I am actually writing this post on July 26, but I am going to pretend like its about July 11th (my birthday! lol) because I am going to talk about the rest of June and the beginning of July, before we went to Wisconsin. Then I will do the next post about our Wisconsin trip!
So the second half of June was a a lot of soccer games, 7-on-7 football games, me prepping my classroom and making lesson plans for fall, Josh working as a sergeant from noon to midnight, and everyone trying not to go crazy being around each other so much! In a typical year, the kids get out of school at the end of May and then by about July 20th I am ready to send them back to school. I have about a 6 week tolerance of my kids being off of school. But this year, they got off of school on March 18th! So we had the rest of March, all of April, all of May.... so you can bet that by mid-June I was getting a little sick of them! And we still had two more months left!! We tried to fill the time in June with some fun things like going to Grand Teton National Park for a day, going on hikes, and floating the Warm Slough of the river in tubes.
Here are some details of some of our things in June and the first half of July....
Gabe's soccer
Gabe's season for having actual games began about the end of May I think and ran until the end of June. He had a lot of fun at practices too though and one of his best friends, Amos (from England), was on his team. Gabe played striker/forward most of the time, but also played mid. The coaches were two young college boys and they made the experience pretty fun. I think they probably won about half of their games and lost half. It wasn't like they were the strongest team in the league or anything, but they had fun! I was just glad to get Gabe outside and with his friends after a long spring of being quarantined! The weather was also beautiful as we would watch their games in Rexburg, Idaho Falls, and Pocatello in June. Here are some pictures!
Caleb's football
I can't remember how much I've talked about Caleb's 7-on-7 football so far, but I know I've mentioned it and I think I had pictures in a previous post. I didn't even go to their very last game because it was at 7 AM on a Saturday morning that was cold and rainy and Josh ended up just taking Caleb while Gabe and Avery and I stayed home. So therefore, I did not get a team picture! But it was basically Caleb and about 10 other boys from his regular fall football team. Colter Summers (who we went on the cruise with) was the quarterback and Cody (his dad) coached the team. Caleb played center, but it was also fun because he got to run and catch the ball a few times. He even scored a touchdown in the last game! (Guess I should've gone... oops.) This fall, it will go back to regular football (unless Covid-19 ruins that too!) and Caleb will be playing on the line again, so no more catching the ball unless it is a fluke interception! He had a lot of fun though and it got him outside and with friends in May and June, which was the real prize!
String Lake at Grand Teton
Josh and I first discovered this beautiful lake last summer on our anniversary in August. We bought the year-long, all national park pass access pass for $80 that day and we have put it to good use! We took our kids last September to Grand Teton and then we went again for the first time this year at the end of June. We had debated if we should make a camping trip out of it and try to get a camp site, but I have heard it's been more competitive than usual this year with everyone cancelling their flights and trying to stay local. A lot of people from neighboring states have been visiting national parks instead of taking big trips. So we decided to just leave out house at 9am and get there about 11am and find a good spot to spend the day at the lake. It worked out great! It was tricky finding a parking spot. I ended up dropping off Josh and the kids at the waterfront and then going and driving around and talking to some people as they walked to their car, then waiting for them to leave so I could have their spot. But it wasn't too far to walk back to the lake. It actually worked out really well. I found a shortcut through the woods. :) I didn't even get eaten by a bear! That is actually a real thing there. The rangers walk around the waterfront constantly and ask if you have any food in your bags and if you do they make you put it into this big metal "bear box" that is on the beach.
So we spent the afternoon on the lake, paddling around in our little tubes and inflatable canoe and letting the boys jump off the big rock in the middle of the water. I got super sunburned, to the point where I was actually peeling on my shoulders a couple days later. The kids and Josh were all fine though! I guess I didn't apply enough sunscreen. Here are some pictures of Grand Teton!
Avery's Baptism Pictures
Being that Avery is the only girl and the baby of the family. I did something I have never done before and I actually made a point of getting nice pictures taken of Avery for her baptism. With the boys I think I just used whatever pictures I had from our most recent family pictures outing. But with Avery I actually had my friend, Claire, come out and meet us at the temple and take some pictures of her in her white dress. The temple grounds are still actually closed because of Covid, so we couldn't really get close enough to touch it or stand right next to it, but that was okay. Claire did such a beautiful job. She even suggested we go into this wheat field just north of the temple and those turned out to be some of my favorite ones! I used some of these on her baptism program in Wisconsin and a couple in frames on the tables. I am glad that we have these adorable photos to remember her at this special age! (Gabe was a little sour that I never made him a nice baptism program... lol)
July 4th, 2020
In the crazy world that we live in right now with Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests and riots happening against police and people burning the American flag on facebook, everyone was a little worried about what this year's Independence Day would look like. Many cities cancelled their fireworks and parades. Luckily, Rexburg decided to be awesome and still do everything - with some minor adjustments. The parade route was extended to allow for the people watching to have more space to spread out. We ended up parking right at the very end of the route in the Subway parking lot but the roundabout and we were able to get a great spot! We backed in and were able to even sit in the back trunk of our SUV.
There weren't any people around us until the very end when the gymnastics team ended their parade float and then got off and stood right in front of us to wait for the parents to pick them up! But otherwise, the rest of it was great! There wasn't any candy being thrown of flyers or anything handed out. The floats were a little lame (lots of pickup trucks with just signs on the side - like come one, we can do better, folks) but there were a few good ones! Broulim's grocery store had their giant shopping cart, there were cowboys riding horses standing up, and my personal favorite was a book store that made a little Viking ship with a real live cat riding on it! lol Josh was working and was riding around the parade route on a little golf cart (not a hard job really.) I told him he should've put a flag bandana on Drax and had him ride around too, but he was afraid he would've jumped off. Here are some pictures of us at the parade!
After the parade, we spent the afternoon relaxing at home for a few hours. Then we had our own little neighborhood fireworks. Our neighbors, the Milners, bought quite a few bigs ones. We could also see the city fireworks going off everywhere. The city had decided to launch fireworks from three different locations around town so everyone could see them without gathering in one place. It was probably the best fireworks show they have ever done!
Caleb went over to his friend, Peyton's, house for a little while where they had BIG fireworks. He also participated in a pig chasing contest and won $20 from Peyton's dad, Colt. (Idaho fun right there! lol) It was a fun night and it was nice to have Josh home for once on the evening of the Fourth of July! Because Idaho Falls had cancelled their fireworks, he wasn't tempted to go work that for the extra money they usually bribe him with!
I almost forgot to mention this! The sweetest thing happened! The day before the fourth, we went out to lunch with Josh at Freddy's while he was working. This sweet mom and her two little girls, probably ages 3 and 5, walked up to us and the little girls handed Josh this napkin with, "Thank you for your service" written on it and a $10 Freddy's gift card! It was so nice. I'm glad we live in a city where everyone hasn't gone crazy and thinks police are bad!
A local car dealership also did this "Police Appreciation Lunch" just to show the police some love amid all this crap going on. They rented a bouncy house and set it up in the parking lot for the police to bring their kids to use. They also had a mechanical bull which Gabe and Caleb did a few times! Sadly, I didn't get a picture of that. But here is Avery with the bouncy house practically to herself!
Josh's Promotion
While we are on the topic of Josh... this past month has been somewhat bittersweet. There have been some changes made at the police department and a guy named Corey, who was previously the patrol Lieutenant, ended up being moved to a different office position instead. That led to there being an opening for his former job as the Lieutenant. Josh just became a Sergeant last summer and the department even pulled some strings to let him keep Drax. Typically, when people get promoted to Sergeant they have to give up being a K9 officer and give the dog to a new guy. But being that Josh had only had Drax for about two years, they let him keep him. So now this opportunity to become a Lieutenant opens up and the Chief and Assistant Chief both really want Josh to put in for the job. Even though Josh was happy where he was at and really didn't want to give up Drax, he felt like he had to take this opportunity because if he didn't he was basically saying, "I don't want to advance in my career, thanks anyway."
So he ended up putting in for it and of course getting it. The Chief asked him if he would like to still try and keep Drax, but Josh just felt like, "You know, there are some younger guys that would love the opportunity to be a K9 officer and I don't want to be the jerk that's advancing and still hogging this K9 position too." So in the next couple of weeks, we probably won't have Drax at our house anymore. :( Josh is pretty bummed about it. He loves that stinkin' dog. He's hoping to be able to get a German shepherd puppy for our family down the road... we will see. I would be happy with a Pomeranian or perhaps a Shih tzu. Maybe he could train those dogs with the drug-finding and attack commands? haha
Here are a coupe of pictures of Josh with Drax, in his honor. lol
Ironically, I don't think we have a picture of me on my birthday! That seems to be how it goes as a mom! Always the one taking pictures! The day started off with breakfast, which Josh made for me. I think he did crepes. Then we decided to float the Warm Slough. I always think a birthday in the sun on the water is a good one, but we don't own a boat, sooooo..... floating on donut inner tubes down a slow-moving river is what it has to be! lol
The water was a lot lower than it was on Caleb's birthday when we went and it took a little longer to float because it wasn't moving hardly at all. The water was also a lot warmer so the kids wanted to just swim more. I stayed in the inflatable canoe pretty much the whole time!
Then that night, Josh and I just went out to dinner the two of us to Da Pineapple Grill and I went to the Cookie place and got a free birthday cookie! I had also spent a good portion of the day and some of the day before packing everyone's suitcases for our Wisconsin road trip!
We left early in the morning the day after my birthday, July 12th. So we got the car as packed up as we could on July 11th before we went to bed!
Well, I think that brings me up-to-date on everything I needed to talk about before the Wisconsin trip!
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