Week 27--4th of July

 Monday, July 3rd

Our neighbors captured these and sent them over.  We've had strange summer weather, but at least there is beauty in it all!

Gabby was with us for several overnights and fit right in!

Tuesday, July 4th

Happy Independence Day!

Possibly Colombo's favorite day of the year.  In recent years, he and I have "hosted" the kids and let them open it up to whomever they want to invite.  I feed everyone, and he puts on an epic fireworks display.  This year, Maddy and Mason were on a cruise with the Rambarose's, and Nathanael was in California, visiting a friend who's doing an internship in San Francisco, so that meant space opened up here so we could invite our friends.  Weather threatened our plans, but we pushed the start time back by an hour, and the skies slowly cleared.  We ended up with 70ish people and had an amazing day and evening!

Lisa captured the day beautifully.  We are so blessed to have this community of people!

Wednesday, July 5th

From Maddy:

From Nathanael:

I should note that this was a big trip for Nathanael.  It was his first time flying alone and for sure the farthest he's ever gone away from us.  We felt at peace with who he was with and where he was staying.  It helps that he's extremely trustworthy!  I got daily texts that sometimes included a picture or two but a minimum of, "I'm still alive."  Now that he's done it, I'm thrilled for him!  Traveling is such a gift!  Exploring new places, cultures, parts of the world...it's all such a wonderful adventure and now he has some experience!

Renna's friend, Alayna, spent the afternoon.

Thursday, July 6th

Rocco had a last minute, impromptu invitation to attend a new-to-us camp.  One mom threw out the idea, and a nice little group of friends jumped on it.  Pastor Mitch volunteered to drive them up and spend the first day with them.  They affectionately referred to it as nerd camp, officially dubbed eSports Camp, specifically designed for gamers. 

Just missing Meg in the Mom picture.

Alberto came over for the afternoon.  They've been friends since they were 3!

Thursday nights in July, the Manchester Running Club hosts a *free* track event at the high school.  About 60 volunteers give their time to teach kids and teens all about the various track events, how it all works, and strive to nurture a love for running.  It was HOT and the first event was the mile, so after she ran that, I didn't think Renna would want to run any other races, but she ended up doing the 100, 200, 400, and 800.  

Her soccer friend, Sydney was there, so the girls hung together.

Amongst the volunteers is a professional photographer who captures everyone and posts to the club's FB page.

Friday, July 7th

Renna's Manchester team had their end-of-season team party.

Halfway through, I had to run Harlem into Hartford to meet his mom as she got off work.

Saturday, July 8th

Renna had her first 'friend sleepover'- two soccer friends came home with us after the party the night before.  Their morning request was a trip to Dollar Tree.

From Maddy (still at sea):

We celebrated a friend's retirement at an authentic Chinese food restaurant.  It was a lovely evening celebrating his accomplished career and beating the system by 10 years!

Trevor worked diligently for weeks preparing for Backyard Camp that he and Jack were going to host.  Many, many, many hours and so much effort and thought (and money) went into pulling it off.

Personal space, what???

Baby Trevor and 6-year-old Maddy...Lisa keeps sending me the 'memories' that pop up in her phone.

Sunday, July 9th

Thankful my boys who choose to be at the church for 4 hours every Sunday morning.  Thankful they get to serve alongside their buds.

This day, the VBS worship team did a VBS song in the big service.

Nathanael had landed at 2:30 in the morning and I hadn't seen him yet, so after 2nd service, Colombo and I took him and Renna for a quick but sweet little lunch on the patio of the golf course before I had to return to church for the VBS meeting.

That evening, we all met at Outback to celebrate Trevor's birthday dinner.  C4 sat across the table, so I gave him the job of taking a few pictures.  I'll post Trevor's whole birthday separately, but here's a tease of C4's camera skills.

Or this one...the closest one we got to a group photo...a panoramic featuring my extra arm.

Week 26--Senior High Camp

 Monday, July 26th

Harley and I had the best little date at the park before dinner.

Tuesday, June 27th

Senior High Camp send-off.  Avery juggled H while I did registration, roll call, etc.

We all spend our days fighting over who gets to hold the baby, but I love seeing my big kids dote on him.

Golf has been the theme this summer, even if it's in the front yard hitting practice balls before Taco Tuesday.

Wednesday, June 28th

The final push to empty the basement contents out of the garage so we can park in there again.  Had to snap some pictures of sentimental things that didn't make the cut to keep.

Thursday, June 29th
Happy birthday to the 17 year old who celebrated at camp.  The youth pastor's wife was incredibly thoughtful and reached out to ask what his favorite kind of cake is.  Maddy sent us a few pictures.  We all (back at home) noted that we've never seen Trevor look so happy!  After he was back home from camp, I said, "Trevor...did you have a good birthday? The pictures Maddy sent looked like you were happier than ever!"  His response: "Eh...it was ok."  That's my Trev!

Alberto came to hang out for the afternoon.

I usually paint the deck every-other year.  This was a paint-the-deck year, but I decided not to because next year I anticipate hosting Trevor's graduation and will want it looking good, so I decided not to.  But with a gang coming 4th of July, I started seeing just how bad it was looking.  On a whim, I decided to just roll out the floor and skip the white railings which is the labor-intensive part.  Two hours and $50 later, I was so happy I decided to hit it.

Thursday nights at Chick...Ian's first time joining us...and we got C4, too!

Colombo and I worked together to finish!

Friday, June 30th

Campers came home.  Trevor / Crossroads was victorious!

Saturday, July 1st

Our church had their annual church family picnic.  Usually, Colombo goes with the kids and I opt to stay home and be anti-social.  That's how it went this year.  Gabby joined and then came to stay with us for a few days while her parents were away.  The boys were at the picnic, too.  Everyone seemed to have a great time!

We went to a post-wedding reception.  It was at a beautiful lodge on the water, the MOG did an amazing job on all the food, and I got to hang with one of my besties for the night.  We had so much fun!

Sent Maddy a picture with of one of her besties.

Sunday, July 2nd

Trevor did what Trevor does and gathered some people.  He asked if they could do a movie night, which turned into them joining us for Daddy's Dinner.  They played basketball in the pouring rain!

Avery and Aiden joined us eventually.  Gabby fit right in and joined in with whatever the gang was doing!