August Snapshots

We spent our summer doing as much swimming as possible. A friend of ours introduced us to the reservoir in a nearby neighborhood. I think it is stocked with fish, but my kids just liked playing in the sandy mud and splashing in the water. I liked the zero-depth entry. We always left super dirty, but I started using the sprayers at the fish cleaning station to hose my kids off--a little gross, but better than mud and sand in my car.

One afternoon during Evie's nap, Anna found my stash of maxi pads and wrapped several around her arms. She was very proud of herself and I thought it was funny.

Anna had lots of nightmares this summer and so, ended up sleeping on the floor by our bed often. One morning, when we got up, I noticed that Anna burrowed under our bed, leaving only the bottom half visible.

Anna's friend Avery has an inflatable pool in her backyard, so we spent lots of time swimming over there too. Evie wanted so wanted to be with the big kids, but the water was almost as deep as she is tall. The first time, she fell several times and couldn't pull herself up out of the water without some help. I spent a lot of time running over and pulling her out. Eventually she figured out how to keep her head above water.

Climbing on Grandma

We made several trips to farmers' markets in our area, but only managed to make it to the downtown market once this year. It was a little early for apples, but we found some golden delicious and bought some lunch.

Yummy ice cream cake!

In July, my sister Jamie and her husband, Chris, adopted their first baby boy, who is also Anna and Evie's first cousin. They love their cousin and at first Anna called him her brother.

Tyler looks a little worried about having Anna hold him.

Upside down or right side up, we love sunglasses at our house.

Bear Lake

July 13, 2011

In July, Heather and her family spent a few days at Bear Lake and they invited us to come up and join them for the day. So right after swim lessons, I put the girls in the car with lots of snacks and we drove up to Bear Lake. If I remember right, we made it there around two or three and then stayed until about six or seven before heading home. It was a long day, but what kid doesn't love playing in the water and the sand/mud? I've been up to Bear Lake pretty regularly over the past several years and I was stunned by how high the water was. All the "beaches" I'm familiar with were well under water, but Heather's family had set up camp on North Beach up in Idaho and it was the best beach I've ever seen along Bear Lake because it was more sand than mud.

Evie is clutching some sort of candy, like jelly beans or something. I can't remember now what it was, but I do remember that she kept dropping them in the sand, and rather than let her eat sand covered candy, I kept taking them away from her.

Swim Lessons

Some day I will be all caught up with my photos, but until then . . .

It took me about half of the summer to decide, but I finally put Anna in swim lessons. We had just enough of the summer left for her to do two sessions. The first was at a city rec center and the second was at a private pool. Anna loved being in the water and by the end of the first session, she was great about putting her face in the water and jumping in.

Poor Evie got stuck on the side with me. I should have thought to sign her up for a Mom and Me class at the city rec center, but by the time I thought about it, the classes were all full. Evie was a pretty good sport about watching Anna, but some days were harder than others.

I the second session, Anna was the only girl in her class and the youngest one, so her teachers probably didn't push her as hard as they could have, but she had a good experience. By the time the session ended, she was still trying to figure out how to coordinate her arms with her legs so that she could swim across the pool. I'm sure the pieces will all fall into place this next summer.

Temple Tuesdays: Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple

 You can't tell by their faces, but my girls loved sitting on top of the sign in front of the temple.

After the temple, we went to a park in Herriman with a splash pad, but Evie wanted to play on the dry playground.

 The first time she went down this slide, she bumped her head twice on both sides of the curve. After crying for a bit, she went right back. The second time down, Evie had figured out how to avoid bonking her head.  I can't remember if Anna was helping her go down the slide or pushing her down in this photo.

 Anna and her friend Will, with Evie tagging along.

While Will's mom, Dawn, and I chatted, Anna and Will thought it was fun to play in the hot car. I think it's because they were eating all of Dawn's gum.

Snapshots in April 2011

On April Fool's Day we went swimming with my friend Cami and her Janey, who is Anna's age. Mostly the girls wanted to stay in the kiddie pool far away from the giant bucket that dumps out water. Evie really liked the slide in the kiddie pool but needed a little help to actually get moving down it. I pulled out my camera just before we left. I guess I wanted to document the fact that we went swimming since it had been awhile for us since our last trip to the pool.

Evie playing with Anna's crown.

One day the girls dragged out Anna's little rocking chair and took turns pushing each other in it. Of course I was elated to see them sharing something rather than fighting over it.

Anna likes to climb in these storage bins and asks me to put the lid on. I told her I'd only do it for a few seconds--long enough to snap this photo. But before anyone calls DCFS, I won't put the lid on for her anymore. In fact, now when she asks, I just read her the warning on the lid itself.

One morning I came out from my room to discover that Anna had taken a purple piece of chalk and drawn all over our walls. Luckily for both of us, chalk wipes right off.

Showing off the bling she brought home from a birthday party.

We were so excited when the weather got warm enough to go to the park. Yay!

Easter presents from Grandpa and Sandy. Anna receive a Lamb Chop replica and Evie got a little Woodstock.

Yes, in case you are wondering, that is a diaper Anna put on her head. I don't know anymore than that.

My mom found this sucker that was covered with a plastic globe and little balls of candy. I think the idea was that the kid could dip her sucker in the candy balls and lick them off, but to my mom, it reminded her of a rattle. She thought it would also look like a rattle to Evie too and she could just play with it. But Evie immediately recognized it for what it was and demanded that we unwrap it so that she could get that sucker into her moth.

I still don't know why, but one day, my kids decided it would be fun to take all the books out of our bookshelf and dump them behind the kitchen table. I try to keep reminding myself that they are learning initiative when they do these sorts of things. I guess I just need to do a better job of teaching them to help me clean up these messes. And of course, I decided to take a picture to document this mess.