I don’t know how to re-enter this space. And the last time I wrote feels like a lifetime ago, when we were all different people. I won’t go into too much detail here because it doesn’t feel like my story to tell and it’s just such a deeply personal and devastatingly story, that I don’t have any claim over. I will just say that Joey’s cousin and his wife, two people I love and adore, lost their 3-year-old daughter in an accident and none of our lives will ever be the same. Not all of the moments since have been bad, but mostly, there is just this deep pit of sadness in all our hearts. And it catches you off guard and stops you in your tracks and it really really hurts.

Mostly, I just wanted to explain my absence here and I didn’t want to leave this life-defining moment unspoken of, because Elliott deserves better than that, even if it is extremely painful to write these words.

I have happy words to share, but now does not feel like the time and I’m not really sure when it will feel like the time. So for now, please take care of yourselves and I hope to be back sometime in the future.

4th of July 2022 felt like a strange time. With the overturn of Roe v Wade last week, it’s not the most patriotic I’ve felt and news of a shooting at a 4th of July parade was sadly the most American thing to happen. But then again, what do I do with 30 years of happy 4th of July memories that make me look forward to this weekend, plus lots of fun plans with friends and family? I don’t know the answer, but I’m putting the question out there.

Started Friday with a biscuit sandwich from Rise & Shine and it sure was good! We picked Dempsey up early from Lori’s because we had a wedding in Berthoud to make it to and can you believe how handsome he looked in his little outfit?? Tried to get him out on the dance floor but this child is more interested in finding sequins on the ground and running around than dancing with Mom 😋 What can you do? In any case, it was really nice to celebrate our friends and to have our little man there with us to do so.

Saturday started with sopapilla pancakes and Dempsey loved them! Who knows what else we did that day because every day is a blur or toddler shenanigans. Oh! We did watch the eighth episode of Stranger Things but I honestly could not tell you what happened in episode eight versus episode nine, so I’ll just lump my reactions together later on in this post. At 6:30, my sis and Wayne came over to watch Dempsey, so Joey and I could take both our moms to the Rockies game ❤ We had such nice seats and the Rockies even won! It was the fireworks game and it was quite the show! I could do without that hokey music they always play though 🙄

Since we got back home so late on Saturday, my mom just slept over and we all went to breakfast together (with my sis and Wayne even) the next morning. I think Dempsey would’ve been happy to just eat that entire ball of butter but he had to make due with the few clumps that hadn’t melted into his pancakes yet when I passed him back the plate 😂 We walked down to the park afterward and he played and played till we headed back home around 11.

The rest of the day was pretty lowkey. Joey was working on a sprinkler project outside and then he and Dempsey ran an errand together while I made an oatmeal bake for breakfasts later in the week. Afterward, Joey made us dinner and Dempsey would only eat the naan bread! I thought it was really good though. We somehow made it through all two hours and twenty minutes of the Stranger Things Season 4 finale. Absolute spoiler warning, but I was really caught off guard by how sad I was over Eddie’s death! Did it really have to be that long though?? They could’ve cut out most of the Will/Mike/Jonathan/Argyle storyline and ALL of the Russia storyline and it would’ve been fine for me 😋

Happy 4th of July! We had a pretty normal first half of the day, then had our families over to BBQ in the second half of the day. Thank goodness for Hannah and Josh passing down cute holiday outfits, so Dempsey is always the best dressed 😍 I was hellbent on making some grilled chicken sandwiches and they turned out really good, if I do say so myself! Most of the credit goes to Joey though because he made the sauce that went on them and it was the star. Everyone else brought some really good sides and Dempsey was having fun running with Grandma Lori, golfing with Lauren and Uncle Adam and trying to splash water on Uncle Wayne 😂 Busted out the red, white and blue velvet cake for an early birthday celebration for me and set off a few little fireworks we bought last week before Dempsey went to bed. I thought he might be scared but he seemed indifferent/too comfortable with them. He was not into the sparkler though! We set off the rest after he was in bed, then everyone headed out to their own homes and we crashed into bed.

I hope your weekend was good as well.