July was one of those months that felt like it went on for a loooooong time. Like, the month must have had 45 days in it or something. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, but as I look back I realize just how much stuff we crammed into a short period of time!

We started off the month by celebrating the 4th of July with good friends and good food (which is where our photo for the month was taken). The following week we flew to Indianapolis to attend the North American Christian Convention, where we got to catch up with many of our friends that either live in Indy or who had traveled to town for the conference. It was a lot of fun! We didn’t get to attend the conference last year, but two years before (2012) we went to it when it was held in Orlando, FL. Thinking back I realized that I was actually a few weeks pregnant at that conference, but had no idea! I found out a couple of days after we got home (that explained why I was able to eat so much on that trip). :-)

After our time in Indy we headed to Cincinnati for a few days, where we were able to relax at my parent’s house and visit with many of our friends that live there. Overall the trip was great, although it did become a bit stressful towards the end… Jack threw up three, count them THREE times in the couple of days before we were supposed to come home. One time was ALL over me and the stairs in my parent’s house, and the other two times were in his carseat. In the CAR. First of all, have you ever been trapped in a car with kid throw up?? Second of all, have you ever tried cleaning puke out of a carseat???? Oh, and I forgot to mention that the third puking event was literally right as we pulled up to the curb at the airport to get ready to fly back home. Let’s just say it was a team effort to get that cleaned up with baby wipes! (Note: Jack is totally fine now and appeared to have just caught a brief stomach bug with no other symptoms.)

On top of all of that, I found out the day before we came home that one of our cats, Griffin, had escaped from our house. If you know me, you know that my cats were my first babies (don’t judge), so I was a mess not being able to get home fast enough to search for that cat! I pretty much had our whole neighborhood looking for him and am so thankful for all of the effort put forth by our awesome neighbors. :-) The good news is that we were able to move our flight up to get home earlier the next day and went full force into Operation Find Kitty Griffin. By 8pm that same evening we got a call from a neighbor who said that she thought she saw him in her backyard (thanks to my awesome flyers that we went around and passed out)!!! I ran over there with my bag of cat treats and essentially had to chase this cat around her backyard (he was scared) and tackle him to the ground. I am happy to report that he is VERY happy to be home (so much so that he has allowed Jack to put stickers all over him) and I don’t think he’ll be trying that act again anytime soon!

The rest of the month was filled with lots of walks, playing at the playground, library story time, play dates with friends, and swimming. While I have enjoyed the hot weather for going to the pool or playing with water in our backyard, I will say that I am ready for some nice 75 degree weather where I’m not sweating every time I walk to the mailbox! I’m guessing I may have to wait another month or so, but we’ll see. :-) How was your July?