July

Most of July was filled with moving in, unpacking, sooooo much cleaning, furniture shopping, paying professionals to fix things, etc. It's hard being a new home owner, but it's been amazing making the space our own. I have lots of plans for this home! Here's some photos from the summer activities we did:

My brother Ben and my mom took my boys to the river while I went out to lunch with my high school French teacher and a bookstagram friend. Good times were had all around!

Audrey stayed at home that day and went out to dinner with Spencer that night, some rare daddy-daughter time.

My oldest niece (Jamie) and her husband (Avery) had their first baby last fall (Ashton). We have enjoyed spending time with him in his first year. Jamie's mom, my sister Laura, lives in Texas now, and she visited a few times this summer, so we got together as much as we could.

This is Laura with me.

This is my other sister, Kelley. She lives in Puyallup and I get to see her more often!

Fourth of July we got together, culminating in an awesome fireworks show at the guitar shop owned by my extended family.

Ian and Audrey both went to FSY this summer, an amazing church camp held at a nearby college campus. They went different weeks, and Ian went with his buddy Grayson. I don't have a picture of Audrey, but both kids had a wonderful time.

We got a new dining table, and are ecstatic that we can have a board game set up and then go eat at the other table, or a craft or puzzle. It will be great to have two tables for hosting events as well!

Spencer took the kids to a new local arcade. I took them and my brother Ben a different day. Both times a success!

Spencer took the kids on some hikes.

We went to the Thurston County fair. It was small but fun, and we checked the boxes of bumper cars, game of chance (Ian won a turtle/cheeseburger plushie), rides, fair food, seeing the animals, and an exotic animal show.