July 12-18

Mark and I both took off work on Tuesday! I think it’s the first day I’ve requested off since our trip to Arizona in December. We don’t like to miss work because there’s so much to do and I don’t have the luxury of paid days off. But even one day off gave us a much needed break.

With that day, were able to go visit my family’s camp at Tony Grove. It was just my brothers family and my parents this year. We went up Monday after work and stayed until Tuesday afternoon. That was about the perfect amount of camping time for me, but I think Mark could stay in the mountains all week.

Tony Grove is absolutely beautiful. We fished with my dad (though we didn’t have any luck this year). We did a short hike to “the little tree.” It’s a small tree growing inside a stump that my brother found years ago. Mark and my brother’s Family hiked farther to see a cave. We ate delicious camp food of course. We brought waffle cones to cook marshmallows and candy inside, and we were in charge of pita pizza for lunch on Tuesday. We shot sling shots (Mark was the only person to hit the bullseye). But mostly we just spent time relaxing and visiting. Flynn loves being in the mountains. He practically ran up the mountain on our hike, jumping over logs on the way.

Thursday evening we had family pictures done. I really wanted to get professional pictures this year because we haven’t done that since put wedding. Then my second cousin, Ashleigh, reached out to me- She has felt prompted to begin an affordable photography business. She’s been practicing and learning a lot, but she needed some more people to practice with. It worked out perfectly! We even had two nieces come. They held Flynn’s leash when he wasn’t in our pictures and Ashleigh took some adorable pictures of them as well. I’m so impressed by the pictures she has shown us so far and can’t wait to see them after editing. Here’s one of my favorites:

Mark continues to prepare for the national conference in August. The conference will now be totally online. He will submit his PowerPoint presentation and others attending the conference can watch when convenient. Even though he won’t be traveling for the conference Mark plans to take the entire to Day to watch others presentations. I even told him I could “cater” his lunch. I hope it will still feel like a special experience even though it won’t look how we originally expected.