Random Stuff From July 2025

Here are some random things that happened during the month of July. 

On July 1st, Kim had a couple friends over for dinner. They have a hot tub under their deck. The girls had a great time hanging out in it.

On Wednesday, July 2nd we were having a Youth Family BBQ at our house. With all the construction going on in the basement, our garage was like a war zone. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a before picture.

 I texted these pictures to Michael, Ella and Justine and I got a jaw drop picture of Justine from multiple different angles which is absolute high praise coming from a teenager! At first I was just wanting to clean it up a bit, but then I just kept going and figured it would be nice to have the pool table accessible for the youth that night. Jack did help me with moving some of the bigger stuff around. 

On Thursday, July 3rd, Ella and Justine wanted to go swimming so I took them to Justine's work for open swim. I didn't want to swim so I just sat in the bleachers and read my book. 

On Sunday, July 6th, I took Ella and Justine down to Redondo Beach since it was such a pretty day. I took a picture of them on the way back to the van and then realized it looked very much like a picture I took of them last summer. I love comparison shots! 

On Tuesday, July 8th, Ella had in-service training at Wild Waves from 9-10am, but then she didn't work again until 11:30 so she had an hour and a half to kill. I needed to get a few things at Costco anyway so I went and picked her up so we could shop and then we got an early lunch before taking her back to work. 

After a year and a half of waiting, Owen finally received the game Nemesis: Retaliation and his stretch goal gifts that he got for prepurchasing it from Gamefound. It took so long for him to receive it because of delays due to a factory error and then the tariffs effected things as well. I've play the game with him twice now and it's really well thought out and the quality of the game pieces are amazing! 

The week right before summer camp our church had VBS. This year VBS was held at night which had it's pros and cons. We had about 15 youth volunteers which was awesome! The theme was True North and it was set in Alaska. The stage had this cute log cabin and then a bunch of people brought in their artificial Christmas trees to make it look outdoorsy. This picture was taken before all the kids showed up. I think we had around 40-50 kids. This was our first year having VBS without a Preschool program. 

During one of the nights Zeke got to go on stage and was a part of the "show". This was my first year of not leading a station. I was a roamer so I helped out wherever they needed me to and I loved it! 

On Wednesday, July 23rd, we took the Youth Group to a midday Mariner's Game. Some of the kids had never been to a game before. I ended up having to buy 2 of those clear backpacks since we wanted to bring some food with us into the stadium in hopes of saving money. Justine was wearing one and I was wearing the other one. 

Right when we walked in there was this cool glass bat sculpture. If you can't tell I haven't been to a game in a really long time. I honestly think the last time I was at a game was when Owen was almost 4 months old. You can see that blog post here. This was even before Ga-Ga & Pa were known as Ga-Ga & Pa....I was still calling them Grandma and Grandpa. That's just weird! 

It was a gorgeous day to be at the ballpark! 

We got seats in the 300 level...they were great seats. 

I had forgotten to put on or bring sunscreen so I was very thankful we were on the west side so our seats were already in the shade! 

In all Craig and I took 21 youth with us. Sadly the Mariner's didn't win that day! 

It was fun getting some stadium snacks even if it wasn't the best quality and it cost and arm and leg. 

Towards the end of the game Craig took a bunch of the youth over to the bullpen to see if they could get a game ball and their jerseys signed. Zeke got a ball and his jersey signed by some player that he can't remember now. 

The game ended at just the right time so we could get back to church in time to volunteer for VBS that night. It was a long, but fun day! 

Ella was being silly with Justine in the van when we took him home that night. 

On July 25th, Justine came over to our house before it was time to go to VBS. For some reason I can't remember why, but he hadn't seen Michael in quite a while. When he heard his voice and knew he was home he ran over and basically lunged at him. He was so happy to see him! 

On Saturday, July 26th, it was time to clear out the kids' school work from the previous school year. Owen's last time doing anything high school related. He did a lot of work his senior year! 

This was all of Zeke's 7th grade work. 

Jack with all his 11th grade work...Jack did so much work that for his senior year he's actually considered a part-time student since he only needs to get 3 more credits to graduate. 

Ella Grace finished up 8th grade and made it one-quarter of the way into her 9th grade year.