Swallow Family Blog : July 2025

Nolan's birthday starts off the month of July. Before we celebrate him, we MUST give a much deserved shoutout to Tyler. He received a little piece of paper saying he's a Master. This kind of flew by for me; not so much for him. It's crazy to see how much has happened to our family during our years here in Texas! I'm grateful for every one of them!

Nolan learned how to connect with his friends on the VR. They have been playing quite a bit of Gorilla Tag. He's always SUPER sweaty afterwards! If you know, I'm sorry, my condolences. If you don't, maybe keep it that way! He begged for a Gorilla tag cake and somehow, I pulled it off! He is good at keeping Tyler and I strong in our logic skills for he constantly challenges our decision making skills. He's so athletic and he makes many things look so easy. We recently discovered he missed 1 question on his Mat STAAR test, testing in the 99th percentile of all 4th graders in the state of Texas. It's a good thing he likes math, because he is good at it! His brain works different with numbers. I love watching the strategies he uses to solve problems. We are letting him play fall baseball and are looking forward to the fall season!

I convinced Tyler to stop at a local firework stand. We got a very simple kit and some giant sparklers. Fun was had by all. They make giant poppers now and they are super loud. Haha, we enjoyed those. We kept it simple with a BBQ in Grand Prairie with Kenney and Teresa, then fireworks later at home.

Tyler and Grayson attended our Stake YM camp. It was somewhere in Oklahoma. It was Grayson first overnight camp. I'll never be grateful enough that Tyler has been able to attend many of these big experiences with him. My momma heart has a hard time with the idea of sending him alone.

It was a lot. One of the days Tyler did more than 10000 steps. I comparatively did like, 700. Haha. Nolan, Lyla and I rotted for 3 days. We ordered in dinner one night and spent the day with some friends at KidMania for a couple hours. All the leaders from our ward are super great people. They and Tyler all think pretty similarly, so lots of laughs and hard work are usually going on.

One of the stations was Hatchet throwing. Grayson's team won out of all the other teams in the Stake. He was so pivotal to his team winning that they gave him the trophy they won. Tyler gave a very Tyler-esque fireside in front of a huge bonfire.

It was all fun and games until some very tired boys had to pack up camp in the rain. Grayson was also very upset that he had to go to a fireside within 24 hours of being home. The audacity.

Tyler found a fun photo-op to try. We were surprised how well they turned out. They work best when you can jump high enough. I'm sure it was the photographers fault.

Lyla fell in love with our neighbors chicken. They kids taught her how to pick it up. She was so chill and had the coolest mop of feathers on her head. Lyla talked about it for days. Grayson's one true wish came true. He's finally taller than me.

The end of July brought around Grayson's birthday. He's officially a teenager. It's CRAZY to watch in grow over just the last two months. It's been quick and large and very noticeable. And totally the weirdest thing ever. He loves Wings of Fire. I broke down and bought a sugar print as he requested. He's also grown a love of steak. Tyler bought and cooked some good steak. He loves to read and has recently been listening to a LOT of music on Spotify (Thanks, Cass and Reagan!) He's signed up to try tennis this year adn I'm sure 7th grade is going to be interesting! He got 50th percentile in all his STARR tests! Right in the middle! Such a good place to be! He had no accommodations or help this school year and we couldn't be more proud of him for working hard to do his best! I don't know what happened in the last photo, but it looks like it was funny.