Camping

Sorry my blog has been silent.  We were gone camping all this past weekend and last week was crazy with prep for that.  We had a great weekend away.  Our first day there was rain, second was insane heat and humidity, but the last 2 days were just good, hot, summer days.  The kids all did great and even though camping is a lot of work, it is really relaxing for me.

We spent much of that first afternoon/evening of the porch of our cabin.  It was raining pretty good.  At one point Steve (who tolerates camping but it isn't his favorite) turned to me and said, "We are paying money to do this??"

Everyone got lots of reading in that first day.

A break in the rain allowed for some play time.

Child Labor

Cute Kids

Last month I took some pics for a friend from high school.  She has a 40th birthday party for her husband (can my friend's husbands really be 40??  Man, I'm getting old.)  Anyway, I did a combo of shooting for her party and taking some snapshots of her kids.  Krista, your kids are SO cute, it was fun to spend the day with you.

This little guy was too cute for words

Sisters, they couldn't look more different!!

Sweet little thing had a fascination with the orange Crush from the party.  We could not get it off her face for the pics!!

Swim Lessons

This has been a very busy 2 weeks.  For the first time ever, I sighed up ALL my kids for swimming lessons.  The catch for me was that at this pool, I could do them all at the same time, in different levels.  It was money well spent.  Everyone had a great time and it seems that everyone has learned some new skills. On Monday, I bought a 1/2 price pool membership, so we have been staying after class to swim.  It's been a scorcher this week, today it's over 100 degrees.  This pregnant mama is feeling it and am SO thankful for our central air.  Fun summer days.

Greta cracked me up with her jumping in the water.  Almost everything she does is with a huge smile on her face.  I had to teach her over and over again to shut her mouth when she jumped.  You can see her concentrating hard to keep it shut.

Aaron loves to go underwater, not quite swimming on his own yet.  I'm hoping he'll catch on by the end of the summer.

Smiling Morgan

Claudia was just waiting in line for the slide when I had my camera out.

There's the smile, though the mouth is shut!!

Brave

I have had the kids in swim lessons, this is halfway through our second week.  I am SHOCKED at how much Aaron and Greta are learning.  I have never had my kids in water this many days in a row, so I guess that is the key.  Steve came with us on Friday and got a little video of Greta.  That was the first day she was putting her face in the water.  Today she was jumping in and going completely under.  What's funny about her jumping strategy is that she needs to jump up and down about 10 times before she actually goes under.  I think she may be my bravest in the water??  Can't remember, I know Claudia was quite brave as well.  Go, Greta, go!!

New Toy

I'm not sure who was more excited, the kids or Steve.  He got a new rocket and had to assemble it.  We had to wait for a missing part to come in the mail, get the engines...the blast was a long time coming!

The launcher...

Assistance needed (sorry for the rear shot, dear.)

My poor husband and kids.  BOTH of the rockets got lost in different corn fields.  We did a search for both, but no luck.  After the second, Morgan was so sad.  After spending a long time in the corn she said to me, "All I have is a bunch of scratches and a bunch of sorrow."  Lesson learned.  Do not shoot rockets in our yard while the corn is high!

No training wheels!