Our last month of Summer was packed!! Nick was out of town every week in June for work, so we had a lot to fit in for July since the girls start school this week!
The 4th of July
Cole and his first lollipop at the 4th of July parade.
We went to Flagstaff for a long weekend with a group of friends. Flagstaff has an adorable historic downtown area and they had a classic parade. We walked the parade and gave out candy to kids, the kids had a blast doing it and little Cole loved it too.
We celebrated with friends with a huge seafood boil & a smores bar- I wrote about how to do your own seafood boil at home here and the smores bar will be up later this week!
Nick & Cole goofing off in Flagstaff
Nick had a 5 day convention for work and every Summer it is in Flagstaff, so we stayed up there for the week while Nick worked and we all escaped the heat of Scottsdale.
Hawaii
We had our first family of 5 vacation! For only the 2nd time ever, Nick put a vacation out of office message on his email and we went to Hawaii. The trip was SO fun, SO jam-packed and SO exhausting. Traveling with 3 kiddos and jet lag was tough, but very rewarding, I would not say Nick and I “relaxed” much tho lol. I will be updating the blog with what to do on Oahu and the North Shore soon!
Mental Health
I’ve discussed this on instagram stories a bit, but after doubling my dosage of an antidepressant, I had some rapid weight gain that left me feeling miserable and um, depressed, ha. I cut it in half and some of the bloat went away within a week! I will have to work hard to lose what was gained, but that is ok! We are adding in a new anti-depressant to help me along since we cut this one in half and I am hoping the combination will work!
Another thing I learned is with the constant disruption of going in and out of town to Flagstaff and Nick’s 5 day work week there, my mental health suffered. I was exhausted from taking care of the kids by myself for the most part, being out of my element & home, out of my mental health checklist routine. When Nick works here at home, I have a sitter that helps with the girls 2-3 times a week, I go to a gym daily with child care, I see a therapist weekly, I can see a girlfriend, I get adult time etc etc… (I am so incredibly privileged to have these things available to me to cope with depression)
On one hand, I felt positive that many things I check off my mental health list to help keep me stable are in my control (I thought I was fooling myself with my checklist) and on the other hand I was suffering badly by NOT doing those things. I linked to some actions I take to cope with depression and if you want to check out my mental health highlights on instagram, I go thru an actual day of what I do to help improve my depression.
When we returned from Hawaii, Nick had to go to Flagstaff for another convention and I tapped out. I realized I needed a break, which sounds like a terribly awful thing to say after returning home from Hawaii, but I was on edge, my depression feels like a darkness chasing me and I am constantly fighting it off, when I am healthy and now medicated, its easier to do, but lacking my checklist to improve, I felt vulnerable and that the depression was going to win. Thankfully, Nick’s parents planned to go with us and so I stayed home for two days without kids and seriously my sanity returned. Anyhow, the moral of that super long story, is to listen to your body and whether it be a hot bath (my usual time out) or two days off (which I may not get for another year lol) try to make it happen. I felt like a better Mom, wife and human being and the depression did not take over.
Sunset- no editing (except size), this is how pink and beautiful it is!
And for A Bubbly Life fans, my break ends this week, I am looking into childcare for cutie Cole and work will speed back up!
