July was random and busy and hot and crazy and fun and here are the parts that have yet to be logged on the blog:
Girls' night at the beginning of the month to celebrate Nicole finding out she's having a girl (hooray!) and also say goodbye to Nycole; their family is now in Seattle and Brandon is officially on the transplant list (hooray!). We ate yummy food (once we finally ironed out how the flip to most efficiently order, sorry for my part in complicating that matter, haha) and chatted and had a great time. AND we got permission to change the TV so that we could see the awesome story that channel 6 did on Brandon that day. Nycole and Brandon and Kathy all did awesome.
Ahh, a happy day: Clyde's beloved Spiderman shirt (that he wore so often I almost resorted to hiding it from him...) finally got passed down to Will - made less traumatic on
Clyde as I had found him a new Spiderman shirt at Savers recently.
Will also got a pair of orange shorts in a hand-me-down box that coordinated nicely with Clyde's fave orange shorts, so the boys excitedly dressed to match this day and then (I kid you not) requested pictures. And then they wrestled a lot.
This was also happy: I got to have lunch with one of my best friends from high school, Beka! Ours
was a fairly random and hilarious friendship, started in 10th grade
biology when Beka noticed my Soap Opera Digest and we discovered a
mutual love of Passions. (embarrassing? Possibly.)
Beka had difficulty with my name at the beginning and always called me 'Jayna', so I called her 'Beeka', and the nicknames stuck (although they're spelled Jāna and Bēka). And then we devised this whole plotline where she was married to Philip Kiriakis from Days of Our Lives (what? we were fifteen, okay??) and I was married to Shawn Brady from Days of Our Lives, which technically made us aunt and niece, even though Philip and Shawn are the same age... so we referred to each other as Bēka Zipfel-Kiriakis and Jāna Braden-Brady. Still with me?
We had such a great time at lunch; we've seen each other a few times over the years but not consistently and we both committed to making that change and keeping in better contact.
Few shots from high school and one from running into each other a couple of months ago (bottom right). I promise that I have never been high, despite what the picture on the left might suggest, haha. Anyways, I just love my Aunt Bēka!!
Uncle Cody watched the boys while Chuck and I had dentist appointments and afterwards we found them over at my old elementary school:
Most of this playground equipment is new and improved since I was a student there, although a few classic pieces remain, like those monkey bars I could never do!!
I was so excited to participate in the Relay for Life in mid-July! My friend Lara is fighting a pretty amazing battle against cancer and kicking butt whilst doing so - she put together a team and a booth for this event and was one of a select few who raised over a thousand dollars by herself!
Relay for Life is sooo neat; it's a fundraiser that benefits the American Cancer Society (although all money raised stays local). Team members spent the whole night (seriously, from 6pm to 8am) walking laps around a track to show support and solidarity for those fighting cancer. It was amazing; cancer survivors wore purple shirts and got to do their own lap as part of the beginning program and it was pretty sobering to watch such a diverse group of people walk by- spanning gender and race and age.
I'm so glad I got to be part of it! Lara named her team 'No One Fights Alone' and the theme for the whole event was Superheros, so naturally I dressed up a bit :). Shelly and her family came too, which was awesome. She and Cameron stayed a few extra hours and ran tons of laps - they're awesome!
That's Lara and her husband Austin in the top left (picture stolen from facebook!). They are such an incredible team - they have faced Lara's cancer together every step of the way. They are so sweet and loving and tender with each other and I love the reminder that gives me to cherish my marriage that same way.
I had to leave at 4:30am to make it home in time for Chuck to leave for work but I'm already planning to stay the whole time next year. And a special shout-out to Dutch Bros. Coffee, who made free drinks (coffee, smoothies, hot chocolate) ALL night long, with all donations going to Relay:
I obviously don't drink coffee, but Dutch Bros. has definitely earned my loyalty if I find myself needing a delicious smoothie or hot chocolate when I'm out and about; they're local and partner with so many great causes. And the workers were really awesome and upbeat despite the late hours and long lines!!
July was our clothing share and swap at church, aka the first RS activity that I was in charge of! Luckily it was pretty much all set; I just had to step in and work with my awesome committee to make it happen :).
Okay, isn't the sweater I'm modeling SO cute? Anyone? It was way too tight (especially randomly on the arms) but I love it. And no one else did... so I opted for that neon green miniskirt over my shorts instead, haha. P.S. I love how even though Sara's face is blurry you can see her distaste for the sweater, haha.
Cute picture of cute boys in a box:
Clyde loves Jack so much. To the point of smothering on occasion... which might be why Jack turns to hitting :).
We finally made it back over to Settler's Park to show Chuck all the fun:
And Grandma Pam too! I love all the instruments, what a fun thing to have in a park!
Funny rock climber/dismounter :).
Randomly ran into my dear friend Emily there, and Will randomly ended up playing for a little bit with her daughter Evie! Sooo cute!!
Chuck and I went to the temple a couple of days later and after we took the picture on the right it occurred to me that we had a scarily similar picture from two years ago:
left, July 2011. right, July 2013. Completely unintentional that I'm wearing the same dress. Scared for July 2015. So happy Chuck shaved four days later!!
Speaking of Emily (and my same dress), she and I had a fun date to our friend Aubrey's wedding at the end of July!
Aubrey looked insanely gorgeous and it was fun to catch up with Emily and Crystal and my favorite Judy :).
And as always, Emily and I had way too much fun together!
My mom spoke in sacrament meeting at her church, so the boys and I trekked over to hear her lovely Pioneer-Day-ish talk.
And in that spirit, Grandma Pam and Clyde and Will walked (and walked and walked) home after church.
Oh, after our fun at Celebration Park I told the boys they could make their own petroglyphs... well, technically pictographs since they were painted, but whatev:
The boys took this pretty seriously; it was cute to see what homestead-type designs they came up with.
And now we have these lovely rocks lining the path by our front door! top to bottom: Will, Jack, Clyde.
Okay, if you made it through that you deserve some ice cream. I know I do! Farewell July!!
2 comments:
I'm sad I'm not in any of these pictures anymore...lame sauce!
Fun post!! So random that the only two days of the summer that we went to settlers park were the same days.... Does that make sense? It's really late and I'm wishing Zayne would go back to sleep....
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