July Fun

During July, the only thing Nick had to do with school was cross country three times a week. Since he would start at 7:00 and get done at 9:00, that left us with a lot of time to do fun stuff during the month. One week grandma Pam was off work and we spent a lot of time hanging out with her and our cousin Alex. She got to come to the library classes and then swim one day. That night Kenan and Alex both spent the night with her. They had a blast together. The next day we went to Gattitown to eat lunch and play games. We were there for 3 hours. Later in the week Alex got to come over to the Helm house to swim with Kenan and Easton. This was the first time she has gotten to come over to swim. The weather couldn't have been better.

Next we went to Holiday world with the Helm grandparents. At first we did not want to go because we didn't think that Easton would do well for that long of time, but in the end we decided to try it. I am so glad we did because he did great and Kenan had a blast. The weather was perfect for both riding rides and swimming. We stayed from open until close. Kenan was so worn out that he fell asleep in the stroller in the parking lot on the way to the car. Kenan was tall enough this year to ride a good number of adult rides with a parent, as well as some of the big slides. He was not scared of anything and had fun with all of them. His favorite thing was playing in Kimba Bay. Easton even got to participate a little bit. He went on the Old Fashion Cars and the lazy river with grandpa Greg and Grandma Wendy, and then did the wave pool and the bakari river with us. A lot of the time he just slept and chilled in the stroller, but he had fun.

Finally, one of our favorite parts of the summer came, the 4H Fair. I love it, but it does make me a bit sad because it always arrives just a few weeks before school starts back up. This year we decided to get season passes because there was enough we wanted to do that it would be worth our money. During the day we went to a llama show, a model rocket show, saw some of the talent show, and some of the horse shows. In the evening we went to the motorcross, the tractor pull, and the demolition derby. It was neat to look at all of the different projects the kids have on display. I can't wait until Kenan and Easton are old enough to be a part of it because it is such a neat learning experience. This year Kenan said he liked the demolition Derby the best. The Barnards met us there that night and we had fun watching the derby, riding rides, eating food, and our highlight-both vans getting stuck in the mud. That was an experience.

Besides some of these bigger things, we spent much of July swimming, going on picnics and to the park, visiting the zoo, fishing, and going to the summer musicals. We had a blast together as a family this year.