July was wild and crazy and lots of fun! We started out the month with Aunt Leslie's super fun baby shower in Concord that I got to go to alone (which made it extra fun for me!), and a fun weekend otherwise at the pool and going out to dinner with neighbor friends. We had Sawyer 3 days the week of the 3rd and Erin also had her first-ever paying job watering the neighbors' plants for the week, and we also had a very fun neighborhood cookout on the 4th.
We continued our streak of having never taken the kids to see fireworks, but there were some rogue ones set off in our neighborhood that were enough for us. Friday the 7th, we were treated to a really fun weekend in Indian Beach using neighbor dog Ruby's family's condo for 2 nights! We help watch Ruby fairly often, and they offered for us to use their place. We had never been to that area before (Emerald Isle, Indian Beach, and Atlantic Beach), and we really enjoyed it. The condo was beautiful, beach was great and not too crowded, and they even had a fun pool! We had a fabulous time at the beach, pool, sound, and also visited two yummy restaurants, a church in Morehead City, and the aquarium (where Anna discovered her love of river otters)!
The week of the 10th was very busy for Bob in the home stretch before the church dedication and opening. He took off from his real job that Thursday and Friday to be available to help tie up loose ends. Anna continued her tennis lessons on Monday and Wednesday. We ladies had a fun pool playdate with Jimmy and Danny on Tuesday and were thankful to have a good reason to get to the YMCA pool, where we never ended up going last year. The neighborhood pool is smaller but is just so convenient! They had piano on Wednesday and Erin had her follow-up with the cardiologist. She checked out great (they just did an EKG and listened to her, and asked if we have noticed any episodes, which we had not), so she was discharged from cardiology! Just like that, SVT is (or should be) a thing of our past. It's amazing how they can fix it this way now with such a minor procedure that has a very high permanent success rate. We had such a great experience with Dr. Ferns for Erin (and with Dr. Robinson for Anna) and with Carolina Children's Cardiology for both kids...they were terrific all around! Here is a short video with Dr. Ferns talking about the procedure that Erin had done, and you can get a peek at the high-tech electrophysiology lab at UNC that she uses: http://news.unchealthcare.org/uncchildrens/news/care-2015/issue-2/heart
Saturday the 15th was the big dedication at StMM. This church has been years in the making, and it was really wonderful to see Father Staib's excitement and joy after all of the hard work. We had a bishop-elect come do the dedication (he was ordained the following week and moved to Atlanta for his bishop assignment), and the whole day was just wonderful! Erin got to help with offertory as she was one of the kids who Father baptized at StMM as babies who also received their first communion this year. Very neat! After the dedication, we ladies made an appearance at neighbor Kevin's 50th birthday party while Bob handled the dedication after-party.
Sunday, the 16th, we got to go to Concord to meet sweet and adorable baby Elliott Summer! He was born on the 13th, just over 3 weeks before his due date. He is so cute and perfect, and he has 3 very serious bodyguards for siblings! Monday the 17th, we had some odds and ends - speech, piano, dog-sitting Ruby, and I got to go to a mom dinner which is always a nice time. Bob went to Boston for a quick trip on Tuesday and Wednesday, then got to have a nice quick visit with Grandma and Grandpa F. on Thursday! Friday, we were all happy to have Anna's little best friend Sarah come over to play all day. We were SUPPOSED to leave that evening to fly to Nashville for my cousin Doug and Christina's wedding, but storms near Minneapolis, where the plane was coming from, caused increasing delays for us, and then our flight was finally rescheduled for Saturday morning. That outcome was really ideal for us because the kids didn't have to say up super late and we still had plenty of time before the wedding. We left the airport after just a few minutes, rode back to get the car, stopped at Moe's for dinner, and were home in bed on time.
So, we flew out Saturday morning around 9:00am and arrived in Nashville around 9:30am central time.
We got our car and drove the 45 minutes or so south to Spring Hill and went to the hotel. The kids swam in the pool, we went to a yummy BBQ lunch with Cole and Cooper and family, and then got ready for the wedding at 2pm, which was so nice!
After that, we came back, rested, and then headed out to the reception which was at a beautiful farm in the area - but unfortunately it was over 95 degrees that day! We still had fun and enjoyed the wedding. Sunday morning, we got up, went to church, swam in the pool, got showers, checked out, and drove the 2.5 hours to Chattanooga. We didn't realize the time changed back to eastern just west of Chattanooga, so we were a little late to see Brad and Stephanie, but they understood. We had a super fun evening with them, Juliet, and Cece and loved spending time with them and checking out their beautiful house! Monday morning, we got up, loaded up, and did some sightseeing around Chattanooga. We saw Lookout Mountain, Ruby Falls (a really cool underground waterfall and caves), a carousel and splash pad area downtown, pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee River, had a yummy pizza lunch, and then headed back towards the Nashville airport, stopping off in Lynchburg.
Unfortunately, Bob didn't have time to do the full tour and they weren't offering the short tours that day, but we ladies got to have an ice cream treat in the old town area and Bob did get to check out the distillery. From there, we got to the airport, dropped off our car, checked in, hit the play area, got dinner, and boarded our flight in the very last row back to Raleigh! It was on time and we had no trouble. The girls traveled SO well that we are now thinking of all kinds of trips to take with them!
The rest of that week, we just did the usual and also got to dog-sit our friend Froyo from Thursday-Monday. He was very good! We had our church opening celebration that Saturday evening, and the weather was spectacularly cool and perfect...until it rained halfway through the party! So, it was cut short, but mostly everyone got to eat before the rain started, and kids got to play, so we called it a success. Sunday the 30th, we enjoyed a "normal" weekend in the new church and are still just taking it all in. We went to the pool that afternoon as well and have been really enjoying the "cooler" temps and lower humidity these past several days.
So, that was July! We knew it would be a little crazy and we even had a few extra fun things pop up, but it all went well and we had a great month. Now, we're in the home stretch before school starts on August 16th, not a minute too soon for our Erin. Fall weather also cannot come a minute too soon!
