June and July were filled with special summer memories. We had a great time at Topsail Beach with Mimi, Gawa, and our extended family. Our beach house has such beautiful views of the ocean, and it was a restful week of swimming, fishing, food, games, and jet skis. Millie loves Topsail, too, and was so happy to be a beach puppy again this year:
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| Playing Pounce, our family favorite! |
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| Yummy Low Country Boil! |
We traveled to Williamsburg in June for Maya's surprise graduation party. It was SO much fun to be with cousins again and to celebrate Maya, who will be playing volleyball at Appalachian State this fall on a full scholarship!
Leah and her friend attended an Aviation Camp in June, and this ended up being one of the surprise highlights of the summer. We signed Leah up for this camp on a whim, as it was nearby and convenient, and we weren't sure what to expect. It was AMAZING, and culminated in the kids flying planes at the end of the week. Leah loved this so much that she convinced the instructors to let her fly again the next day. What a cool experience for her!
We spent a lazy 4th of July river tubing on the Dirty Dan. The river gets its nickname from the brown color of the water, but it really is clean and quite lovely. It was a pretty day to float down the river, and we have fun doing this activity every summer:
July 1 was a day to celebrate as Mommy completed her last chemo session! It has been a hard few months, but we have been supported and loved beyond words and are thankful that treatments stayed on track. Surgery was successful on July 20, and we look forward to a new season of healing and remission:
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| Ringing the bell! |
The next part doesn't fall under the "fun" category, but bears mentioning. The last day of July, Leah tested positive for COVID. Luckily it was a mild case and she just had a slight sore throat and headache. Peanut chose to spend her quarantine days on the screened porch instead of up in her room, and she made the best of 9 very long days alone (she continued to test positive for 4 days after Day 5!). We pulled out science kits for her, she watched movies on our porch tv, built forts, had dozens of popsicles, and played countless games over FaceTime with us. Poppy called and played Battleship with her over the phone each day. Our best guess is that despite wearing a mask, Leah contracted COVID at an Academically Gifted camp that she attended. The ironic part is that she was learning about epidemiology at camp and her week was titled, "Disease Detective". (We have since renamed it "COVID Camp"). I write about this to share that our family stayed safe from COVID during my chemotherapy (when I was immunocompromised and a COVID case in our family would mean that my treatment would be delayed). We prayed for God to protect us during that time, and He did. Leah's case occurred 10 days after my surgery (which is remarkable in timing after 2.5 years of living in a pandemic), and we are immensely grateful for answered prayers.
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| "Isolation" is not in Millie's vocabulary. |
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| Tinker Crates for the win! |
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| Playing a game with Daddy. |
We celebrated Mark's birthday at the end of the month with a night out at the Greensboro Grasshoppers game. This is a fun summer tradition for us to attend a local baseball game, and it was a wonderful evening:
Our sweet Millie turned 3 the day after Daddy's birthday, and we continued the weekend celebrations with presents and a Frosty Paws treat for our fluffy girl.
Happy birthday, Mark and Millie! We love you!
