July Recap

July started with some beautiful sunsets. Apparently this was due to a fire in Canada. Say what? It's crazy how far smoke can travel!

 We took a few fun trips to Crossroads Adventure Park - or as it is referred to more often - Castle Park. It is awesome! I don't remember if I have already posted on this park or not, but it is by far our favorite park now. I can't believe we have lived here for two years and just made it this summer! It's not like it's that far away. I guess we are just spoiled by the fact that we have a park down the street. Anyway, the whole place is fenced in, so there is only one entrance, which is great for parents! It is built to look like a castle. I had a bunch of other pictures, but I think P must have erased them from my camera before I got them on the computer. 

We stopped by Castle Park on the 4th of July and had the park to ourselves. Ryan and Pierscen started playing hide and seek. Ryan climbed up on the monkey bars and started whistling for P. He ran back and forth under Ryan a dozen times before he finally found him. It was so funny!

We wanted to do some fun fireworks with Pierscen, but as we learned, even though we live in Wyoming - the state known for awesome fireworks - they aren't allowed here. The only thing available to buy were confetti poppers and snaps. They didn't even have sparklers! What the heck?! We bought a few packages of snaps, but that was it. Luckily for us, we had a few leftover fireworks from our friends. Nothing crazy, but we did have some sparklers and firecrackers. Pierscen loved it!

Dodger wasn't as appreciative at first... the sparklers were not the metal ones that stay together as they burn. The middle kept falling off. (This is why you should always wear shoes!) Anyway, a piece fell in Dodger's tail. Thank goodness it was just in the long hair, no skin involved. Sorry pup.

That being said, Pierscen loved it!

Casper does have a great firework show, and I'm sure Pierscen would have loved it, but we decided sleep was more important this year. So we let him sleep. 

We made it to our first Home Depot kids project that they hold the first Saturday of every month. They made a bug house! Totally perfect for our little bug boy.

When we got home, Ryan and Pierscen went for a bug hunt in the backyard and within a few minutes, Pierscen had caught a cricket. Yes, I said Pierscen caught it. He pounced when he saw it, caught it in his hand, and threw it in the bug house. I was very impressed. He has since caught lots and lots of bugs. He usually lets them go pretty soon after the catches them, but it's been fun for him. 
                                 

My project for the month was finishing the painting in the half bath. I painted the wall with two different blues a while ago trying to decide what color I wanted. Once we removed the toilet tank, we could see the bathroom had once been purple and perhaps yellow? Anyway, I made my decision and went to town.

Do you like it? I also painted the rest of the walls white again - just a nice fresh coat.

We also replaced the light above the mirror. Much better in my opinion!

We attended the Casper Day parade. Pierscen thought it was awesome - especially because we got SO much candy!

It was so cute watching the boys dance. Logan was there too, but he was in his stroller. I didn't catch him dancing, but he was grooving along with P and Landon too. Afterward we went back to Landon's house while I had my hair cut. They are pretty cute together. True boys - dirt all over their faces within a few minutes. Haha.

We had some great play dates with friends. This summer has been wonderful with fairly mild weather. It's been really enjoyable.

We made a count down chain for Pierscen until we got to go camping with family at the end of the month. (That's a whole different post). But these count down chains really make a difference for Pierscen in helping him to understand how much time we have left.

We made one last trip to Alcova for Lindsay and Logan's "going away" party as they were moving back to Utah at the end of the month. We were not happy to see them go, but any excuse to go play at the lake is a good one. :)

We had a pretty exciting storm with lots of hail. I am so grateful we have a garage to park in! The east side of town actually got pelted with golf ball size hail. Holy cow!

Anyway... back to the half bath/laundry room. I finally tackled the valence project. I did shop around for one I could just buy, but I didn't love any of them, and they are stupidly expensive. So I took my paint chip sample with me shopping for fabric and found a good match. One evening while Ryan was... who knows where - camping, I think, I made these:

Before:

After:

I love them. I tried to get a decent picture with the wall in the bathroom and the valence in the laundry room, but it didn't turn out. I'm proud of myself. Go me!

Five days after P split his head open, I took him back to the ER to have the sutures removed. He was a total champ! We walked to the library that morning (okay, yes, I remember - Ryan was camping because that was the same weekend and he had the car) and then we went to the ER. I read him books while we waited. When them came in to clip them out, he held perfectly still while they snipped the suture. He had a moment of panic while the tech reached for the tweezers to pull them out, but he called right back down, didn't budge at all, and we had them out just like that. He did so good!

I promised him a treat if he was a good boy, so we stopped by the vending machine on our way our and he chose fruit snacks. Good choice little dude.

July was a great month! There are actually two more posts to follow regarding the more "exciting" happenings of July, but I thought I'd end with this picture I snapped of Pierscen walking Dodger down on the river trail. Dodger may get irritated with Pierscen, because let's face it, P pesters him a lot just to get a reaction, but they also have some really cute moments together. Love these boys!