Creating Keepsakes

Well, I did it. I finished my entry for this year's Scrapbooker of the Year. I had a great time putting together layouts for this and even making a mini album. I will post some of my project when I am allowed to. (You can only have 8 published posts. The rest have to be unseen.) Now it is off to plan my portions of the Family Reunion.

Another week

Hunter was able to stay with us after his family went home. We have had a great time with him and he is a great kid. He fits well into our family dynamics so adding one more has been fun. He is even a pretty good cleaner. The kids have had a great time getting to know him and spending some time with him. That is the one stinky thing about living away from family is how much they don't know their cousins. I am glad that Lin and Jess allowed him to stay with us. So far so good. We still have 10 more days to go, but we are loving him like our own. :-) And I must say, that in the week since his mom left he has become quite the little swimmer. He is running right along side of my fish. :-)

More Company

We had a 2 day recovery period before our next guests arrived. An old friend from WY came with her kids for a couple of days to visit. We also laid low and spend time in the pool. Both Lucas and Keely loved the water. Keely is a fish just like Billie and I think we saw her more under the water than above it. We had a great time catching up with Lezlie too. It is nice to have friends that you know are your friends because they are still your friends even after you move 5 times. :-) Thanks for coming guys. It was great! You are welcome to come anytime!

Visit with our Cousins

Kiley Clinging to the wall!

Taggart "When can we go swim?"

The great Hunter. He loves the dive sticks in the shallows!

Madison first needed to try the slide this way.

Then she needed to try it this way.

We had a great time having our cousins here for a whole week. There were 3 adults matched up to 7 kids. We basically swam, watched movies and scrapbooked for the whole week. The kids did wonderful and we only had a couple small fires to put out. Kiley and Hunter came not so sure of the water and by the time the week was over, they both were doing great. Madison and Taggart are 2 of the biggest daredevils I have ever seen and it was a good thing they both had water wings on. :-) Jess and I set up a table and scrapbooked almost everyday. We swam in the evenings after the kids were in bed and even had a night out while Bill held down the kids... err I mean the fort. :-) At the end of the week we took everyone to see the Valley Youth Theater production of High School Musical. The kids really liked it and they had fun going around to all the actors and geting their autographs afterwards. Some of the kids were a little star struck I think. It was a good ending to the week. Bill said he hadn't heard me laugh that much in years. It was fun and I was so glad to have the chance to get to know Jess some more.

Another week of summer break. Check!

Wow! It is already a week later. This has been a busy week. We swam every morning but Thursday. We were up bright and early Thursday and hit a couple of grocery store sales (I do Coupon Sense and there were some good deals) and then we went to one of the local theaters free summer movie. We saw Curious George with our friends and had a great time. Then we had another swim meet in the afternoon that day. It was super hot (116 according to Bill's truck). Yesterday we swam and then cleaned up the house to get ready for our guests coming. This morning we were at the pool by 6:30 am for the 10 and under meet. The kids swam great despite being tired. James finished his last heat of freestyle and said, "Dad I just want to swim all the way to the bottom. That would be cool." Grant was so tired that he was barely kicking his legs but he dropped like 15 seconds off his freestlye. Billie did good. I love it when she comes out of the water during the race and gives us a big toothless grin. :-) We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our cousins this evening. Jess and the kids are staying for the week and Lin will fly back to come help drive home next weekend. It is going to be a week filled with swimming, playing and scrapbooking. We are all excited. It is fun to spend time with the cousins. I will try to get the camera out at least once this week.

First Swim Meet of the Season

We drove to Wickenburg AZ yesterday afternoon for the kids' first swim meet of the season. The kids each participated in 3 events. Freestyle (front crawl), Backstroke and then the relay. We ended up with anywhere from 1st to 6th place. They each did great and I am so proud of them for trying their best. We are having such a great time with swim team. The kids are making some great friends and the work out each day is wonderful for afternoon quiet time! :-)

Billie all set and waiting to go. I can tell by her position how much she is concentrating.
James Backstroking "James Style"!

Grant waiting for the start of Backstroke.

Billie doing the freestlye!

James getting ready for the freestlye. (He's the one with all the hair!)

James: He is freestlying it, not drowning!

Grant coming off the blocks for his freestyle event!

See how there are two kids in the water in one lane. This is the relay, but Billie was so excited about swimming that when she heard the buzzer she jumped in. We couldn't get her to come back at all! Because they are so little they let it slide and she didn't have to re-swim it.

Here is Grant swimming his relay. Notice in the picture that there are 2 kids sitting at the other end. Those kids finished before the person before Grant had even finished, so Grant swam as fast as he could all alone in the pool. When he got out and I told him good job he told me "mom, swimming is not about winning or losing, it is about doing your best." What a kid.

Memorial Day

I can't believe how quickly life is speeding by. May was a blur and now June is speeding a head like a train. We spend Memorial Day weekend building a shed in the back yard. The kids helped a little and then splashed in the pool the rest of the time.