4th of July 2025

With mine and Adi’s trip on Saturday, 4th of July planning took a little backseat. And then the girls all had different ideas about what we should do. We checked in on Darrow festivities and decided to join them. 

The beach was plan a, but jellies. 👎🏼 So we met them at the wildwood pool which is fun and different for us. 

We came home for showers, picked up Wawa (the girls voted 🤷‍♀️) and met the crew at Solomon’s. Amy had this inflatable couch a few years ago so we got one too and this was the first time we’d used it. D loved it!

🤣

It was a lovely evening, just about perfect weather. 

We played some fun games, and I just can’t with my expressions. 🤣 Why am I like this? 🤣

I love games and I’m working really hard to be a better sport. #hotmess

Leaning forward helps you listen better, fyi. And can you tell that Delaney walked in a circle taking pictures? 🤣

This view, I die!

Also this girls have me dying. 

I love spending time with this crew, but I was also really wanting to be in SC where bubba, Jeanne, and most importantly Miss Ruby went for the 4th. 

Small but fun group this year. 🇺🇸 It was unplanned, but ended up really great. 

And then, for one last bit of awesomeness - since we’d arrived late we paid $5 to park in the lot by the bridge, and we thought we’d have to join the throng of cars going all the way up the street before turning around, but after a minute of waiting, Matt noticed a sign for St. Mary’s traffic leaving the lot, so we checked it out and were able to get right on the bridge! Saved us probably 30+ minutes! ‘Twas a happy 4th!

Mental health

I woke up at 2:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. After 2 hours of tossing and turning I got up and got going on my day, and then took a 2 hour nap after Delaney’s dental appt. 

A few months ago Delaney asked Amanda if she could do an activity about mental health and anxiety, and ways to cope. My kids all love to put together lessons and talks on their own so I’m always left a little uneasy not knowing what they’ll say. 

She did a good job, my only feedback was to encourage and accept more class participation. There was a lot of participation, but she kept wanting to get back to her info. 

And something silly that doesn’t matter but made me pat myself on the back. 

This is life

I was looking at one of my Facebook memory pictures and found my counselor Susanne from 10 years ago when Christian graduated seminary. So funny. 

For our last hurrah before joining the world of parenting again, we spent Saturday morning at the temple. Matt received my dad’s endowment for him and it was beautiful and special and there were several little miracles that let me know he and my mom were there. ❤️

We had hoped to go on a hike up there, but had to make a return (lands end would have charged $10 to mail it?!) and then I got a bogo for cafe Rio, so we didn’t have time for a hike. Sarah sent me this cute photo recreation and I love it!

Cafe Rio is liiiiife. 

And before we knew it our 4 quiet days were over. I missed the girls and am so grateful to be a mom. And it was wonderful to have a lil break, of course. I had to laugh at the guys bro’ing out away from the ladies. 🤣

We got smores mcflurries (yum!) and a pizza and heard alllll about camp. Everyone had fun and learned a lot and it was a good experience. 

We tried to go to the pool that night but there was an incident and it closed early. 💩 The girls were super tired, so they went to bed pretty early. 

I got to go to church with the family and that is always wonderful. A quiet Sunday is life. It also marked this sweetie girls 5 month birthday 13 years ago. 

This is our latest 5 month old and I love how they’re both holding onto their toes. 😍

We watched 17 Miracles and I cried and cried. It’s such a beautiful movie. We went for a family walk and it was just a quiet and nice day. 

Monday was a shopping day. I dropped Frankie at the Cox’s to babysit and went to Aldi and Harris teeter. Adi went to paint nails at Mia’s birthday party, and Delaney relaxed before her week of summer ballet. I got home and unloaded and off we went to drop Delaney off. 

We went to Lowe’s where I talked to a manager about the fact that the kitchen cabinets I ordered December 14! still have not been fully delivered. Now our last cabinet that fingers and toes crossed actually is the right size will arrive July 6th. And they will be compensating us for the delay, so that’s nice. That was a task I was dreading, but thankfully wasn’t too bad. We got gas, made some returns at Marshall’s, got Adi a new pair of shoes from Fab Footwear, and then we had less than an hour till we needed to pick Delaney up, so we hit the B&BW semi annual sale and target and I was so tired of shopping. 

Matt had made dinner, so D and I ate quickly and headed to the pool. Today I have been very task oriented and gotten a lot done at home. Adi and I leave on Saturday, so while I feel like I’m not being the most fun summer mom, we do have a lot of moving parts and we’ve been moving a lot. I am loving staying up and sleeping in and the spending time together. 

We started listening to How to Win Friends and Influence People and I am really enjoying it. We stop it regularly and chat about it and some of the girls are liking it better than others. Summer is life! 

The empty nest

It’s been a lovely and quiet and clean few days. And also, it’s mostly lovely because I know it will end Saturday night. I loooove spending time with my kids and am not ready for our nest to be empty. 

I spent 4 hours at the pool yesterday. 3 with Alecia and Brandon, and then another 1 with Matt in the evening. I love summer days. 

Oops. 

I love this happy picture of our salty Laney. All the prayers that she’s being easy, letting people in and letting her guard down, embracing new adventures, and being kind. 

I don’t know what’s going on here but I love Adi and Emma’s cute jump and the nice air they got!

A performance maybe?

I can’t wait to hear all about it!

Matt and I have had a quiet time at home. We’ve been saving money and calories and honestly I love a quiet house so much, why would we go out when we can stay home and enjoy?

Girls camp

We’ve been getting ready for camp, swimming, getting creative with dinners, (using the air fryer over instead of heating up the kitchen oven) and just summering in general. I haven’t been taking a lot of pics, so I did grab this one of d enjoying her nachos. 

I haven’t always loved pool time, but I love love it now. Adi and Frankie don’t love coming, so Delaney was really happy to play when Adi came. 

The next day Delaney brought her mermaid tail and I managed to squeeze her into it just barely. 🤣

Tuesday was our 19th anniversary. Matt got me some sweet little gifts and Adi offered to make us brekkie. Since the girls are leaving for camp we postponed a date night. It seems crazy that it’s been 19 years! Feels like forever and also not that long. 

Today was girls camp day! Even though Delaney and Frankie have been grumbling, everyone was excited this morning. Adi’s been excited all along, it’s really sweet and I hope it lives up to her high expectations. 

It’s so stupid hot and they’re tent camping, so yikes. I know it will be great and I miss them already!

Susanne came over and we had a sweet visit and I worked out and Matt and I went to the pool and it was just a quiet and nice day. 

Home

We found a new fun place to stop on our trips to SC. Not as fun as Buc-cee’s, but still fun. 

Delaney found some fish flops there, so obviously we got them. 

It was an uneventful drive home 🙏🏻. It’s always so lovely to be home, I love traveling, but home is best. 

The girls wanted a relaxing weekend, so that’s what we did. I mean, we did all the coming home and catching up and pool things, but mostly stayed home. 

I am working with 4 other stake relief society presidents to plan a huge DC north and DC south women’s conference, and Lexi-Lu made up a few save the dates for the group. (The date is October 25th, not July, fyi)

Matt and I did a big shopping trip and talked each other into trying the new Selena Gomez Oreos and a) they were tasty and b) Delaney loves being a creep. 

And Baby Ruby loves her Pilates. 

Sunday was a busy stake council day. I went to the Capital ward and the Suitland branch and after visited with one of my ladies who’s having a tough time. She’s so hard on herself and I hate that. If anything I feel like I’m probably too easy on myself, but is that a thing? I was glad to spend some time with her, but then I didn’t get home until 4:00. Tis this season. 

The girls are preparing for girls camp and we needed to check our tent before sending it with them, so Matt braved the heat while I made dinner (I won that division of labor) and both of our tents look good. Delaney was going to sleep in the tent, and Matt even offered to sleep outside with her, but she decided she loves her bed too much. 

Did I share this from Adi’s birthday? I made her a little sign and when we got home we thanked it for bringing us joy and recycled it. 

This memory from the Dominican Republic came up on my feed. Autumn and Jackie and I have been friends since Christian was a baby and even though we love far away and don’t have a lot in common anymore, I cherish that friendship. We’re trying to plan a girls trip but planning is 👎🏼 .

Back to SC

Wednesday morning we dressed Ruby up and got our last cuddles in. I’m grateful we’ll see her again next month. 

The pets kind of don’t know what hit them, but they were all very sweet. 

We headed out just after 10 and it was already hotter than hot. Henners is a good little traveler with only a few little meltdowns. I had reached my phone back to see if he was sleeping, and success, he was. 

Alexis met up with her high school bestie Errick in Atlanta so we fought our way through traffic to a mall with a Cheesecake Factory. Henry is fun, but not for a sit down meal, so I walked him all around the mall while they visited. 

He’s so sweet, such a happy little guy. 

Matching besties. I came and sat with them the last few minutes of lunch. It’s so fun to see old friends again. 

Atlanta traffic is truly terrible, and we had a ton coming and going. That, along with our catchup lunch made it so we got to sc after 11. We made time for a quick game of skull king before bed though, because we’re not animals. 

Firsts

Bubba had an appointment Tuesday morning so he woke me up to take care of a sad Ruby. 

She was squirmy and uncomfortable and Mimi diagnosed gas. 

We walked and walked until Christian got home with some gripe water. And she’s got a perfectly light head of hair. 

That afternoon bubba took me to the range for my first time to shoot a gun. I don’t love guns, but also see their usefulness. 

I shot two rifles and a revolver and I only closed my eyes twice. Some of them have quite a recoil and they’re so loud and I was really anxious. 

I liked the one with the scope best. On this one I knew it would recoil so I aimed below the bullseye but then all my shots were then below the bullseye. 

With 40% of my shots hitting my target sheet, a marksman, I am not. But I did a first and it was scary and ✔️. And actually, I got closest to the bullseye, so 💪🏻. 

I made a big wok of chicken fried rice and Tennessee banana pudding for our last night 

2 babies - 10/10 recommend. As long as you have 4 adults fawning over them. 

We played some games and went to bed at a reasonable hour like the very responsible adults we are.