Swimming Lessons

Nicole and I put our boys in a 2-week mommy and me swim class at Surf n Swim.  They've been doing pretty good and I think they've liked it.  Almost everyday I tried to take pictures of them before or after class.  They're funny boys.

They have some pretty deep conversations.

This picture especially made me laugh.  Eli really is crying (I can't remember why), but Bear is just in the middle of saying "cheese" and it looks like he's grumpy too.

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were really rainy.  We assumed swimming would be cancelled in weather like that but it wasn't.  We skipped Tuesday but we still went Wednesday and luckily, we weren't rained on.
The boys in their cute matching swimsuits and rash guards.

Today was our last day and we were happy it warmed up again for us!

My little lifeguard running through the water.

Afterwards, they were rewarded with suckers!  Bear will do anything for a sucker!

We also went to Pace's to get him a special popsicle.

Lately Barrett is obsessed with 2 things: balls and swords.  He always wants to play baseball or soccer ball, and he has to carry as many balls as he can around with him at all times.

He wants to play swords all the time too.  Most of the kids are a little afraid to play with him because he's pretty, um... aggressive.  We make sure he gets the wimpy plastic sword (although we do have 2 light sabers, they hurt more to get hit with).  I'm not sure why he wanted to play swords laying down the other day.

Things I think are funny:

"That's too fast, honey."  (Said to Neil while driving)

"I wanna go back in your tummy where I grew. (puts head under my shirt) I still fit!"

When he was sick a while ago, he had to pee in a cup to see if he had a bladder infection or anything like that.  After he did so, he looked at the cup and said, "I do NOT want to drink that!"

During the same sick period, he told me he couldn't help clean up because he was sick.

There are fish on the shower curtain in his bathroom so he asks lots of questions about fish.  Do fish poop in the potty? Can fish see? Can the fish put their hands in the toilet?  (after I told him not to put his hands in the toilet). Do they have hands? Do they brush their teeth? etc. Super curious about the fish!

He HAS to sing "I am a child of God" and say his prayers before nap time and bedtime. (Who would've thought I would have such a religious child!?) His prayers have been getting super specific.  I think it's probably pretty typical of kids to be "thankful" for every single thing they can think of- especially at bedtime when they want to stall.  When we were in Newport, he was thankful he could kick the water and walk in the sand.  And thankful that Daddy washed his feet off.  If we play with any friends or cousins, he's always thankful for them (and lists each person by name at least once).  One thing he says all the time is "help me to not throw crayons in the garbage." As far as I know, the only time he ever did that was at our old gym in Denver, but whatever.

He has definitely entered the bandaid obsession stage and tells me at least once a day that he has "400 owies."

Also at least once a day, he'll go through the list of words he's not supposed to say.  He'll say, we don't say shut up. I don't want to say poopy, etc.  He's getting away with it because he's just telling me what he's NOT going to say!  He hasn't gotten soap in the mouth yet, but he knows the threat is there.  Actually, along these lines, when we were at the beach he was saying some "naughty" words and when I told him not to, he said, "But there's no soap here."  Too smart.

We were sitting in the car when Bear said, "Mom, look at this!" I turned around to see him with a cheerio up his nose.  I hurried and turned forward so he wouldn't see me laugh and also tried to grab my phone for a picture.  While reaching for my phone, I started telling him about why we don't put things up our nose because they could get stuck up there.  I tuned back to sneak a picture but he had taken it out of his nose and told me, "No, it doesn't get stuck!"

Everyday when we leave the gym, he has to go in the rock pile and throw rocks.  He loves throwing rocks.  I should try to get a better picture next time.

We went swimming at GiGi's last week when it was still super hot.  Stefanie and her kids have been in town so we've had a lot of fun playing with them.

Nicole and I took Barrett and Eli to the Treehouse Museum today since it was pouring rain all day.
These hats cracked me up because Eli's was way too big and Bear's was way too small.  Eventually we traded them.

They had fun just running around together.

Occasionally they'd sit still for a few minutes.

This Is Summer

This week has been packed full of fun (actually I guess this was all last week).  It makes me wish summer would never end so we could always play with our friends and cousins!
Bear waited for weeks to make cupcakes with LaLa.

We filled up the kiddie pool and invited cousins over to play.  He got his first bee sting this day.  He was trying to save it from drowning in the pool so he scooped it out and it stung his thumb.  He didn't fuss at all, he just brought it over to show me the bug (the bee was still attached to his thumb) and I pulled the bee/stinger out.  Tough baby! 

We met up with Kelsey, Tyce, and Rylee to play at Cherry Hill.  Bear was SO happy to see these guys again and has been saying he wants to go back to Denver.

We went and played at Nicole's house and let the kids run through the sprinklers.

We went clear down to Thanksgiving Point to the Museum of Curiosity.  Wish we would've had more time to spend there- it's huge and also quite crowded.

This was the weirdest story time ever.  Definitely should've skipped it.
Rylee, Bear, Macie, Camri, and Brin.  And Kels and Court too.

At least the kids got to make these little dragonflies.

I ran into our friends Jason and Heather and their kids at the museum.  That was especially funny because I ran into Heather at Cherry Hill that Tuesday too!

Bear and Colton.

Courtney, Macie, and Rylee.

Kelsey and Bear.  He loves her so much!

Bear and Rylee.

Missy, Court, Kelsey, and me.

Saturday we went swimming at GiGi's.

Neil took Bear off the diving board.

 He did much better than I was expecting.  He did cough up plenty of water, but didn't cry.

The kids had a lot of fun with their uncle Neils.

After swimming, we met up with some friends at the Waffle Wagon.  Seriously yum!  My one complaint (and it's a pretty big oversight) is that they don't bring along any tables or chairs with them and waffles are not easy to eat and hold at the same time.  Especially with kids!
back row: Neil, Heather, Greyson, Jason, Aaron. Front row: Barrett, Alli, Lucy, Kaia.

So we headed a few doors down to Pace's and ordered more food there so we could sit at their tables.

After dinner, we dropped Barrett off at home so he could go to bed and we all headed down to the Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve.  It's actually on the same street as my old school in West Layton, but I had never been there.

The pictures of course doesn't do it justice, but it was a beautiful area to walk around and the sunset was incredible!

Sunday we had LaLa's official birthday dinner and the Christensen's came to town. (As in, my brother and his family)

I need to be a better planner so all our weeks are this fun!