We're swimming at the Y....M....C....A!!!!

I almost forgot about this!  Last summer the girls did 3 different camps.  The first one was free of charge and was really just an awesome visit from Micki and kids.  That was called "Camp Spokane".  The second one was a two week gymnastics camp.  The final camp of the summer was a 2 week swimming lesson class at the Y!

The girls have always loved the water but like most 6 year olds with limited time in the water, a little hesitant and nervous about swimming.  So we thought an organized class would help them get over some of their anxiety.  Overall it went well.  They might have been a couple of the weaker kids in the class and didn't quite graduate to the next level but we just took it as that; an introduction and familiarization.  As you'll see, they definitely had fun!!

Check out our YMCA!!  Really REALLY nice!

 Waiting for their class to start...getting ALL kinds of excited.

 I love those times when it is impossible for them to hold back their glee.  I've seen it in both of them a bit where they try to not act like little girls and brush off stuff that you know they're excited about....jumping in the pool is not one of those times.  Total unadulterated happiness.

 Katy was just a little bit more anxious than Alyssa when it came to going under water and trying to swim.  Part of the reason might have been their cheap goggles that we got them.  She would go under water and immediately flip them up and wipe her eyes.  That problem will be fixed this year with some much better gear.

 My one complaint...this dude.  You can just tell from his face he should not be giving lessons to kindergartners!  This high school kid got under our skin but he was relatively effective and the kids loved him so we didn't say anything.  But it was looks like this that made me want to take him aside and shake the highschool out of him. 

 Katy putting her whole face under.  I know it seems like a small achievement but this took a few lessons before she started doing this.  Great job, K!

 I actually got a picture of the anxiety.  So sweet.

 Lining up to all jump in.  One of the reasons I didn't like the teacher was he had a little toy that he would use to squirt the kids with water!  Who does that?!  Again, he would just push the line and not quite cross it.  One of the ways he made it okay was letting the kids get him wet.  Here's Katy getting him back a little.

 Don't know what was going on here but I LOVE Alyssa's face.  "You want me to do WHAT?!"

 High 5s all the way around.

 Cutest tooshies and hair.

 This is the girls friend Kaden from Kindergarten.  He's a great kid but but still tough to see my little girls making a big deal about a boy.  As great as this picture of Katy and Kaden chatting is, I LOVE Alyssa's face as she catches me trying to take a picture of them together.  Classic.  Oh it will only get worse, Alyssa.  I'm just experimenting with the endless ways I will embarrass you in front of your friends!

Well you can thank a cold for this rare midday blog as I'm home sick drinking lots of water and about to take a nap.  At least I'm blogging, right?!

The Summer of Visitors

What is this??  Another blog entry that isn't related to a "thank you" for any March of Dimes donation?? Yep.  My MO the last 3 or 4 years has been to blog religiously for nearly 5 weeks straight, then to take some time off.  Taking some time off turns into months at a time between blog posts.  Now I'm not saying that is going to happen again, but I do enjoy blogging and thought while we're having a quiet evening I should keep it going.

By quiet evening, I mean the girls are in bed and Lisa and I are watching a movie we've seen a dozen times.  We have been incredibly active the last couple of days with long walks, disc golf, real golf, basketball, and lawn care.  My body is TIRED!! So no way I'm moving from this couch until it's time for bed.

As I looked through our old pictures from last summer, I found a batch from one of our buddies, Tom.  It got me thinking about how many people came to see us last summer!  I think we have similar pictures from a lot of our visitors but Tom's visit was great....had lots of fun checking out some of our favorite hot spots including downtown, Coeur d'Alene, and Green Bluff.

 Our sweet girls...making visitors feel like family for 7 years straight!

 What's a trip downtown without a quick ride on the carousel? 

 I thought this was a cool pic...looking through a maple leaf (I think) cut-out on a bench near the water.

 Then there was this guy...creepy Elvis Clown who unfortunately would cross our paths a little later.

 I think Tom came at about the minimum the falls were at during the late summer.  They are ROARING right now!  

 Triplets??

 Alyssa pointing out something for Tom who seems a little confused.

 This was a long time coming...having someone take a City of Spokane pic of the family!  It was funny asking kids around us to get out off the blocks for a few seconds so we could take the picture...then struggling to get the girls to stand in the right place, look at the camera, and SMILE!  Not as easy as it seems.  

 I love these pictures of the kids playing in the fountain.

 And there he is... creep Elvis Clown lured us over for some fun balloon animals. I kept my distance while Lisa took one for the team.  

 The girls didn't seem to mind.  We may need to work on their creepy clown radar!

 Next stop is Lake Coeur d'Alene!  As many times as we had been, this was the first time we walked out on the dock and across the dock.  Stunningly beautiful August weather, eh??

 We weren't the only ones enjoying the weather.  Check out all the traffic on the lake.

 My sweet girls going ahead while Tom and I stayed back taking too many pictures.

 We couldn't come all the way out without sticking our feet in the water!!

 CdA hosts a speed boat race that was coming up real soon.

 I'll have to think about this a bit but I'm leaning toward declaring this my favorite moose statue ever.

 Time for some farm fun up at Green Bluff!!  Every time we go, we find something new to do or fruit to pick.  This was a mixture of lots of goats, peaches, and some apples that weren't quite ready yet.

 I don't think I stopped laughing the entire time we hung out with the goats.

 This picture puts you right there with us.  You can just hear him saying "bllleeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh"

 Not sure why but this one made me laugh out loud just now.

 Enough goating around, time for some FRUIT!  

 My, those are some sweet looking peaches!!   ....see what I did there??

 And the apples that we were told we could pick.  We're always given a free pass to eat whatever we want while we're out picking.  The girls love grabbing an apple and working on it while we walk around and make our way back to the farm.  This time they powered through it until the bitter end...those apples were NOT ready.  We had picked a few more but they didn't even charge us...they felt bad for the girls and that we spent time picking them.  I think we did something fun with them though... Lisa will have to remind me.

So that's just one example of the many visitors we had this past summer.  We now have a few more tricks up our sleeves of things to do so if you're thinking about making a visit, plan it NOW!!  Reservations are limited; first come, first serve!