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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

jumbo journal [entry?]: JUNE!


June started with my day lilies blooming, so I knew right from the get-go it was going to be a most excellent month!
I have a dream, that someday when we need to paint our house (do you paint siding? Or just replace it? That seems like something I should know...) Chuck will let me do a dark orange/light orange/white color scheme. How pretty would that be, especially with these flowers? I feel like it will happen. I'll keep ya posted.

Oh, one day we met some friends at Settler's Park. I hadn't been there for like four years; it's way fun!
The boys loved the playground and the splash park and did an excellent job of staying together, which I greatly appreciated.

 Jack was quite wary of the water until about a half hour before we had to leave. Goober.
I think if we went back again he'd warm up to it much quicker. That would require me being a nice, adventurous mom again so we'll just have to see...

Early in the month it was National Running Day! Emily and Kautri and I celebrated by running:
and then we came back and all collapsed on my beautiful lawn (thanks Chuck!) and talked forever. That was probably my favorite part of the celebration!

One day Chuck and the boys got home from their dentist appointments right as the guy from the city was doing something with the fire hydrant on our corner, so the boys peeled off their shirts and jumped right in.
The guy was super nice and kept making awesome water arcs for the boys to run under; they loved it. I felt like all we needed were some older people sitting on their porches (maybe playing chess) for it to be a real America block party...

 Speaking of parties, the Ostyns hosted one to thank everyone who helped with their house remodel/organization project a couple of months ago. It fell on Brother Janes' birthday, so we had cake too :). It was a really fun chance to be together.
An ongoing joke during the project was that Chris was going to take Emily and I out for blizzards while DQ was having their special. We never made it over, so instead Chris surprised us with yummy ice cream cones at the party, works for me!!

 Speaking of ice cream (let's see how long I can make these segues go...), Jack was quite keen on sharing his with his brothers one night:
It was hilarious to watch him be so focused as he spoon-fed them. Nut.

 Speaking of nuts, It was Father's Day in June! Poor Chuck had to work for 12 hours of his special day, but coming home to such cute boys surely made up for it:
Clyde used Will's old metal Toy Story lunch box to regift a neon yellow hat to Chuck, so that was pretty cute. I honestly can't say enough about what a (figuratively) kick-a dad Chuck is. He has such a special relationship with each of our boys and is so involved as a parent. I love that we each think of ourselves as Chuck's 'best friend' - and we're all right :).

Which is why we were extra sad to say goodbye to Chuck at the end of June while he took his Scouts up to Camp Morrison for six days. Considering I'm usually losing my mind by the time Chuck gets home from a 12-hour shift, I was slightly nervous about being alone with my spawn sweet children for such a long stretch, but we actually had a great time.
We sent Chuck with the van, so the boys and I piled into the station wagon for the week. I honestly loved it; we chugged water (the end of the week corresponded with the beginning of the heat wave) and blasted 'Cruise' by Florida Georgia Line as we drove around with all the windows down... and sometimes crawled out the windows upon arriving home :).

Chuck doesn't have a cell phone (I know, right?) so I didn't think we'd hear from him all week, which made this mailbox discovery that much more exciting:
Letters!! Old school, right? It was so fun! We got some on Wednesday and Friday, and I loved it. Husbands get pretty sweet when they're all alone in a tent for a few days, haha.

The boys really did awesome; we stayed busy with swimming lessons and t-ball and we even braved three different shopping expeditions: Costco on Monday, Savers on Thursday, and Walmart on Friday... also we fit in a couple (three?) McDonald's visits, but that's neither here nor there.
Ice cream cones were the reward for surviving Walmart, woooo!

It wasn't ALL fun/games/ice cream, though; in an effort to ensure I didn't whittle my post-children-bedtime hours away exclusively on facebook, I made a couple goals for while Chuck was gone. 1) finish backing up all our dang pictures on CD's/DVD's and the hard drive (yeah, remember when I was working on that in February? I stopped) and 2) finish the wooden sign for our picture arrangement in the living room.

And I completed both goals, wooo:
We used to have a cute "Because two people fell in love" sign there, but I've been itching for a change that's a little more personalized to our family... so an adapted Avengers quote seemed appropriate :). And I'm happy to report that I'm officially a modpodge fan!

I also have to thank my awesome mama, who came and spent the night on Monday night and then took care of the boys alll day long on Tuesday while I helped at another Cub Scout day camp and texted me a cute picture of Jackers with oatmeal all over him to get me through the day:
You rock, Grandma Pam!

As well as the week went, we were still super psyched for Chuck to come home on Saturday afternoon. Naturally we made our traditional Welcome Home signs for the garage:
And Chuck's homecoming, accompanied by an even burlier beard and a duffel bag of campfire-smelling dirty laundry, was the perfect way to finish up June!

1 comment:

Shawn AND Chelsey said...

cute post! you have such a fun life!!!