swim lessons

We ended our summer with 2 weeks of swim lessons.  We always did swim lessons in Albuquerque and there didn't seem to be a problem with signing up for classes.  It was so crazy this year.  Registration opened up on a monday morning, I got on around 9:00 thinking I was doing good, but at least half of the classes were already full.  Trying to get 4 kids signed up for the same time in different classes was quite a struggle.  By the time I would get it all done, it would refresh and one of them would then be full. So the girls ended up in the same class which was a level higher than I wanted them to be in, and Dallen was in a higher preschool class than I wanted him to be in.  It all worked out though.  They ended up moving Dallen down to his level, and the girls stayed in their class and their teacher worked with them really well.  It all worked out, but I think we may try to do swim lessons in the spring instead of summer time and see if that works out any better.  Maybe they are crazy then too, we'll see. 

Bryleigh got to hang out with me.  We brought a little bag of toys for her.  She was a trooper.  Soon she will get to join them for lessons. 

Dallen in his class.  He did such a great job and progress so much! Before the class he was very timid in the water and would not put his face in the water.  He now loves to put his face under and does it all the time by himself. He is also so much more comfortable.  I was so proud of him!

Rylan also did so well!  He has loved the water for awhile and he spends most of his time under the water.  He started to do more floats and actually swim on his own.  It's so exciting to see them swimming by themselves!

The girls also did awesome! Their class mostly consist of doing laps in the pool of the different strokes.  The first few days were rough as they built up the endurance, and Hannah missed playing the fun games.  But they learned so much and got better at their different strokes. 

Rylan pushing off from the wall. 

My little buddy. She was so good!

Rylan swimming around. 

The girls treading water.  They were rock stars at this.  They had to do it for 5 minutes, and they were the only two to do it for that long the first time they tried. 

That was the other hard thing with signing them up, is the programs they used in Albuquerque were different from the ones they did here. They learned how to tread water in Albuquerque, but didn't have as much practice with some of the strokes.  So it will be good next year that I know what levels to put them in.  It will make it a little bit easier. 

They got to have some free time on the diving board, they loved that!

I was so proud of them all to learn and try new things!  They all love to swim!

crystal hot springs

We went camping with some of our friends at Crystal Hot Springs for one of our last summer hurrahs.  It ended up being on McKenna's birthday so her mom made all the kids fun pajamas.  They all loved them!

Dallen being silly!

Dallen and his friend Connor.  

We had fun hanging out by the fire and having smores that night. 

The next day we spent the whole day swimming in the hot springs. The main pool we swam in was nice and warm.  They also had some water slides that the kids had fun with. 

We all got a little sunburned even though we had sunscreen on. 

Having fun swimming. 

After lunch Bryleigh crashed.  It was fun to get to cuddle with her for a little bit. 

The water slides, snake pit and skeleton.  The older three spent most of their day going down the slides.  Kyle had fun on them too.  I don't like water slides, never really have.  So I hung out with the little kids. 

It was a fun little get away with some fun friends. We swam until about 4:00, we wore ourselves out.  All of the kids fell asleep on the way home.  Dallen stayed asleep and we put him in his bed for the night and he didn't wake up until the morning. It's always good when we wear them out!

July p12

We were so excited when my sister's family moved back to Utah, even if they are only here for a year.  We had the cousins stay with us for a few days, and the kids all had a blast.  One of the days we went to the new spray park that just opened up.  They had fun, but it was super busy so we didn't stay too long.  We decided to go to the one of base that is less busy, but it was cloudy that day so they were turned off.  So that was a bit of a bummer.  But they still had fun getting wet.

We had make your own pizza night.  They love this and getting to make and pick out what they want on their pizzas. 

Bethany and her purple hat.  She loves this hat and wears it all the time!

A little too much electronics going on.  The ipod, leapster and computer.  Shortly after this picture we banned electronics for the rest of the day!

Hanging out at the park.  This is her new way of taking a picture.  She folds her arms. 

Again, her arms folded.  Not sure where that came from.  She is wearing her favorite pink skirt.  She would wear this everyday if I would let her.  She tries to get it out of the dirty clothes.  It is also the magic skirt that got her to start pooping on the potty.  One day she had an accident while wearing this skirt.  It got everywhere.  She was so upset that she couldn't keep wearing her skirt that day and that it got dirty.  Even after I washed her she was still very concerned that it was still dirty.  I assured her that it wasn't, but she didn't have many accidents since then.  I guess I should of gotten it dirty sooner!

The girls both attend activity days which they love.  They were in the same group for about 6 months, until Bethany turned 10.  I was one of their leaders for awhile and it was awesome!  I loved the calling and having both girls in their with me.  We had a summer swim party at one of the neighbors house.  They all had a blast!

I love this picture of Hannah jumping off the diving board. 

One of the things the kids did when their cousins were over was make zip lines.  They had fun playing and I let the mess be for awhile.  The girls insisted that we get pictures of it before we took it down, and they requested to have to put on the blog.  

car wash

We took our van through the car wash to get all the gross bugs off of it from our trip.  The kids love going through the car wash.  Bryleigh is still a little unsure of it all, and it was entertaining watching her facial expressions.  It scared her just a little bit!

Scared the water was going to spray her. So not sure about all that!