![\"\"](\"https:\/\/marcusandshona.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_3284.jpg\" "\\"IMG_3284\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In July,\u00a0I bought three colorful storage ottomans from Target for the playroom. I say “storage” ottomans, but they don’t store much on Pookie’s watch:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n In July, one night we had a moon that was so amazing, it looked like the sun in the pictures we took:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In July, some birds poached apricots from our apricot tree:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In July, I bought a “guaranteed to grow” daisy plant kit from the dollar section at Target:<\/p>\n It grew just great until a couple of weeks later when I killed it (by accident).<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n In July, I baked chocolate chip cookies for Emrick for the very first time (I know!):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In July, Marcus and I made family flashcards, using pictures we took at the family reunion in Florida in June:<\/p>\n \u00a0Marcus printed them out and cut them up, and then I took them to Fed Ex, where they have a self-serve laminating machine. This flashcard thing was Marcus’ idea, and it has worked great. We made them with the hope of keeping his memory on these people fresh, and making it easier for him to readjust to people between visits, especially the grandparents whom he sees often. So far, he has seen all of his grandparents and one of his uncles since we made these, and in all cases, I think the cards definitely helped. He warms up in a couple of minutes instead of half an hour or more. AND, he knows everybody’s names. His pronunciation may not be perfect (e.g. Clark is “clock”; Anna is “nyeah”; Chris is “tiss” or “kiss”) but he knows every one. “Sam” is the one name he says perfectly.<\/p>\n \u00a0In July, Marcus went to Boston for five nights for a trade show, and when he came back, he had some souvenirs for us:<\/p>\n In July, Marcus’ work moved into new office space that was being renovated. When we visited, the renovations were not all done, but they were far enough along that the offices were usable:<\/p>\n This is the office ping pong room. You read me right — the room that is dedicated solely to PING PONG. Marcus’ boss is quite the enthusiast.<\/p><\/div>\n This is Emrick relaxing on the bench in the foosball nook. Yep. Foosball nook.<\/p><\/div>\n After this, we toured the sports complex, the video game lair, and the laser tag arena. (ha)<\/p>\n In July, Emrick learned how to feed himself his own yogurt:<\/p>\n In July, Emrick watched the Olympics, surrounded by toys and snacks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In July, Emrick got a hold of my camera:<\/p>\n In July one of the many fires burning Utah was burning in the foothills just above the neighboring community to us.<\/p>\n A few days after that fire was contained, and the streets reopened, we went for a drive in that community to see how close the fire had come to some of the houses we’d looked at during the Parade of Homes in June (I still need to post pics of those homes).<\/p>\n These charred trees were right across the street from one of the houses we saw.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>