A Packed July

How to cram all that we did in July into a single post?!  I'm not sure, but let me try to at least hit the high points!

First off, Evan turned SEVEN!!  I feel like this needs an entire post of it's own, but alas, time seems to be the enemy tonight and so I'll just sum this wonderful day up with a few quick words.  He was totally enthralled with his day.  Special breakfast out with just our immediate family, favorite friends to play with all morning and early afternoon (they shared a fun lunch and rootbeer floats!), time with Grammy and Grandude in the afternoon with cake, ice cream, and gifts, followed by his pick of dinner menu. He was happy all. day. long.  It was wonderful, and it's amazing to watch him growing up and turning into his own person.

 July 4th celebration was spent down in the springs -- Ft Carson does the 4th on the 3rd, so while the weather was crummy, we still enjoyed fireworks that night along with a gorgeous hike the next morning!  We headed home mid-afternoon for a picnic with dear friends and then to a roof-top party where we enjoyed gourmet popsicles and 5 different fireworks shows! 

The boys finished up their soccer "season", enjoyed another week of VBS with friends, went to a "wildly wet" birthday party, and had a special "kids night in" at church where they got to build a craft from home Depot, play games, eat a fun dinner, and watch a movie.  They loved it all. With school seemingly around the corner, we're cramming summer into anywhere it'll fit!

We went camping with my folks about an hour out of town and had a blast.  We hiked to this "Castle" rock which overlooked a lake -- it was gorgeous -- but what was even better was that we hiked a little farther to some really interesting falls to eat our lunch.  That was at the 5.5 mile mark, which made that hike 11 miles total.  The boys are troopers and did a great job.  They love camping, and the amazing thing is that I am starting to truly love it as well.

I know that was short, but time is ticking and pretty soon I'll have an August post to write!