July is hot and the pool is cool 🙂 We scattered in a visit to Zoombeezi bay (me, Lilly, and the boys) in July in addition to our other trips to the pool. Reid is really swimming quite well. No more floaties!

We finally were able to get Reid his COVID shot! He was a champ at Powell Pharmacy and as always the staff there is great with everyone, especially kids. Reid also had his 5-year well check (in July! as I had totally forgotten to schedule it for around his birthday – yikes) and he is a super healthy kiddo. He weights in at 43.7 pounds (68th percentile), 43″ (48th percentile), and 16.61 BMI (81st percentile). No shots this go round though we did ask them to treat his largest wart on his right hand.

 

Several family fun activities in July included Bocce at Mom and Dads, family bike rides, and a movie date for Reid and me.

 

This summer we were home during the week of Vacation Bible school at NPC. The boys really enjoyed it. Griffin was a “Wagoneer” and Reid was a “Beetle”.

My parents are always planning fun activities and traditions for everyone. Traditions are something that I really love. This summer it was Griffin’s turn to have a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s all on his own. This is something each grandkid has gotten to do when they are 9 years old. Griffin was so excited to begin this weekend he was counting down the days for it to begin. Mom and Dad picked him up at our house and later that evening they showed in the tool box of fishing supplies they had purchased in order to teach him how to fish and cast the fishing rod. Their weekend also included a fishing trip to Mansfield where Griffin caught 27 fish, including two big bass!  They took him to the playpen and he got to learn how to drive the Mule, a dinner out at Roosters, he painted a shark at the pottery shop, painted rocks at Grandma and Grandpas, and built a fun lego car!  What a fun and memorable weekend for him.

While Griffin was away at Grandma and Grandpa camp we had Reid solo for the weekend. It was a busy weekend with a tour for Cultivate at Millcreek where a busload of people from all over the country came to tour our facilities. That took up most of my Saturday (and it poured rain all morning for the tour!). We took Reid on a fun date to Lion Cub’s cookies 🙂

We also went to the St. Timothy festival to see our friend Paul Koehler play live music. Reid loved all of the kiddo rides, balloon artist, and fun stuff.

Another cross country meet at Liberty Park. This time Griffin was running for Olentangy (lol). They ran 1 mile and Griffin finished in 7:48:21, 25th overall out of 100 boys. He had a lovely cheering section including Mom, Dad, Greta, Rowan, Graham, and Andy. The cuzzies even made awesome signs of encouragement for Griffin 🙂

Lilly, Reid, and I had a fun day cruising around the Zoo. We even rode a bunch of fun rides in the Jungle Jack’s Landing area and we rode the Dinosaur water ride.

A big week for Griffin was Crew Camp at the Historic Crew Stadium. This was a day-long camp (9a-4p) and had a lunch break. He had a fun week of skill drills and scrimmages playing on the real field at Crew Stadium, tours of the stadium, a bus ride to Lower.com with a tour of some cool places there too. The Crew players came through one day and gave high fives to the kids and Griffin was fortunate to get Derrick Etienne Jrs autograph on his Crew flag! The Crew 2 players signed their camp shirts and balls on a different day as well. They were long and hot days but he really had a good time and was of course enamored with meeting players!

More summer t-ball for Reidy. He has a pretty good throw and he likes playing on the field. Though he certainly remains distracted by the dirt infield and is regularly playing in it and dust flies everywhere. But this season he has shown so much maturity in that he is no longer getting so upset if he doesn’t get the ball and a teammate does instead. Woohoo!

Griffin finished up Learn to Play 2 Hockey at Chiller North this summer. He’s really liking hockey and we plan to sign him up to play CAHA House hockey this fall.

Friend Wyatt’s birthday party!

Reid lost his first tooth!  It had been pretty loose for some time but he didn’t want it pulled. Eventually it kind of disappeared and we actually never found it! In order to leave something for the tooth fairy to visit, Lilly and Reid made a tooth for out of clay. It looks great, right? And sure enough the Tooth Fairy made her visit.

We had a fun visit with Haya and Summer before Haya’s little girl #2 arrives next month. And Kevin and I enjoyed a Picnic with the Pops at Columbus Commons with the Kessler’s, Manning’s, and Pilgrims one evening. It was really fun to bring our own food and drink and just hang out in the park and listen to music!

Mom, Amy, Greta, and I had a lovely afternoon of vacation prep in the way of pedicures (for me and Amy, Greta and Mom had previous during Greta’s camp weekend), a meal at Kitchen Social, ice cream at Jeni’s, and a walk across the bridge.

Chrissie turned 40 this year and while Kevin and I weren’t able to make the fun trip to the Dominican Republic with friends I went out with the girls to celebrate at Novella Osteria in Powell. This place is delish and it was awesome that Lisa was able to pick all of us up in her car and we all rode together.

Summer is for sleepovers too, right? Miles spent the night and Reid joined in as well in Griffin’s room.

Kevin’s company had a social gathering at Lincoln Social as many employees were in Columbus from Mexico and other areas out of town. It was a beautiful night to enjoy the rooftop bar and Kevin was able to arrange using the space via his connection to friend Alan Assaf (who is the COO of company who built and manages the property).

Oh Reidy. I remember when Griffin did this kind of thing too. This boy is so silly.

When Griffin returned home from his weekend with Grandma and Grandpa he wanted to show Reid all the things in his tackle box. They sat on the garage floor and went through the whole thing!

Here is a pic of the brisket that Kevin gave a go at in our patio Smoker. It was tasty! And below is a pic of the front garden. I’m pretty happy with how this garden is maturing and the pop of pink with annual color is nice too.