July Holidays 2025

July was busy and crazy. Life is crazy. We skipped a lot of holidays the last couple of months but we did celebrate some. I won't remember them all (you know, pics or it didn't happen), but here are some.

Independence Day was on... the 4th of July. We actually didn't do anything to celebrate. It was that kind of month. I didn't get any pictures with the American flag and we heard fireworks through the window but didn't go out to look at them. 

International Kissing Day was July 6 and Jeremy was at his fair during that time so we didn't celebrate.

This was not meant to be a what holidays we didn't celebrate post. Sigh.

We did celebrate Teddy Bear Picnic Day on July 10. 

Gummi Worm Day was July 15. I bought gummi worms in advance of this holiday. I forgot about it. Jet has had some gummi worms from time to time since then but no celebrating on the holiday or even "observed."

Yellow Pigs Day was July 17. Mustard and li'l smokies.

Stick Out Your Tongue Day was July 19. I confused the kids a few times while sticking my tongue out at them that day.

Moon Day was July 20. Astronaut sandwiches.

National Junk Food Day was July 21. We got dino nuggets and french fries out of the freezer to celebrate.

I wished my mom and my sister Happy Gorgeous Grandma Day on July 23. 

Pioneer Day was July 24. We had green jello and sourdough bread (both things you expect from Utah, though the green jello doesn't really fit in with pioneer times). We also had chicken and potatoes and baby carrots so I didn't have to put carrot shavings in the jello.

I also go a picture with the flag that day. 

I like to celebrate National Sleepyhead Day, the Finnish holiday, on July 27, but we missed it this year even though I was thinking about it in the days leading up to it. Did I mention things have been crazy so we didn't celebrate as much as we often do? 

National Chili Dog Day was July 31. I made homemade turkey chili to put on our hot dogs and homemade buns. 

Yeah, not a lot of holiday celebrating this July. That's okay, though. That's life. We're not completely missing out not celebrating here and there. We still celebrate more holidays than the average family. 

 

 

On a completely different note- 

Jet: Can I help you with your blog post? 

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We Made It to the End of September

September 29 was Happy Goose Day. Dad made us ham dinner (that would make a goose happy) so I could take a long nap. My hero.

September 30 was National Mud Pack Day. We celebrated it observed the next day with Dirt flavored Oreos. Get it? Mud? Dirt? Not like Bertie Bott's dirt flavored jelly beans. Dessert named Dirt with gummy worm bits on top.

My opinion: They weren't spectacular. They tasted like chocolate Oreos.

More July Holidays

Let's jump into catching up on more July holidays.

July 7 was Father Daughter Take a Walk Day. Jeremy was not available that day so I took Nichole for a walk into a store to get hair stuff and makeup. Girl time. Woohoo.

It was also Macaroni Day so we had macaroni with our dinner.

July 10 was Teddy Bear Picnic Day. We had a picnic with teddy bears and non teddy bears on the living room floor. We made sure to invite Eeyore so he wouldn't be sad. Jr. picked a lovely location for us- Ordon Village.

We ate chicken patties for Cow Appreciation Day on July 11. Reminded us of a certain chicken place's advertising.

July 13 was Embrace Your Geekness Day. I like to call it Embrace Your Geek Day. I made sure to get a picture embracing Jeremy while wearing my Jurassic Park shirt.

The kids played chess with a Legend of Zelda Chess set.

July 14 was Mac & Cheese Day so we had shells and white cheddar and added macaroni.

It was also Shark Awareness Day. I bought gummi sharks for this holiday but forgot to get them out so we had them along with gummi worms on Gummi Worm Day, July 15.

 

We celebrated Nichole's birthday in July. We quickly turned the fan off before there was any candle... situation.

STEM Boy

He did it! He did it! He did it! Jr. completed all 3 summers of UVU Prep and has learned lots of STEM skills.

He's even found interesting ways to use his skills.

 

Jr.: Alphabet Cow lives!

Mom: This is why Jr.'s doing UVU Prep.

Nichole: So he can bring decapitated children's toys to life.

We've had this toy since Nichole was a toddler. It's been stepped on, dropped, thrown, had heavy objects put on it, you know how it is with some children's toys. It's supposed to be "Alphabet Pal" but it sounds like "Alphabet Cow" so that's what we've been calling it for years.

Well, such is life, Alphabet Cow finally bit the dust. The head cracked and came off completely. Jr. decided to use his skills and tools he had and "bring it back to life." He managed to get it to play music through his headphones since originally the speaker was in the head and he managed to get the lights working. That's my STEM boy.

Jeremy and I were able to go to Jr.'s closing celebration for UVU Prep. We all went as a family the first year and last year they just had a drive-thru to pick up shirts since it was all online.

Jr. had a good experience with this program for three years both in person and online. He was happy to be back in person this year. Can't you tell by his smile how happy he was?

Like the first year the closing celebration was crowded but Jr. was able to show us some of the projects he worked on. He also got a UVU water bottle which he's been waiting three summers for. It's interesting the things he gets excited for. We all have things like that, though.

I'm so glad he enjoyed his time at UVU Prep and I'm looking forward to seeing what kinds of things come from what he's learned in the future. Bringing more decapitated children's toys to life? We'll see.

When we got home that night, I quickly let everyone have a gummi worm since it was National Gummi Worm Day on July 15.

It was also World Youth Skills Day and I already commented on Jr.'s STEM skills.

Hot Dogs and Gummi Worms

The Provo Library told us to celebrate National Hot Dog Day on July 15 (though looking it up on the internet, I think National Hot Dog Day this year is July 22. Oh well). We went with what the library told us to do. We ate hot dogs.

We also celebrated Gummi Worm Day on July 15.

Guess how. Oh wait. I already showed you pictures.

On a different note, we decided to try something with the kids. Sometimes the younger kids feel like the older siblings get to stay up and watch movies and Doctor Who (it's true, they do- they're older and able to handle staying up later better) and they don't like that they don't get to do that. So after discussing it, we decided that each child would get the opportunity to stay up with Mom and Dad from time to time to watch movies. Jeremy created a ticket book for each child (except Jet) with 5 tickets inside. The tickets each say:
Permit One. This ticket is good for one private movie night for _child's name_ with Mom and Dad (and Jet). Valid any non Sunday during the summer or non school night during school year. Chores not required.

They all liked that idea. And finally Nichole one day said she'd like to use a ticket to watch the movie, Matilda. The boys heard that and immediately all decided they wanted to use tickets, too. So it started on July 15 with Nichole. The boys went to bed and Nichole stayed up. We watched Matilda and ate popcorn and I think she got some extra gummi worms as well.

Catching Up- July... Until Now

Whoo. I made it to the current month with catching up. Happy day! So here we go with what's been happening so far in July.

July is the month of BBQs.

We tried out Jeremy's Father's Day present a few times.

Jeremy's sister and her kids came through town moving back to Washington. We had a BBQ.

Jeremy and our friend Debbie created this balloon sculpture for a baby gender reveal. Super cute and it worked great. Colored balloons were inside the big balloon (and some baby shaped balloons). A tack was taped to the end of a wooden dowel to pop the big one.

So all you people out there who want to do a gender reveal party, hire them. It's a great way to do it. They can do any sculpture you want.

Most of us went to a 4th of July BBQ at friends'. It was fun to catch up with people we haven't seen in a while. While there we got wind, we got rain, we ended up eating indoors while it poured outside. Once the rain stopped, it cleared up enough for us all to enjoy a normal BBQ atmosphere (except it was colder- one of my children thought to bring a jacket). The boys were able to play, Nichole and I worked on a crossword puzzle, I socialized, and at the end of the night we watched fireworks and then fought the traffic to travel home.

Lucky was having too much trouble before we left, so Jeremy volunteered to be the consequence giver when Lucky lost the opportunity to go to the BBQ. He did show love however and they ended up having some good one on one time and watched a few fireworks themselves.

We celebrated Nichole's birthday. We didn't have a BBQ. We had chimichangas. We also had cake and ice cream. Nichole decided to decorate her cake with Reese's Pieces in the shape of a dragon.

On Video Games Day, July 8, there was video game playing... but not a BBQ.

Jr. Jr. went to a birthday party for a friend. Jeremy made a Pokemon balloon for Jr. Jr. to take.

Jeremy and I went to see Spider-man: Far from Home. Woo-hoo. Date! By the way, I loved it. Spider-man is my favorite superhero right now and after watching that movie, he still is.

Nichole went to Youth Conference with our ward and had a good time. It was a two day event but the kids got to come home overnight. While she was headed home, I had the opportunity to meet up with other birders for a late night owling trip. Unfortunately the weather was such that the owls were hunkered down and sometimes responded to our calls, sometimes didn't, but they never came out for us to see them. Except for some Western screech owls at our last stop.

July 13 was Embrace Your Geekiness Day. Besides the hugs going around (embrace your geek, remember?), Jeremy, Nichole, Jr., and I watched some Doctor Who, Jeremy played some Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and we decided to make food from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook so we had toad in the hole (we pronounce it toad 'n the 'ole) and derby savory pudding (we pronounce it darby). The cookbook didn't have a recipe for butterbeer so Jeremy found one online.

Our ward had an ice cream social one Sunday, but we were separated into different neighborhoods so there wasn't as big a crowd at the church. So we got together with a few other families in our area at someone's house and enjoyed ice cream and socializing.

Monday, July 15, was Gummi Worm Day. Lucky was in charge of FHE treat that day so he liked the idea of eating dirt. Mmmmm. It was good.

We've been trying to do mommy-child and daddy-child dates with our kids so we did two the next day. Jr. Jr. and I went to Watergardens Cinema to watch Toy Story 4. They have a good deal that on Tuesdays you can get a ticket, small popcorn, and small drink for $5. Jr. Jr. loved that his root beer kept going through the hole at the top so he had to keep sipping it off the lid. He found it quite funny. The movie was cute but the best thing was having that bonding time with my son.

Lucky's date with Daddy was to go camping in the backyard. They also planned to do camping food and decided to invite the whole family and our neighbor to come out and grill with them (yet another BBQ).

After dinner, the other kids and I went inside to watch a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie because July 16 is Ginger Rogers' birthday. Jr. also worked on a project for UVU Prep while we watched.

Jeremy and Lucky ate snacks and watched a movie in the tent and when they woke in the morning had some fun giggling and talking together.

That next day, we went back to the library to participate in the Orem Express Escape Room. The train broke down in the past and we had to work together to fix it and make it back to 2019. It was the first time most of us had done an escape room and we had a good time. It was good for all ages and the younger kids did a good job with their parts. The other team that was supposed to be with us didn't show up so it ended up being just our family. And we made it. We escaped to 2019.
Well done, Orem Library. That was a good family activity.

Another thing we did for the Summer reading program was the boys wrote notes to people in our ward and delivered them using their scooters.

They've been interested in finding ways to do service lately. Jr. Jr. and Lucky have been making charts and when they fill them up they get a reward. It's been cute to see them giving hugs, refilling water bottles, cleaning their room without being asked for a certain amount of time, doing laundry, and all sorts of things. Thanks, boys. It's good to see you guys finding ways to want to help out.

Jr. finished UVU Prep for this Summer. We went to his closing celebration and got to see some projects he'd been working on. Well done, son.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. CBS showed what was broadcast those days 50 years ago, commercials and everything. The launch of Apollo 11 and then four days later the landing and moon walk on July 20. We of course celebrated by watching on those days.

One of our kids said to us, "You were probably too young to remember when this actually happened." Um... yeah. We weren't born yet. This was before any of our parents were even married. I talked to my mom about it and it did happen while she was dating my dad. She told me that my dad was at her house watching it with her dad while my mom was at work.

Nichole and Jeremy went out on a birding field trip together. Good bonding time. They saw a black phoebe which they hadn't seen in this area of Utah before. We've seen them at Zion National Park and in Oregon but not here.

Yesterday, the kids went out to help the neighbors weed for a little bit then bought snow cones from their snow cone stand and stuck around to help them out with the stand (and run around and play).

Last night for FHE we decided to do theme night (we haven't done that in a while). We had circus foods while watching the live action Dumbo movie.

I had the kids each decorate a bag which we later put popcorn in. They got on a Winnie the Pooh theme, though Lucky started with Link from Legend of Zelda. Nichole did a fairy scene. Jr. Jr. did colored circles.

And here we are to the present.