July 2025

July was a hot month with only enough rain to keep it super humid, but on the last day of the month, a cold front came through and the temperature dropped by about 20 degrees and all the moisture in the atmosphere came pouring down.  The New York City subways flooded once again. Aside from summer weather, here's what else we've been up to (and here are all the photos).

Rob: On July 4th, we went to Circleville Park and did their paddleboats, played on the beach and cooled off with some ice cream. Later we made burgers and did some fireworks in the yard, which Alex always enjoys. The day after, which was a Saturday, we went over to the town of Beacon to catch their fireworks display at a park. It was a bit smaller than the one in Newburgh that we went to last year, but still fun. Later in the month, we got more fireworks in at a county event they do each year at Thomas Bull park closer to our town. Their show includes drones and fireworks. As per usual, watching fireworks is about the only thing that keeps Alex's attention continuouslly. The other thing is YouTube Kids on his iPad, which we removed for a while so he would do other things, but we added it back on and he's been pretty happy about that.

Rob: On July 17th, we got a new boiler installed, which took several workers all day. Due to all the minerals in the well water, and maybe improper maintenance, the heat exchanger on the old boiler got all gunked up with scaling and needed to be replaced. Incidentally, our hot water pressure was slowly approaching a trickle. Our landlord decided it wasn't worth the cost to replace the heat exchanger, and just decided to replace the whole unit. Glad I didn't have to pay for it (although I've been through that before). But it's nice to have hot water at full pressure again.

Rob: On July 25th, my twin nephews Keaton and Mason stopped by for a visit. Mason was serving a mission in the area up until last year, although he mostly stayed close to Newark. So he wanted to come back this summer and bring his twin brother Keaton and visit some friends from his mission. They took a red eye flight and came straight over from the airport. I took the day off. I let them unwind for a bit and have some lunch. Then we went on two short hikes, one to Split Rock for some swimming and the other to the nearby Awosting Falls, although it was less spectacular than usual due to lack of rain.  Then we came back, visited with Becky and Alex for a bit, had some dinner, and they went on their way. It was great to have them over.

Rob: In other outings, me and Alex went back to Split Rock for a swim (same place I later took Mason and Keaton to). I also took Alex to Plum Point Park, which has a nice beach on the Hudson with nice views. We also took a trip down to Paramus and went to Ikea and the mall there, both of which Alex enjoys. At the mall, we enjoyed also going to Cheesecake Factory to use a gift card we had from Becky's mom. We also went bowling again this month, which Alex is really into lately.

Rob: In an effort to be social, we got some pickleball going on at the church with some people from our ward. We now have enough pickleballers to get regular games going. We also met up with old friends Chris (used to be in our ward) and his wife Jasmine at the mall, and got to meet their adorable new baby Timmy.

Becky: It's been a great month, full of all the usual summer stuff (swimming, grilling, seeing friends, etc.).  Something that's new for me is that I'm doing volunteer work for an organization called "For the Many".  It's a local group that works to protect immigrants (there are a lot here) from ICE, make rent and housing more affordable, help the community go green, etc.  I met some great people doing phonebanking and thoroughly enjoyed my time at another peaceful protest.  I posted a picture from the Newburgh, NY protest on Facebook.  I was happy and surprised to see the local police grilling for everyone.  The police department also brought out sprinklers and toys for the kids.  So after we were done holding up signs, chanting, and hanging out, we all got to hang out some more with BBQ and snow cones.  Lots of people from the neighborhood joined us.  It was such a feel good evening with a beautiful sunset.  As Kamala Harris said in her interview on Stephen Colbert this week, it's great to "see strangers" come together and "instantly become neighbors".