Only 31 days? Felt like more

July - I looked away for like one minute and suddenly it is July! Crazy to think we have been in Miramar only one year. When I think back at all we have done here, seems like we have been here way longer ...  

I will plug Lilly's blog again: https://lillywellons.substack.com She has been in Ireland for all of 10 days and she is making the most of it by seeing ALLLLL THE THINGSSSS. If she keeps this pace up, she is going to put this update to shame! It didn't take her long to cultivate some  like-minded girls and they have big plans to see as much of Ireland as possible. I think seeing as many pubs as possible might also be a line item on their itinerary as well. From the pictures she shared, it looks like they did do something other than splitting the G - thank goodness!

    

This year for the 4th of July finds us in the exact same place as last year, Del Mar Beach Cottages. We are down two family members and up 5 friends! Since Ben is the solo Wellons child this year, we told him he could invite some friends, and so he did! Good thing they are all good with sleeping in a tent cause the beach cottage only has one bed! The weather was fantastic and we filled our time with surfing, reading, socializing and of course watching some fireworks! Hard to beat, that is for sure.

    

    

    

    

Jim and I headed home on the morning of the 5th and the kids decided they wanted to hit up the last night of the San Diego Fair ... Somehow they ended up getting free tickets to see Ziggy Marley! 

    

The following week, Jim and I joined our friend June for a San Diego FC game. She had scored some tickets and I had been super interested in checking out the men's game since I had taken the girls to see the Women's Pro soccer team (Waves) last year before school started. The game was fast paced and our team did well, but ultimately wasn't able to walk away with the win. Dang it!!

    

    

The next week, Jim was off doing important things in VA, so Ben and I were left to hold down the fort. Ben's friend Julian (from Japan) had been in the US for some    college visits and, lucky for us, planned a long "layover" between flights and came to hang out for the weekend! As soon as Ben picked him up, they headed over to catch the Padres game and from there, Ben had the whole weekend planned out! It probably wasn't the most restful of layovers, but they certainly seemed to make the most of it!

I, on the other hand, took the opportunity to have Kelly and her daughter Bella come over from Arizona to keep me company for the weekend. With the average high temperature in AZ topping out at 110F it wasn't a hard sell. They rolled in on Friday night and we relaxed and caught up. The next morning, I had them up and out the door to try out a FS8 class at one of the gyms on base. We had a blast!

We quickly transitioned from pilates to hiking and grabbed lunch at the glider port. And ended the day relaxing on the beach. All without breaking 82 degrees! It is always a good time with Kelly, not sure we stopped laughing the whole weekend. Next time we will break out of our rut and do something different I promise.

    

    

Meanwhile on the east coast, Jim and Lucy both traveled to Victoria to visit with Jim's parents, sisters and a nephew. It coincided nicely with Lucy's 19th birthday! This is only the second birthday I haven't celebrated with her which made me sad, but Jim promised to do the tradition of filling her bed with balloons so that at least made me a little less sad. I sent her up to VA with a red velvet cake made by Mama Ju (Jane Sylvester) and that was very well received by everyone - especially Jim since that is his absolute FAVORITE! They spent the weekend touring around the town and telling stories and flipping through scrapbooks. 

    

    

    

    

After Lucy left to head back to Swansboro, Jim headed into Washington, DC to catch up with his sister Mary Catherine and her family for the night. When Uncle Jim is in town, all the bedtime rituals become his. I hope he stayed awake long enough to finish the stories.

Lucy got to have a second birthday celebration with my family once she got back from Victoria. I had given my sister a second set of balloons in case Jim wasn't able to pull off the birthday picture - So I got a bonus one!!

    

Jim arrived back in San Diego just in time for our 22nd Anniversary! We decided to go to Duke's in La Jolla in honor of a previous Anniversary spent at the Duke's in Honolulu back after Lilly was born. Well technically that isn't exactly the truth, but that is what we led the host to believe and it was enough to get us a table with a spectacular view of the sunset! We'll take it!

    

Jim was in town just long enough to get a morning surf sesh in with Ben before hopping on yet another plane - this time for Alaska!

He spent a week up there doing I am not exactly sure what, but he came home with some cool pictures and a plan for us to get up that way to see for ourselves how awesome it is. I have been wanting to go for a while, so it wasn't a hard sell.

    

    

While he in the great white north, I got to check off another bucket item list - Comic Con! While I didn't get a ticket to go inside the convention hall (sadly), I did get to go enjoy the sights and scenes on the streets surrounding the chaos. My always "down for anything" friend June invited me to join her to check out the "Doctor Who" popup store. The lady in front of us was dressed up as the Tiny Chef!

   

    

The pop-up shop was full of fun "artifacts" from the shows many seasons and of course I bought some stickers and cool tote. I am not sure if I should consider myself an ultra Dr. Who fan since I didn't show up in cosplay but it was pretty cool that I now have proof that I am not the oldest Dr Who fan out there.

    

This brings us to the last week of July. I am sure you are thinking - what else could you possibly do in only 7 days. LOTS! Another Japan friend Cooper visited us after finishing his Aim High Academy course ... for 10 days! Ben had lots of football, but Cooper was able to get some reps for his punts, and field goal practice in so that he was doing some preseason work too!

While Ben showed Cooper all the San Diego things, Jim and I linked up with our neighbors and hit a local bar that had been on our bucket list since we moved here. I can't count the number of times we have driven by this place on our way to and from the airport and always said - one day we are going. Well it finally happened and it was as awesome as we thought it would be.

    

We were also able to squeeze in a visit with the Jim's old USNA roommate John Landherr and his family. Every time we get together it makes us question why we don't hang out more! Ben and Cooper somehow arranged a visit with John and his daughter Blair at a local shooting range all without us tracking. They all had a great time and John said both boys did well.

    

It was with a heavy heart that we dropped Cooper off at the airport for his flight back to Germany. We know we will be seeing him again so it isn't a goodbye, just an until next time. Ben is already angling for a ski trip to Europe this winter! 

Meanwhile, back in NC Lucy is settling into her job and texts me routinely about meeting friends of mine figure out that she is my daughter. Pretty funny. She can't believe how many people I know! Aunt Nancy and Courtney came in to surprise her one night as well! 

The next day, I got to see cousin Jill downtown. So far she wins the prize as the only family member to visit me - TWICE! She was in town for the same conference as last year. This time we were smarter than last year - I brought a picnic lunch since last year we had to settle for eating salads we purchased at the hotel snack bar! We have just completed year one of two here in San Diego. The clock is ticking people - COME VISIT!