Flipping the calendar to July is always kind of shitty. Because, I love Florida. Like, I really, really love living in Florida (despite all the political bullshit), but July and August is brutal. The heat. The humidity. Doesn't matter the time of day. You wake up, open the door to let the dogs out and BAM! You're in the swamp. 2 am, you open the door to let the dogs out and BAM! You're STILL in the swamp. It's so gross.
Nobody lives in Florida for July and August. June isn't as bad. You can still catch a break here and there (especially with the humidity), evenings can be warm but still pretty pleasant. September is pretty bad. But, there's something psycholigically about knowing you made it through the summer that makes it bearable. We used to always vacation in July and August. We've gone on months-long trips. To Alaska. Hawaii. Ohio. But, not in the last three years. Covid sucks, you know. Spoiler Alert: we have made reservations for Ohio, and are officially making an appearance this summer. I painstakingly planned the whole thing so everyone gets to do their top two (or three, or four, even) things, the dogs won't be left for more than a few days with the neighbors, and everyone gets to travel on their perferred form of transportation (some of us are driving, some of us are flying!) So, anyway, there's that to look forward to. And, you know it's bad if I say I'm "looking forward to" Ohio.
Still, were here now. Usually we build the blanket fort to cope on the official "First Day of Summer", but since Asa and I were not here for that, the Blanket Fort went up on the first of July. I got out all the materials to take stock, because I had used (and cut) some of the PVC pipe for the Olympics. We went to Lowes to get the rest of what I needed (which of course they didn't have, but I made do.)
So, up went the PVC pipe frame ..
..which is then covered in sheets. We keep all the old sheets in a giant pillow-case like bag I made specifically for the blanket fort. There's more than we need in there, but there are a few sheets that must be used... including Walle and Cort's old Star Wars sheets (which he had as a kid- and I'm not even sure how we ended up with them!)
Every summer there are a few "improvements" to the fort. Two years ago we added the extra support to make a "doorway". That made a huge different to keeping that unsupported side together.
And we've almost always zip-tied some poles to the coffee table (which has seen better days, but it's an old Ikea table that we need for the fort!)
But this year, we added some poles at the top to give the ceiling some extra stability in the middle there.
Put some blankets in the bottom as a "floor" And ta da! We have ourselves a blanket fort.
We always get take-out the first night it's up to all eat together. Historically it's been Burger King. But, with the Wendy's having been built right by us, it was a quicker option (it's a good 15-20 minutes to the closest BK!)
The dogs are always huge fans. In part, we put the blanket fort up on the 1st because they seem to do better with the fireworks in there).
We were still pool sitting, and let me tell you summer is prefectly bareable when you have a blanket fort and pool to alternate between.
If you're paying attention, you also know that it's July, which means we've got another birthday to celebrate. And not just any old birthday. Peyton turned 20 this year!
He doesn't usually like to do much of anything for his birthday (though he didn't seem to mind when we spent them on cruise ships in Hawaii and Alaska). It's tough having your birthday that close to the 4th of July when you hate crowds. For presents he'd rather have cash, too. So, of course we helped contribute to the fund for his next ticket to the UK, but I couldn't not get him ANYTHING but that, so I got him all kinds of snacky things too.
He's also not really a cake guy, but he does like the fruit pizza I make (nobody tell him the crust is actually cake), so he usually asks for that.
And for dinner, we order takeout sushi. The last few summers, we've still been pool sitting, so we've had dinner over there..
Hayden and I are not as big of sushi fans (I got a California Roll), so we also swung by Little Cesears for our dinner.
And then we spent some time hanging out in the pool.
And, per usual, there was plenty of rough-housing.
Candles can't really be put in the fruit pizza cake, so I did buy him a tiny Lemon Meringue pie so he could blow out some candles on a zoom call with my mom.
Dipper and Etta wanted in on the action, though. (Can you tell Etta was having some stinky farts that night?)
And then we finished off the night with some 200 cc Mario Kart.
Calib did not do do very good. In case you can't tell, this is him handling it "well".
So that's it for Peyton's birthday! And, I've got two kids through the teenage years, only one to go! Truth be told, they made those teenage years very easy on me. I've heard the horror stories. Except for a few sassy moments, parenting teenagers has been a pretty great experience for me! And adult kids are pretty awesome too.
Next up: The 11th Annual Waterstraut Olympics!
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