Yes July!

Ah Summer. I love how we don't have a phone in his hand for his shot, just a dog in James' lap. haha!

Matt&I took the boys to see Dude Perfect in Tampa on our anniversary, because we are so awesome. But really, because we took our anniversary trip a few days early, and it was the only day we could go! We went into town a day early before Word of Life camp, and getting to see them again was really fun, especially for Calvin and David.

We enjoyed getting to hang out with Mimi&Grandpa for the day, and then it was time to go to camp! This must have been one of our most favorite years ever - it was James' last year at junior week, and he was in the same cabin as both Calvin and Hayden. I hope these memories stick with them!

Hayden had two friends come to camp, Noah and Ford. They had a fun group in Australia Left!

David was excited to get to his cabin. He was a day camper, but he still brought a sleeping bag to keep in his cabin for any time they may need to spend inside. Poland Right!

I always stalk the WOL photos on facebook during the week of camp to see what the boys are doing and catch pictures of them. These are the ones I found!

David got picked up right before the fire works, so I took him to see them before we went back to Mimi&Grandpa's house.

I stayed in town for the week of camp this year to help drive David back and forth to camp. Mimi had her knee replacement, and she was a couple of weeks past her surgery. I was able to drive her to her physical therapy appointments during the week, and we set out to re-do the pictures in the family tree photo gallery on her wall. We had so many more kids added to the family that we needed a lot more frames!

James doing the 'strong like bull' competition. He won easily, but he did break his flip flop. ha!

These are the most epic tubing pictures ever!

Making lots of progress during the week!

The dinner time interview with all our boys. What has been your favorite thing at camp? Gaga ball. and tubing. 

I have enjoyed coming to the final rally on Thursday evenings while the boys are at camp. It makes me so happy to see how they enjoy the service and being with their friends. Calvin bought some kind of sloth animal and a WOL hat - can't get better than that.

I snapped a picture of Jim and Teresa walking in and standing with the family portrait in the auditorium. We sure hope they don't take the pictures down anytime soon.

I remember taking this picture before loading all these boys (barely!) into my car to come back to Orange Park. Poor Noah was so hoarse that he sounded terrible and had a little cough. Bless Ford's heart, he's not even in the picture because he was throwing up. He made the trip home without too much trouble, but golly they were quite the car load of kids!

James, proud of how tall he is getting. Can't wait for the day when he gets to be as tall as his Dad.

The sight of summer at our house. All four boys sitting playing games in one little corner of our sunroom. It reminds me of when they were babies and they would all play in the same place. There is something about being together that is so great.

We got to take Coach Christ his plaque of our team photo when it was ready! I was hoping it would go on his wall in the club office, but sadly he changed jobs. I still miss seeing him at the club, and I miss his advice on all the soccer things. He was a great source of encouragement and so kind to listen.

My Mom, Michelle, Darcy, and I planned a trip to Savannah for a weekend in July! It ended up that it was Christina's birthday weekend, which made me miss her. But, I was really glad we could all get together and spend some time. Time with your family is a treasure, so it was worth it.

The view from our hotel was so pretty over the river! And yes, we bought matching hats. I'm still not sure if I should have chosen the fedora instead of the wide brim. We ate beignets at a place on the water for breakfast, and shopped at the little outdoor market. We booked a tour of the city which was really neat, and we heard all about the book that was set in Savannah, 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil', which I bought a copy of at the local antique shop. Turned out to be a souther gossip story, and I never finished it. But thinking of it now makes me want to pick it back up. I remember eating at the peach cobbler factory, but I can't recall where we had dinner. We laughed and talked about anything and nothing. 

Aunt Kelsey had her baby boy! Welcome Thomas John Prose to the family!

I took the boys to the zoo one day for the fun of it. They hadn't been in a long while, and it was a fun change of pace for them. Little wild men!

Our friend we call 'big David' left for college cheer in Iowa! We were so proud of him for all his hard work and patience waiting for this opportunity to come. Way to go David!!

Best corner of the whole house, and Calvin in a fort him built in his room.

It was that time again, FAMILY BEACH WEEK!! I look forward to this trip every year. I absolutely love going to the beach, practically have the whole beach to ourselves, and spend time relaxing with our family. It is really a nice treat to be able to invite our parents to come with us on vacation, and we really enjoy the time together.

We celebrated Hayden's 11th birthday at the beach house, and I wanted it to feel a little special. So, we bought tiddly-winks with frogs and decorated the table and popped party poppers. He got to open his presents in the morning, and he really liked his Harry Kane book and signed photograph in the frame. He is quite the soccer fan now!

Calvin started reading Harry Potter, so I decided to read again as well. He's got the illustrated versions but I'm going through the Bloomsbury editions I bought at the second hand shop. I have loved these since I bought my copies when I studies in France the summer of 2005, and so I thought I should buy a set of them!

Hayden wanted to go mini golf for his birthday. Thankfully, we didn't get wet that time.

It was only our family at the beach these evening, so we brought an ice cream cake from DQ, and Matt almost got a speeding ticket trying to get it to the beach without it melting.

Happy 11th birthday Hayden! We love you so very much.

The best picture I could get of all four of them standing together. I love my annual beach picture!

Grammy and Papa arrived in time to enjoy our fishing on the beach. The boys and Matt have the best time doing this. I usually take lots of photos of all the fish they catch, but this time I can't remember if we had not as good of luck or what. No storm that I remember, but maybe we were cooking low country boil for dinner that night.  I may have been doing some of that.

Matt got his favorite Key Lime pie for dessert on his birthday. Happy birthday dear! We love you so very much.

Lots of time going in and out from the beach to the couch. Nothing better in the world.

Mimi and Grandpa arrived, and one of the favorite things to do with Mimi is build sand sculptures. This was a turtle they all worked on together.

Matt got a stand up paddle board for his birthday, so they took it out in the ocean. This picture is David doing a cannon ball off of it into the water, ha!

I remember this volleyball game being a bit more intense than I had anticipated. haha! We went to our favorite pizza place in Venice beach, and we stopped in the little shop next to it. They had one last volleyball, but it wasn't inflated the whole way. The shop owner gave it to Hayden as a birthday gift, and we played a good bit of volleyball all week long.

Group pictures at the beach!

We said goodbye to Grammy and Papa, and we had one more group birthday celebration for Matt and Hayden with Mimi and Grandpa. The more celebrations, the merrier! I think me sitting with my coffee cup full and a book in my lap is the classic beach photo. Such bliss! Until next time beach house.

We made it home from the beach, and it was time to get ready for school again. It seems to come so fast! These goofy boys; I don't remember where these cheese puffs came from, but Calvin and David as ninjas 

is really competing for best part about this picture.

Before we could do much of anything else, the important task of counting our shark tooth collection had to be done. I was not expecting to find more than 500 teeth like we had the summer before, and that was why I didn't keep a running tally. I didn't want to be too focused on finding teeth; I wanted to enjoy it!

Low and below we found more than 500. We found more than 600. In fact, we found more than 700. We found nearly 800 sharks teeth. woah!!

You really don't get much better than that. I was blown away by how many teeth we found. I love hunting those things. 

Lord, thank you for these memories. Thank you for refreshing my memories by looking at these photos. Please help me finish recording these to the best of my ability and opportunity. It feels like such a good work to do. Motivate me to keep going Lord - I want to see all the countless ways you have made this life of mine so dear to me. Thank you for these people in our lives, may we love them like you call us to love them. Amen.