Summer Round Up

 I have enjoyed this summer so much!  I'm sad to see it end.  I have loved the break from preschool so that I could focus on other projects and planning fun activities.  Dallin continued with Tae Kwon Do  and swim lessons this summer and even got to participate in a week long soccer camp.  He definitely got his exercise!  Here are some highlights....

Playing at the beach

 I braved the beach for a day outing while Zane was working.  We went with a big group of friends and had so much fun!

Gavin had a great time with sand covering his entire body including his hair!

 Zane built the boys an outside toy box and the boys got to help paint it!

We tried our hands at bowling.

Dallin really enjoyed it!

 His blurry victory dance

We celebrated Zane's birthday.  Dallin announced today that his daddy was almost 50 because he is 33.

Of course we lived at the pool.  Gavin was scared of it at the beginning of summer but by the end he would push off the wall and start swimming to me even if I wasn't there!  He has a beautiful dolphin kick.  Dallin worked on swimming across a 25 meter pool (he will be ready for swim team next year) and new jumps off the diving board.  This is his flip.

We found some new fountains by my mom's house that we loved to play at.  In this picture Aunt Lindsey was the best playmate with Dallin and his friends. 

 We worked on Gavin's sleep habits.  He sleeps wonderfully for me in his toddler bed with the door locked (without the locked door, he plays a game of open and shut the door or wanders around the house.)  Before figuring out how to get him to sleep after he learned how to crawl out of his crib, we found Gavin in some great sleeping positions!

Dallin "reading" stories to Gavin in his new bed. Eventually they will share a bedroom and Zane will build a lower bunk to Dallin's loft bed, but until a baby comes, we are keeping them separate for our sake!

 Gavin can't wait until it cools off because he loves to ride his bike.  He doesn't seem to understand why mom doesn't want to stay outside watching him ride in the heat!

Zane and Dallin in their first three legged race at a church party.

Summer also means family parties.  If we have a Monday off of work, then we usually get together for a breakfast at a park.

Races!

We drove past the elementary school the other day seeing parents arriving for Meet the Teacher night while we drove to the swimming pool.  I was very glad right then that I have one more year with Dallin before Kindergarten.  I start teaching preschool this week.  Dallin has so much interest in numbers and learning all kinds of new things.  Gavin loves learning about animals and is talking more and more.  I'm excited to see how they grow and change this year!

They Are Ready...

 My boys love babies.  They pray for a baby girl every night to come to our family.  We asked Dallin how he would feel if a baby boy came to our family.  He said he only wants a girl.  Maybe he will change his tune after Aunt Haley has her little boy.  Dallin is also planning on naming the baby Ellery after his cousin.  They both love her!

 This video was taken weird.  I'm not smart enough to know how to fix it!

We keep getting asked what is happening with our adoption process.  I wrote two posts (this one and this one) about our process and was planning on writing a third one about our homestudy experience (a great story) when we were approved and ready to be shown to birthmoms.  Unfortunately, our agency we are working with has had some upheavals with staff and our process has slowed way down.  We are still waiting to get approved.  When that big day comes, I will let you know!

Relaxing in the Lake

Our last day of vacation we just wanted to keep things simple and relax in the lake.  We found a section to play in that felt like bathwater.  We rented some tubes and headed out for some fun in the sun!

Gavin and Grandma

Dallin and Caleb were like little seals in the water.  They were constantly diving down looking for rocks and swimming all over. (Notice those feet?  Dallin is using a butterfly kick to get under water.  He has learned sooo much at swim lessons this year!)

 

Gavin played with the rocks his own way getting incredibly dirty.

 

If there are tubes, then boys feel the need to figure out how to stand on them. 

 

 

It took a lot of effort and practice.

 

But eventually the hard work paid off!

 

After all that hard work, it was time to relax

This picture looks deceiving.  It looks like we are all relaxing....

But really we are circling up

to start tube wars!

I'm the winner!!!

The second time though I was ganged up on

and wasn't so lucky

Thanks for a great vacation mom and dad!

Lazy Days of Summer

Vacation is the perfect time to have lazy days.  You can only handle so much sun and water before it is time to come in and relax.  Honestly the adults were wishing the kids wanted to relax more since we definitely all wanted a nap every day but that was wishful thinking.  One of my kids woke up between 6 and 6:30 a.m. every day and then woke the other one up.  Zane and I took turns getting up with them and heading outside on the porch to keep the noise down so that others could keep sleeping.  There is only so much you can do to keep the noise down though...

If your up early, you might as well exercise.  I brought Insanity which wasn't so relaxing, but when you eat like we eat on vacation, you have to do Insanity to not gain 15 pounds!  The workout was worth it though to enjoy so much yummy food!

There was plenty to entertain the kids when we were staying in especially since Lindsey brought her dog.  The cabin we stayed at also had a wrap around porch that seem made for little boys to run around and around it.  To have that much energy...

Dog toy or baby toy?

When my family gets together, we have lots and lots of game playing...including the kids!

IPads also help with entertainment.  Even a two year old can figure it out.

When the kids are finally in bed (and believe me they were in bed as soon as we could justify it),  games really got underway.  We play a variety of games, but one of the best ones had a round of charades with it.  This always brings plenty of laughter especially if my dad is involved.

I'm not sure I have any room to talk though!

Game playing and late night talking is probably my favorite part of vacation.  If I could just add sleeping in, it would be perfect!

Hiking Trip

 After spending a day boating, we took a break the next day and went hiking.  Where we live, we don't get a lot of hiking in so the boys really enjoyed themselves being able to run free amongst rocks and dirt.

 Looking ahead at the family

My dad kept wondering why we don't own hiking backpacks for our young kids.  It has never crossed our minds to buy one.  In the end, we all took turns putting Gavin and Carter on our shoulders.

Grabbed some hiking sticks and they were ready to go!

Trying out their own balance beam

Balance beams take some intense concentration

 

 This is the way to hike

Even better...this kid can sleep anywhere/anyway

Zane carried Gavin downhill and I think he was in some pain by the end from the uncomfortable position, but he didn't want to move him so that he would stay asleep.  What a good dad.

Swimming, Boating, Game Nights...Family Vacation 2012

Every summer we try to go on a family vacation with my side of the family. Usually we stay pretty close to home so that everyone can come but this year we ventured out to a lake about 7 hours away.  We stayed in a cabin among hills and forests and although we still had the heat, it was a nice change from home.  Because of the heat, most of our activities revolved around water.  The first day we tried out the lake by the dam and it was really cold!  Some of us braved the cold anyways and had a great time throwing a frisbee around and eventually dunking each other.

Zane gets the award for treading water the longest in the cold water (he is the guy in the back of the picture)

The kids eventually got tired of the cold water and played with the rocks on the beach instead.

On Tuesday we headed out in the boat to water ski.  This water was the perfect temperature!

Water skiing is one of Zane's most favorite activities. 

I on the other hand don't really enjoy skiing probably because it was so hard for me to learn to get up.  It didn't help that while I was trying to learn my brother (who shall go nameless but you know... the older one) thought it was funny to kill the boat and yell out at me," Sorry Shamu. The boat can't pull you up." Every one of my siblings water skiied before me.  It probably took me three or four summers before I finally got up.  That first time I cried the whole time while I skiied because I was so proud of myself.  I surprised Zane this trip by saying immediately that I wanted to go skiing and then going in and out of the wake (hence the picture below showing the shock on my face that I did it without falling.) The biggest surprise is that I enjoyed myself!

My little sister Lindsey and her husband Derrick drove 24 hours to be on the vacation.  They brought their dog who the kids all loved (probably a little too much.)

Dallin and mommy enjoying a tube ride.  I couldn't figure Dallin out. Sometimes he acted like he loved the tube rides and other times he refused to go.  He had a cut on his foot which bothered him while riding on the tube but I also think going too fast scared him.  It is nice to know that something does scare Dallin. 

Gavin can apparently take a nap anytime and anywhere.

Zane, Derrick, and Clayton trying to see who can stay on the tube the longest.  Boys amaze me sometimes because you can tell by this picture that Clayton's arm is in a very uncomfortable position and Zane's shoulder was in pain the next two days from this tube ride.  When he moaned about his arm I just kept saying, Why didn't you let go?"

Caleb, Dallin and Aunt Lindsey riding the tube.  Dallin didn't want to go again but then the competitive side of him won out and he got on.

Zane and I trying to hang on while Matt tried to dump us.

We finally got Gavin to try tubing with Grandpa and Caleb.  He didn't look like he enjoyed it but he didn't cry either.

Maybe he did enjoy himself.

Stay tune for part 2.