Looking Back at July

Oh, July, how I love you.  It's the best month, pretty much every single year.  The fact that it's my birthday month and the peak of summer...probably a large part of it.  We always seem to do our best living in July and I'm always sad to see it over but we sure lived it up while it was here. 

1) Drive-in trip #1 for the month, for Despicable Me 3 (and we left after that so I don't know what the second movie was).  Always a summer highlight.
2) A rare date (afternoon) for Wonder Woman at the same theater at which we had our first date, 15 years earlier!  It was great!
3) Loving these lazy pool days of summer!
4) 4th of July fireworks downtown!  We rode our bikes and were home within 20 minutes.  It was awesome.
5) Thirsty Thursday baseball game.  Again, we rode our bikes. 
6) Going to the zoo for the last lemur "creature feature" talk before our pass ran out, in the rain.  Actually leaving my house in a Friday (something I try not to do besides running.  And the library.)  I never thought we'd go through such lengths for lemurs. (And learned a lot!)
7) Sunset pontoon ride, always beautiful.
8) At the zoo, again, to finish out our pass for now!  We love going but also nice to have a little break!
9) What better way to celebrate adoption day than with ice cream sandwiches inside a glazed donut?  (And we rode our bikes.)
10) Doing the downtown food truck Lunch on the Plaza with my parents and Luke (and we rode our bikes...sensing a theme here...).  Delicious and fun!
11) Fireworks up at the lake from a boat.  It was a good show and great view!
12) Drive-in trip #2 for the month, for Spiderman: Homecoming and Despicable Me 3 (again).  We love the drive-in.
13) Kayaking at the lake, my boys picked me some flowers!
14) Luke sharing a (unripe) raspberry with his Puppy.
15) My BABY sister got married and it was a wonderful weekend!!!  So much fun and I was ready to immediately do it all over again.  So happy for them but maybe a little bummed that I'm now out of sisters to get married!  After our own, sister weddings have been the best!
16) They had donuts instead of cake at the reception.  I heartily approve of this.

My own blog posts that I've gone back and made.  I may blog about things just so I have easy reference to them... (and maybe also to share...)

Caribbean Margarita | Pineapple Coconut Spritzer 

Coconut Raspberry Smoothie | Perfect & Easy Sun Tea

Dark Chocolate Coconut Popsicles | Super Simple Strawberry Popsicles

Double Chocolate Muffins | Easy Peasy Coffee Cake | Perfect (and easy!) Cinnamon Rolls

A-Mazing Chocolate Frosting | Blueberry Crisp | Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Hawaiian Lasagna | Blackberry Bacon Grilled Cheese | Hawaiian Meatballs | One Dish Chicken Tamales


Books finished: 16 for the month, 118 for the year.   
Things sewn: Nothing, I've really gotten out of the habit lately but I was at my sister's house over the weekend and was inspired by some of the stuff she's making so I'm thinking after summer I'll get back into it!
Miles ran: 76.46 and occasionally, feeling like a "real" runner.  Less than 2 months until my half marathon!
Currently watching: Matt and I just finished season 4 of The Office.  Matt picked binging Lost over The Office when I gave him some options but now we've seemed to have paused the first for the latter.  We'll see how long it lasts... And I got to two of the movies on my list from last month (Beauty and the Beast and Jackie). 
Most read post this month: Quick Lit  - July followed by No Churn Brownie Caramel Ice Cream
Luke's current favorite song: His "favorite favorite" is "Surfin' U.S.A. by the Beach Boys but we still seem to listen to A LOT of VeggieTales on long car rides. 


July was fantastic but we were also reallllly busy (spent 10 of the 31 nights not in our own beds).  Looking forward to more great summer things but also being home more in August!!  What are you looking forward to most this month?  What was the best part of July?  Tell me below!