The VanValkenburgs: July Wrap Up

July started out with a trip to Mossyrock to camp with the Schwartz/Sands families. It was Joshua's first camping trip and it was definitely made much easier by using the ol' huntin' trailer that Josh and Jay got for....well...hunting. We fixed it up A LOT and it made for a very cozy camping trip. It was so nice to have a place to put the kids down for naps, stayed just the right temp and offered a little more privacy than a tent. It's about a 2 hour drive so we had some cat nappers in the back but those naps didn't last as long as we would have liked!

I finally had to come to terms with the fact that I was not going to be able to keep Joshua clean and finally just let him crawl around in the dirt. There he found all sorts of fun and ended up with all sorts of dirt in his mouth. It's organic.

One of the best parts of Autzen.

Mister crashed out in the trailer. (Megan just said, "That's cute and adorable!")

On the way home, crashed out. Yes!

We got home on July 4th and waited a VERY long time for fireworks. Joshua was not the trooper we had hoped. I think everyone was very tired from our weekend!

In other news, Josh and I have been working very hard to get healthy. I finally decided on Valentine's Day that it was time. I started Weight Watchers and soon after that and losing about 10 or so pounds, I started running. Josh followed suit and we are both 20-30 pounds lighter and much more fit. I was invited to a wedding in July and I had it in my head that it was a good goal day for me to work towards and show off my hard work. I was able to buy a dress I never would have worn before and I felt great in it too! And the shoes....oh the shoes. They are fabulous as well. Sorry you can't get a better view of those!

Megan got to hit Broadway again and see Mary Poppins on stage. She is so cultured! She was very excited and loved it! Aunt Kathy bought her her very own Mary Poppins umbrella too!

Megan has been asking about learning to ride her bike without training wheels. I've sort of been putting it off. I just see visions of road rash and tears. Then I found a package containing gloves, elbow pads and knee pads. SOLD. We gave it a go once but it was super hot and we had a tired, hot, cranky baby watching from the stroller and he was not having it. We haven't had a chance to try again but hopefully soon. If it will keep her off of the skateboard she's been asking for, I'll do anything!

I bought a deal on Groupon (or another of those sites) for John's Incredible Pizza and we finally used them last month. The kids had a great time and the deal was well worth it! The food was great, the entertainment was awesome and not at all as expensive (token wise) as I had anticipated. Even Joshua got to ride on a couple of little rides. We also got to hear him scream when we took him off of them. Here is Megan and Josh on one of the full size rides. I got sick watching them spin around in it. I was waiting for Megan to lose all of her dinner when she got off but she said it was SO FUN! Just like her daddy on that one!

The little princess picked out a tiara from all of her game ticket winnings. Shocking.

Here's a picture of little Mister out shopping with Mommy. Inevitably he is forced to try on cute hats so we can take pictures.

Stacy was in town for 2 weeks and we were able to fit in a trip to the zoo with all of my family (minus Kelly and Josh). It was Joshua's first zoo visit.

We have a picture of Megan at about 6 months sitting on a tractor just like this at the tulip festival so I had to try to recreate it with Joshua. He is just the cutest little guy, I have to say!