Six people twelve times- July

Looking back through my photos from July fills my heart with so much emotion. I love summer, the long days spent at the pool and then hooping under the stars. Being in California only magnified this feeling. It was the best summer I can remember.

The Pink girl and I escaped for an afternoon matinee of Eclipse. I love our moments like that together and it feels as if they are slipping away. She has turned into quite the hooper and I love to see her swirl inside the hoop in her own little way.

The Blue boy, along with the older girls and their Dad went to the stock car races one Saturday night. He loves things like that and will come home and imagine himself as a race car driver for days. He says nice things to me like "Mom, why don't you go get yourself a coffee?"

Purple is our go-with-the-flow child. She will play race cars with her brother, she will hoop for hours with the oldest and she will color and draw with the littlest. Her dreadies turned six months old in July and she proclaimed that she will have a mohawk when she decided to cut them off. 

Yellow began to slowly adjust to life on the road in July. We began to sneak moments of genuine laughter and she loved the pool (until we had to get out). We introduced her to play-doh and while she loved it so did her oldest sister.

Dan worked. A lot. We were able to sneak away to see The Kids are Alright and then went to dinner. I loved these borrowed moments. One Saturday we all went to a bike show in Sac. We all drooled over the tricked out rides and when we came home we hit up Craigslist and found him a New Belgium Cruiser.  We then began a little habit of just the two of us riding our bikes around the park and then across the street to Starbucks before he would go to work.

I got my new iPhone in July and that was a happy moment for sure. A few days later I had that and my laptop in my hands as I came out of the RV, in slow motion I ended up on the ground in tears. I had the worst bruises I've ever had and was sore for days. (My phone and my laptop were fine:) ) My mama heart was moved deeply in July as we met some homeless kids at Starbucks. It turned into several days of taking them treats and checking to see how they were doing. I wished I could adopt them all. On a lighter note my funniest moment of the month might have been when my son said to me "Mom, remember when I was little and you would forget to come and wipe me? When I got up I had to crawl because I couldn't feel my legs." And these are the memories I'm giving them.

As a family we had carved out little traditions and sweet fleeting moments. We went to the California State Fair, spent Sunday mornings at the farmers market, went for afternoon Jamba Juice, and even snuck in a weekend getaway to San Francisco in July. I'm not sure the month could've been more beautiful.