The wild runaway train that was the month of June was still coming in HOT in July!!
Ailey's boyfriend Luke was back in town again for the 4th of July. He flew in on the 2nd. Ailey was so happy to see him. Long distance is rough! They were so happy to be reunited! Kameron and Erin drove up on the 3rd. It was SO FUN to have everyone here!! This was Erin's first time in Spokane which was extra fun!! We all stayed up late talking. I love it when my kids are home!
The 4th of July started with brunch.
Tyler and Luke made pancakes, sausage, and bacon out on the Blackstone.
Then Kameron and Erin headed out so that Kameron could give Erin a little tour of Spokane. Ailey, Luke, and Bryn headed out to do their thing too while Tyler and I prepped everything to head to Coeur d' Alene.
We drove to CDA that afternoon to stake out our spot at the park. The weather was perfect! Sunny and warm but not too hot. We met Reilly, Hunter, and Karson there and then the rest of the crew arrived. Coeur d' Alene is one of the the most festive places to celebrate the 4th of July! There were all kinds of things going on and people and live music everywhere. We walked around, enjoyed the view and the water, shopped, played all kinds of games, picnicked and waited for it to get dark. It was such a fun day full of good times, great food, and a big family! What a group we are this year!! I love it!!
The resort put on a SPECTACULAR fireworks show! It was so good! It was such a fun Independence Day!! And another crazy late night for the Johnsons! There is nothing better than late night chats with the kids.
The next day we were up early and headed to the lake for the next several days! It felt so good to be back at one of our favorite spots! It's really become such a special place to our family over the last several years. We've made so many good memories here and this time was no different! If anything it became even more special!!
Because...
Ailey and Luke got engaged!!!!
We are beyond excited about this engagement! What a bevy of riches for our family! So many good things ahead for the Johnsons! It's exciting!
While the rest of us were headed to the lake... Ailey and Luke were driving to an undisclosed location where Luke had a photographer waiting and everything set to propose to our girl! Here is the first picture that was sent to our family:
Here are some from the photographer:
I love these!!
After the proposal they went to eat at the Coeur d' Alene Resort, a place that is so special to our family, and where Tyler proposed to me! The rest of us were back at the lake house getting ready to celebrate the heck out of them when they got back.
These two have such a bright future ahead of them!
The rest of our days were a blur of swimming, boating, wakeboarding, tubing, picnics on the dock, late nights, games, sunset cruises, star gazing, good times, and big laughs. I love my people!!
This is my favorite picture from our time at the lake. This is pure bliss! In all my lakey glory. This is a picture of true happiness at one of my favorite places with all of my favorite people. I am glad that Ailey caught a snapshot of it. It doesn't get better than this! All too soon it was over and Luke was flying back to CA and Kameron and Erin were heading back to Southern Idaho. But what a time we had!
Now things were really starting to kick in as we prepared for Kameron and Erin's upcoming wedding. They got their wedding announcement pictures back and ordered all of their announcements/invitations. I was madly sending them out. Here are a few of their pictures:
Love them!!
We are so excited for these two to be married!! And...stressing out too. Our first wedding. They are getting married in CA and will have their reception there too. Kameron didn't want two receptions so we are taking the money that we would have put toward a reception or open house here and paying for their honeymoon instead. They booked a cruise to the Bahamas! Sounds amazing!
The rest of July was an absolute scorching heat wave. Bryn was happy to be working at the pool. We tried to be in the water as much as humanly possible while working with everyone's complicated work schedules.
Ailey had another doctor appointment and we got a bunch of her results back. Her heart rate and EKG were normal. Her iron levels are, unfortunately, critically low. Her doctor wants her to start having iron infusions. He also wants her on birth control to stop her periods for awhile. Tyler had another follow up appointment with his eye doctor. Both eyes look great! Thank goodness! He doesn't have to go back for 6-9 months! Woohoo. I also FINALLY got Tyler to go to the dermatologist. Good grief. What is it with men? Anyway...his skin looked great and he doesn't have to go back for two years.
I had some weird post menopausal bleeding that started up and acted like a period after having no period for over two years. I called my OB/GYN and it turned out that it was a big deal that they take very seriously. I ended up having an endometrial biopsy which was horrible and fairly traumatizing. It hurts like hell! They provide ZERO pain meds for this procedure. As I nearly passed out I was offered a glass of water. Women's health care is still in the bloody dark ages. This is a procedure that should have sedation or some kind of medication offered. Wowza. I also needed an ultrasound. My results came back as having two fibroids and some non-cancerous thickening of the lining of my uterus. There is a very small chance that the thickening could turn into cancer, like less than a 1 percent chance, but enough that it has to be monitored and regular biopsies would be needed...ugh...so it was deemed the best idea by my physician for me to have a hysterectomy. Especially as I am not bearing children anymore. I told him I would give it some thought and get back to him next month. I have a wedding...nay two weddings...coming up and the recovery for a hysterectomy is long.
Bryn had a little photo shoot this month too. My friend Amy has taken pictures of my kids for years and Bryn and her daughter are besties so lucky for Brynnie she got some cute pictures of she and her best friends.
Then Bryn headed out for a week of Girls Camp.
She's a Third Year.
Kameron and Erin came back to town midmonth. Kameron's best friend growing up...literally from kindergarten through adulthood…was getting married. It was fun to have them back so quickly! Kameron was a groomsman in Jonathon's wedding. Erin got to meet all of Kam's best friends and high school friends. The wedding was QUITE the fancy event with a four day itinerary. Kameron had many duties. It was beautiful though and we got some extra time with Erin all to ourselves! We lucked out in the future daughter-in-law department!! Erin is the greatest!
Ailey, Erin, and I all went out to lunch and bummed around a bit. She came to vendor night with us and we all went to CDA. Erin is so much fun! We just love her! She fits in so well!
We took her to the spot where Tyler proposed to me and it was coincidentally on the exact day that Tyler proposed to me 30 years before AND we saw a guy proposing to his girlfriend there too! Craziness. We also ran into Kameron and the boys. LOL.
The day of the wedding it was 105 degrees and so humid. It was also an outside wedding at a beautiful winery here. These two looked fabulous though!
Kameron had such great time and was so proud to have Erin by his side!
It's hard to believe these two little crazy nuggets are all grown up and marrying the girls of their dreams. This picture feels like it was yesterday! It was fun to have Kameron and Erin in town again so quickly after the 4th of July. We will take all the time we can get with them! Their wedding is almost upon us!
They move to Utah at the end of the month. Things are getting REAL.
The heat was relentless and still so humid. Since when is Spokane humid??? We tried to be in the water as much as possible. Tyler took a day off here and there for extra boating. We headed to the lake in the evening to night swim several times.
Bryn got back from camp and had a great time! Here are a few cute pictures of her at camp:
The Summer Olympics started and we actually watched. That hasn't happened in a long time. We watched quite a few of the events and it was so enjoyable. My favorite events were women and men's gymnastics and all the swimming. I loved watching the women's gymnastic team win gold and the pommel horse guy, Stephen Nedoroscik!
A lot of projects were happening around here too. Our garden is really starting to produce and it is wonderful! We had a fantastic pea crop this year! That rarely happens! The tomatoes are going strong. My flowers are looking good despite the heat. We are also finally out of our last storage unit that was needed to hold all of my *inheritance* stuff after my mom died. Tyler and I cleaned out the last storage unit this month and found a better and cheaper winter boat storage at my friend's dad's house.
Tyler pried open my jammed hope chest that was filled with memorabilia from childhood and I threw away most of it. What was I saving it for? To show my kids? Two of them were with me when we cracked it open and were decidedly underwhelmed. LOL. I kept very little, took some pictures of a few random things, and tossed the rest. Goodbye complicated childhood. Plus there were just too many triggers and reminders of my family dysfunction. Why hold onto all of that mentally and physically? No thanks. Interesting side note...Tiffany, my best friend from college, and her siblings just sold their family lake house after the death of their last remaining parent. A lake house that had also been in their family for several generations. It was painful but needed to be done. This was her first summer not going to the lake which was understandably hard but still they did it and they survived. See! Validation! Normal people do this. Other people do this. Most people do this. I don't know why my extended family is a bunch of histrionic lunatics.
We also saw friends and enjoyed all of the activities that come with late summer nights. My calling kept me fairly busy with meetings, trainings, planning our big summer Stake Primary activity, and I had a speaking assignment in another ward. I think we are winding down though. We've been in our callings for over 4 years. I think we will be getting released fairly soon. Bryn is now a greeter at church along with her calling in her class presidency as the 1st counselor. Bryn was so happy to have Ailey home for the summer to go to church with her. LOL.
Tyler and I went to the Van Gough experience. That was fun and kind of cool and I actually learned a lot! .
Strange things were afoot this month in the world... there was an assassination attempt on Trump. He was shot in the ear but another person was killed along with the shooter. Joe Biden dropped out of the Presidential race and Kamala Harris was announced as the Democratic nominee. Joe Biden is suffering from some kind of dementia. A weird global cyber glitch took out servers all over the world so all kinds of electronics and computers weren't working. It affected airports, hospitals, media, even Tyler's work. He had to come in and work overtime.
July was fast and furious and full of all kinds of good things! Most especially this little firecracker!
Now...exciting and stressful...the countdown is on to Kameron and Erin's WEDDING!!!
