this Banks trip and already looking forward to next year. The sun and heat, the good friends and company, lots of water and boating, and of course we love camping, so it is a really great trip that we look forward to each summer. Already booked our reservations for next summer!
When we got home it was time to get Hans ready to go to San Diego for 8 plus months. Winterizing the boat and camper, setting up sheds, washing the van, and packing. It was a crazy week but we got stuff done. I was so sad the whole week preparing for him to go and knowing that our boating and camping were done for the summer. It was hard. And then Hans took off for San Diego for the long drive and even longer stay down there. We stayed home a few more weeks to finish preparing for school and our trip to San Diego, celebrating Olivia's birthday and seeing friends.
Here are pictures from the last couple weeks of July.
Slip and slide at the Mills one afternoon.
Claire had one more dance day with her company girls outside. It was sad to see this group come to an end. The North Studio shut down and my heart just breaks at the loss of this studio and the potential it had to be really great. These girls were so fun and we really loved Chelsea and all the teaching she did. The girls really miss her classes. And they had so many fun dances started that were never finished. It might seem trivial, but the loss is so heavy for me at times. I just want to bawl. The end of the year was just so so hard with so just nothing to show for or end out the year. It absolutely breaks my heart. It has been a hard year for dance. Sniff, sniff...
We did have the Kopps over one last night before Hans left to celebrate all the COVID birthdays. Claire, Kael, Jada, and Kelsey and Raelyn all had their birthdays during COVID and we never got to celebrate Carters. So we did a fun birthday get together with the Kopp family to celebrate them all and just enjoy each others company before Hans took off. And this is the one picture I took! LOL!
Our free couch that was accidentally delivered to our house it is a nice addition to our porch in the summer! The pets love it!
When Hans was gone we ate out a lot. And since this park was open we would grab food and go eat at the park and then let the girls play. It was nice to let them have some fun and get out. We don't often frequent parks any more, so they enjoyed it.
We also enjoyed playing in our yard and the girls had fun playing in the pool on the patio.
We went over one Friday to spend the day and that night with Anna and the boys and see their new house. It was a blast!
Boy just writing this post is making me miss summer already and it is only November. It has been a really hard year. So many tears, anxiety, hurt, stress, loss of people and loss of things events that it has been really hard to process. My heart hurts a lot, but looking at the fun things we did get to do this summer, makes me remember that even in all the hard...GOD is still good! And there is still so much to be thankful for.
Well, hopefully I can slam out a few more posts here in the next couple weeks and before the end of the year. As usual I am much further behind than I would like to be...until then!
