Summer = Swim

Summer for us sure = swimming. Lots of swimming. We do swim lessons for the kids every year at my inlaws house. It is so awesomje and convenient accept there is no bathroom close by. Other than that issue it is so nice to have a private pool to have lessons. A nice girl Craig gre up with named Michelle and her assistant Miriam, works with them every summer. It has made a huge difference in there swimming ability. Because of Michelle we were able to get Andrew started with Pre comp swim team. We are trying a new club called cottonwood heights this summer and so far it has been much better. On 1 day a week Michelle works with him on perfecting his strokes and 2 days a week he practices at the outdoor club pool. This pool is my inlaws....

This is Andrew at practice doing pushups and warming up foranother day of swim practice.

This is Andrew swimming at his most recent swim meet. He swam 3 heats. 25yrd Butterfly, 25 yrd Breast strok and 25 yrd free style. He got first place in all three heats. Way to go Andrew! We are so proud of you. You are awesome!

The next sport we have lined up for him is tackle football. Mom is not ready for this but dad has been planning it since he was born. I hope he is ready for that because I sure am not!

camping adventures

It is a tradition to go camping every summer with just our little family. This year Craig could not WAIT to get up the canton so we could camp. We ended up at Tanners Flat up little cottonwood canyon. Apparently he checked the weather and even though the chance of rain was more than 50% he thought it would just blow over us. well any of you who know how much it has rained in Utah this spring, you know that if there was a chance of rain, it was going to rain. We got everything set up, our fire going and dinner on the fire. All of the sudden a huge black cloud came right over our heads with huge gusts of wind. We had about 1 minute to collect everything, throw it in the tent and get inside the tent before we had a huge downpoor. We stayed in the tent hoping it would pass quickly but it didn't. The tent started getting wet inside and the blankets were getting wet and the pillows were getting wet and we decided since we were 15 min. from our warm beds we would pack up what we could and go home. Craig agreed he would come back for the tent in the morning. We borrowed a a tent from Craigs mom and dad that was bigger than ours so when Craig decided we should try camping again the next night, we brought our own. Craig laid out the muddy tent to dry on our lawn and burned a huge section of our lawn. It is barely looking green again. Here are some pictures before the downpoor. Atleast I got those...

Waiting out the storm. Since we werent able to do smoores I gave the kids some powderd doughnuts to tide them over. Here is the evidence on their faces..

The next night of course the weather was perfect. Sunny and warm so we decided to give it another go. This time we went up American Fork Canyon so we could bring our dog Ute. Ute loves to go camping. We have to do some 4 wheeling to get to the good spots which of course makes my dog car sick. So he threw up on the towels I luckily put underneath him. This camping business is a lot oif work! Once we got there we all had a great time. We found the best spot right next to the river and in an open area wher we had views on the mountains and gorgeous aspen trees.

Miniature Golf With Nina

One of the kids favorite things to do with Nina is Miniature golf. This is a tradition that goes way back to when Andrew was 3 years old. When Cali was born and Nina came to help...she would take Andrew miniature golfing every day. Til this day they love to go and when anyone gets a hole in one we all sing...Shake your boody, shake, shake your boody. It is so fun. My mom came out to help with my Thyroid scan and since it was a clean scan and I was cleared I got to go have some fun with My mom and the kids. What a relief. Thanks for always coming and having fun with us Nina! We love you!

Cali Graduates Preschool

Cali Had the opportunity to go to a neighborhood preschool with her twin cousins this year. They are the best of friends and had such a fun year together. This teacher is named Teacher Kathy and the girls love her. She has taught my two kids and my brother and sister in laws kids. She is retiring after this year so we were happy to get all our kids through before that happend. It is bitter sweet because now Cali has graduated and will be going into Kindergarden. I will have two kids in school now. We are so proud and so excited for her. My little girl is growing up fast. The kids put on a graduation show which consisted of song, nursery rhyms, days of the week and months of the year. Cali sort of stole the show with how LOUD she was. The other kids had a little more shyness than her. It was cracking me up it was so loud. Here are some pictures from her special day....

Sorry this is so delayed. Things have been more than crazy around here. More to come...

I Promise

I have been telling myself for weeks to do a new post. I have lots of summer activities to update. Between swim lessons and camping and swim team for andrew, 4th of Juky etc... we have just been running around and staying busy. i was going to start working on it but on thursday my mother in law got very ill and she has been in the hospital for a couple days.We thought it was a stroke in the beginning but We are extremely concerned and dont know exactly what is going on. We do know that she has had a brain absess and has bacteria in her spinal fluid. Right now she is not aware of whats happend to her. She is aware that she is in the hospital but she came in with severe pain. Today she is feeling better pain wise but not fully coherent. She is on heavy antibiotics and steroid to reduce swelling in her brain. They are running many tests and everything is just a guess at this point. We are all very worried about her and we know she needs all the prayers she can get. She will need to stay at the hosital for several more days. We are all very worried and hope we can get her better soon. The doctors think they are on the right track now but we just dont know anything for sure.

Zions National Park

We spent this years memorial weekend in Zions national park. Craigs family invited us to all go and stay at the lodge in the park. It was a great trip. We did some hiking, horseback riding, exploring,eating, Ice cream, etc. We also celebrated Alans birthday when we were down there. I was so amazed at how much fun it is and how convenient it is to stay in the actual park. It was awesome. The kids did major hiking. Especially the boys. Andrew and Jacob did Angels Landing (scary hike) with their dads. They took it like a couple of champs. When they got back all they wanted was ice cream. They really desearved it after that adventure. Here are some of the pictures from the trip.

The narrows Hike (cali and I just walked to the water part) The boys did the whole hike.

here is Andrew flexing at the top of Angels Landing. Holy moly that kid is strong!

One of the things you can do for the kids is buy these jr. ranger booklets for a dollar. The kids have to fill out information about the park and help pick up trash etc. When they have finished they say a pledge and get jr. Ranger badges. The boys were thrilled to accomplish this. They are so cute!