JULY

We spent the afternoon at my mom's for 4th of July and then headed to Lilli and Cece's house for dinner and fireworks.  I don't really care for fireworks but the girls loved them.  Cece loved the poppers and Lilli wanted everything!

The girls and I enjoyed our first trip to the MK Nature Center.  So much fun.

 We love summer and spending time in the water.  The girls loved helping Marcel wash my car.

Our July envelope date was to hike Jump Creek.  We were both prepared for a much longer hike but still had a great time.  Even though this sign warning us about rattlesnakes made me really nervous!  Now that we know what to expect we are going to take Lilli and Cece since we know they'll be able to make the hike and will love the waterfall.  Marcel and I didn't swim but enjoyed walking through the stream on our way back out to the car.  I don't feel like I'm a particularly big nature girl but being there reminded me that I do enjoy it once I get out in it.

The girls and I were at Albertsons one day and Lilli noticed the fair rides getting set up and begged to go.  The fair isn't my favorite thing, because the rides make me sick and they are so expensive, but when Marcel found out that it was free on the opening day from 12-2pm before the rides were ready we decided to go.  We saw lots of animals and made a quick trip through the exhibits.

 All of the pigs were sleeping when we were walking through so when we'd ask Cece what a pig says she'd pretend snore!

On our way back to the car Lilli noticed that her sunhat in her shadow looked like a cowboy hat.  "Look, I'm a cow girl ready for the fair."

And after we got back home, we all enjoyed the fudgesicles Lilli and I made the day before.  I love finding recipes for treats that are a bit healthier than the alternatives.

Marcel got asked to be the stage manager (or a similar position) the God & Country Festival at the Idaho Center before the 4th of July, which he normally does as a volunteer, but this year they were going to pay him!  And it has led to a lot of work.  The Village in Meridian has a 8 week concert series on Friday nights and Marcel is now working them.  He also worked at a company conference in a Boise hotel and spent the last week of July in Bend working at the county fair.  It has been a big sacrifice to give up so many hours of his precious time off during the summer but we are so grateful for the work.  He really enjoys it even though the days are so long (the concerts are about 14 hour days outside in the heat)

We also continued to train for our 10K.  I'm at about 4-4.5 miles on the way to 6.2 and Marcel is just a little behind.  His crazy work schedule has slowed his training down just a bit but we still have 9 weeks left.  He'll be ready by race day!

JUNE

We spent all of June training for our 10K in September.

Our anniversary is in May and about a week before school gets out, so we always wait until June to celebrate with our night at the Anniversary Inn.  We enjoyed another new room, love the escape it provides us!

We enjoyed a BBQ with some teacher friends from Marcel's second school.  This coming school year he is going to be at South full time so he won't be working with these people anymore.

Our envelope date for June for a night at the drive in.  Our car is perfect for us to enjoy the movie.  We put off the date for weeks because of stormy weather and movies we weren't thrilled to see.  We were just about out of time before our groupon expired so even though Home was the first movie we decided.  It was a hilarious kid movie that we have since seen again.  The Longest Ride was the second movie.  I had just finished reading the book and was so excited to see the movie.  Major disappointment.  I know the movies never compare but this one was epic for being much worse.

We spent more than entire week refininshing our table.  I had no idea how much work and time it was going to be.  So many hours to let the stain/polyurethane dry in between each coat and so many coats, but now that it is finished I love it!

Anniversary #6

We started our 6th anniversary by exchanging our candy gifts.  We are 6 for 6 on giving traditional gifts and plan on continuing the tradition.  I love how it focuses us in on something particular to give, even if I wasn't the most thrilled to bring so much candy into our house.

I didn't know how to present candy besides a candy gram.  But I'm terrible with words and puns so I got A LOT of help from pinterest.

Marcel, on the other hand, is fantastic with words and puns and he wrote me this sweet note and handed me the candy as I read it out loud.

 

We didn't intend to do our May envelope dates on our anniversary but the 2 weekends leading up to it were rainy so we kept putting them off.

On our way to the Farmers Market!

We stopped in the middle of our adventure of the market to take in Freak Alley.  This was my favorite spot.

Last year, Lilli told us non-stop about the donuts she gets at the market.  And when we went to the market last year, we only went to the second location and the only donuts they had were from a bakery so we got them.  They were delicious but when we sent her the picture of our donuts she replied that they were wrong.  This year we found the right ones and they were yummy!

Then we went to see Pitch Perfect 2 and took a selfie on the escalator, so that our picture didn't turn out too dark (see below!)

 We went home for a few hours and Marcel took a nap before heading to Applebee's for dinner.

The other May envelope was to go to the drive-in, but we were super excited about the movies so we decided to camp in the backyard.  When we got home from dinner and looked at the forecast, it called for thunderstorms so we decided to camp in the living room.  We had to move the coffee table and one couch out of the way, but it fit perfectly.  Marcel decided to do the dishes and had me set up the tent on my own.  It was really easy because the only poles just make an x, but it still felt good to know I did it on my own.

Then we watched a movie from our Netflix queue that I already don't remember the name of and played Phase 10.  It was probably one of my best games ever!