Saturday, August 3, 2013

Practice Makes Perfect!

What a summer!
Once again, the summer has flown by. 
But what a summer.
A summer full of fun.

Usually, I sign the kids up to take swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer, but this year, we had two different camps and VBS scheduled.
So this year, we took the last swimming session 
of the summer.

This year...no tears!

I would call that successful.

Toward the middle of this week, Josh came said to me right before lessons.
"I've sort of been scared at swimming lately.
There's this boy there that looks like he might be the kind to pee in the pool."
I asked him what kind of boy looks like he might pee 
in the pool.  
"He's got freckles.  And he's tall."

Hmmm...
I'm not sure if he thought this boy was a real threat or if he was just kidding around.
Josh has the same dry sense of humor that William has.
I usually have a tough time telling if they are 
joking or not.

Oh!  Did you know that if you say "Gullible" really slowly, it sounds like "Green Beans?"

Yah.  That's me.

Yesterday was the last day of swim lessons, 
so it was "Fun Day!"
Fun Day is the day when they get to show off all that they have learned and then play for awhile.

Josh and Matthew are all ready to go!


Here we are!



Carrie and William are ready to see what Josh and Matthew have learned.
Carrie is taking pictures and sending them to Grandma since Grandma and Grandpa couldn't be there this year.


Ready...


Set...


GO!!!

 Back float...


Front float...


Freestyle...



Back stroke...


Josh and his friend are waiting for further instructions.


Meanwhile, Matthew is showing off his 
newly acquired skills.


Stream line...



Front stroke...



Matthew and his fellow Guppies.


Kicking...


and life jacket skills.


And the best part of Fun Day...Free Time!



I love Josh's face in this picture. 
You can tell that he just swam quite a way across the pool without a breath.


Matthew's not quite ready to jump in yet.  
Down the ladder he goes!





The Audience...



 I dare you to stick your head in the splash!



"I did it!  I did it!  I did it!"




I always get a picture of the kids with their teacher.
Josh's teacher this year was the teacher that 
Matthew had two years ago.
She wasn't able to be at Fun Day this year, 
so here's a picture of her from 2011.
And Matthew.
He was three!


Matthew had an awesome teacher this year...Mr. Chris.
He was really good with the kids and taught them so many pre-stroke skills!


With swimming lessons officially over, we took a few minutes to play at the Splash Pad.
Usually, we go sometime during the two weeks that we have lessons, but most of our swimming days...in JULY...were too cold and windy.
Fun Day was perfect!







Some brotherly love goin' on.









Oh, the trouble with long eyelashes.
They make wearing goggles so difficult.
Poor Matthew.


Always the joker.


We always plan something fun to look forward to after swimming lessons are all over.
Usually I need it for leverage.
"You have to go to swimming lessons so that you can go to __________."
Leverage...
Bribing...
Potatoes...Pototoes.

The last few years, we've gone to Chuck E. Cheese's.

This year, Daddy called to see what time 
we would be there.
He took off from work and met us there!
What a fun surprise!!!







I love swimming lessons.  I always have.  It's fun to sit there during lessons, listening to all the mommy chatter and doing some chit-chat of my own.  
This year was especially wonderful.  
A beautiful mixture of sunshine and cool breezes.  
And happy children!

Putting another year of swimming in the books,

Friday, April 26, 2013

From the Archives: Happy Campers

I'm looking through my posts to see what needs to either be deleted or finished.
This is pretty incomplete, and it ends pretty suddenly, but I had to post it.
Look how little everyone was!

From October 2008...

Once upon a time, about 14 years ago, Paul and I decided to buy a camper.

I was from a family who never went camping. Ever.

Paul was from a family who owned a pop-up camper and loved camping.

It was 14 years ago that I discovered the joy of camping. Our first big trip was to South Dakota to see the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. It was amazing! I remember camping next to the biggest fir trees I had ever seen. I remember watching the South Dakota sun rise in the morning and set in the evening.  I remember Paul taking the spaghetti to strain outside...and spilling it all in the dirt.  When our vacation was over, I felt like I had really been in South Dakota--like I had really experienced South Dakota.

It was then that Paul and I vowed to have a camper when we had kids. We just knew that it would be a great way to spend time together as a family.  And it has been. It is something that we have truly enjoyed together.

This week, we re-introduced camping to Joshua. He actually went on his first camping trip when he was just 2 months old. He also went to Pennsylvania when he was just 10 months old. The sad thing is that our last camping trip was our fall campout one year ago. We haven't been out at all this year...new baby, work schedule, excuses, excuses...

But who could possibly miss out on the annual Fall Campout?!
This year, we joined other church campers and enjoyed a beautiful week of camping!

Grandpa, Grandma, Paul, and Matthew enjoy the sights and sounds.
One of the funnest things about camping with the church is hanging out with friends.
This little guy is one happy camper! 
I think that Josh rode his legs off on this camping trip!  
He became quite a fantastic bike-rider!