July started on the beach and ended on a quick getaway weekend to celebrate Clint’s birthday with lots of adventures in between! I had to head back to the office on July 6th, but that didn’t slow this crew down…we definitely took advantage of every bit of daylight and stretched out our weekends as much as we could!
We kicked of July in Seagrove Beach with my sister, her family, and my mom. We had a wonderful time at the beach capped off by getting to be there for the Seaside Parade the morning of the Fourth. I’ve always seen pictures from the parade and we were so excited to get to go! We spent our days back and forth between the pool, the beach, and checking out new places to eat and shop in Seagrove. On July 2nd, my mom treated all of the adults to a deep sea fishing trip out of Destin. We had a great time and caught a ton of fish! It was a great day just to catch up as adults and to enjoy the beautiful weather out on the ocean! On the Fourth, we got up early and rode our bikes to Seaside (~2 miles), picked up breakfast at Modica Market right on the square, and then claimed our spot on the parade route just in front of the food trucks. We had the best time! It was just the four Stranges and we enjoyed all of the trucks that were decorated, the candy, and all the other things that they threw out along the parade route. Our kids really racked up! We rode bikes back to the house, took showers, ate lunch, played until nap times, and then loaded up and drove back to Georgia while the kids slept. We made it in to town just in time to grab some dinner, throw a few chairs in the back of Clint’s truck, and pull up to a prime parking spot to sit in the back of the truck and watch our favorite Acworth fireworks. What a day! It’s always so hard to say goodbye to my sister and her family since all the kids have so much fun together, but we had such a great time at the beach!
Emma lost another tooth..this is her first one on the top and somehow it made her seem a lot older. I’m not ok with that! We have done several projects around our rental house and are really feeling at home here. The close proximity to school, church, and everywhere else we go has really been a blessing! Eli went to Camp Eagle at NCCS the last few weeks of summer in order to start practicing for the school year when he’d be joining us full time! Emma wrapped up her summer with LEGO camp and All Sports Camp. We had a fun night at the park with friends enjoying popsicles with other Lower school families and then Clint took the kids to Summerville while I snuck away for a ladies weekend at the lake. All of us had a blast on our weekend getaways! I learned that I still can sort of stand up while tubing…that was more satisfying than it probably should have been! More than anything, all of the laughter with the ladies was such a gift!
Clint took a day off of work to take Emma to Six Flags so the two of them could enjoy all the rides. While down there, they ran into some of our best friends and they all had a great time together! Eli had camp that day and I had work, but he and I had a special date for dinner and enjoyed some special Mommy/Son time. Eli even killed a bug for me when we got home because he said “Daddy not home. I the man.”
We wrapped up July by heading over to Alpharetta for a quick weekend getaway to celebrate Clint’s birthday and get ourselves ready to kick off a new school year. Friday night we went to dinner at The El Felix…highly recommend! Then we walked around The Avalon and went back to the hotel to swim. Saturday we shopped around a few places and let Emma get her first American Girl Doll…she was so excited…and Eli got to ride the merry go round at the mall…equally as excited, but much cheaper! We spent the late afternoon at the Y in Alpharetta enjoying the diving board and water slide before enjoying dinner and another evening of wandering around The Avalon. Sunday evening we had dinner with Clint’s parents and friends to celebrate his birthday and then went to another friend’s house for dessert. It was quite the weekend birthday extravaganza for the world’s best husband and Dad!
The end of July turns the page as we head into a new school year. We are so excited about the days ahead as both Emma and Eli continue to grow and learn. Clint and I are so proud of them both and so grateful that the Lord has trusted us with these two precious ones!
