July Randoms

Unlike June, July has been BUSY!

We celebrated Grampie's birthday.

Riley has decided that she prefers to sneak off to use the restroom instead of going outside.  It started when we first moved, but we assumed it was the stress of moving. We even had to have the carpets professionally cleaned. She would only go in the girls' hallway or bedrooms.  Even when we were good 99% of the time shutting bedroom doors, she would find her way in during that 1%. We are pretty sure that it just became a dog reaction.  If she'd smell her own pee she'd go again in the same area. We bought this little machine and spent way too much time cleaning carpets, but I'm happy to say, I think we are finally through that phase. 

We've spent much time by the pool.  It has been interesting having a pool in the backyard.  In the past we would load up and spend a few hours at our neighborhood pool, and they generally didn't want to leave.  Having it so accessible now causes them to not spend as long in it each time we go out. But we definitely use it multiple times a week.

Sometimes we just want to get in the pool, but we want to stay in our pajamas, so we improvise. ha!

 

We have enjoyed having friends and family over to play in the pool as well. 

Sweet Ruby!

 

Fun with cousins.

And just like that, summer is getting close to being over. It is so hard to believe we are just a couple of week to starting school again. 

Hard Goodbyes

Having friends move away is never easy.  Having some of your best friends move is even harder. The Johnson family has been such a blessing in our lives. We are so sad to see them go so far away, but we are praying it is just for a season. If not, we'll cross that emotional bridge later. 

There is a group of 5 girls that have such a tight friendship.  We wanted them to have an adventure together before Aubrey moved. We took them to Six Flags for the day. It was so different taking a group of older kids.  We basically told them when/where to find us, and they just did their thing.  I think they had a great time together, and many memories were made.

No Stone Mountain laser show is complete without some glow in the dark jewelry.

"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is always one of my favorites.

This group has meant so much to our family over the years.  There have been lots of tears shed over the upcoming changes, but we know that they are following God's path for them. We rejoice in what He has in store for them, but it is definitely hard. We had one last couples night out. 

 

All of these kids just hung out together while we were out.  They all get along so well.

We love our Johnsons, and we are already counting down until their next visit. Thankfully they have lots of family in town, so they will be back!

L3 Family Day

Marc's company hosted a Family Day at the Georgia Aquarium.  It has been a couple of years since we have been to the aquarium, and we couldn't pass up free tickets and a free lunch!

These two decided to sit in the "splash zone" for the dolphin show.  Actually, I think Macy chose the splash zone and her daddy decided to be brave and sit with her. :)

How stinkin' cute are these otters?!?!

The private area we had for lunch had an amazing view of the large tank.  You weren't fighting crowds to watch all of the sea creatures, and it was truly a bonus to our fun family day.

Atlanta United!!

One of Kayla's birthday gifts was tickets to an Atlanta United game.  The day finally came, and she was so excited.  All of us were really.  It was our first time in Mercedes-Benz stadium, so that was fun too.

4th of July

What a hot day we had, as usual here in Georgia! We attended Canton's 4th of July parade, but it was quite disappointing this year.  I think next year we may find ourselves attending the Woodstock parade.

We also did our usual "fireworks with friends" night. That's always fun and the girls wouldn't have it any other way.

The 2nd annual stop for a sweet treat doesn't hurt either.  I guess since we have done it twice it is now another expected tradition. :)

June Happenings

We ended school, had 8th grade graduation, and immediately left on vacation.  We returned to Georgia for a much slower pace of life in June.

We took some walks and enjoyed a few minutes playing at a local playground we hadn't been to before. Clearly a couple of these girls are getting too big for playground equipment. :)

We made messes in the name of playing together.

We played outside.

We worked on finishing the basement.

We had so much fun we wore ourselves out.

We went to Cherokee, NC for a clogging competition. Kayla's group qualified in all events for Nationals in January.

June was a great way to start off our summer break. Plenty of family time and relaxing.