last day of swimming

The last day of swimming lessons is somewhat bitter sweet! I love watching Trey's improvements, I love visiting with the other mothers, and this year my sister-in-laws, I enjoy watching others interact with Trey, and I love the feeling of Summer beginning. I am always a bit saddened when swimming is over though. It shows Trey is getting older and a little more independent. Along with independence comes school, sports, dating, and marriage! I know, I have a lot of years to look forward to, but I wish our years could just be spent with Trey as a 4.5 year old enjoying swimming lessons!!! That would be my heaven! (have you read or seen the Lovely Bones? If not, that last sentence will mean nothing to you! At least my sthpouse Chelsea Ann will know; we saw the movie together!)

So, with this being the last day of swimming lessons for him, he was able to demonstrate the skills he has learned.

Can you tell Trey LOVES to swim?! It was his turn next to swim to Miss Emily and he wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss a moment!

Here he goes:

And he is off!!!!

Tacy "superman floating"

Floating has never been a fun thing for Trey. He has always had trouble with water in his ears, due to the multiple tubes that have been placed within his ear drums. This Summer was completely different. The water didn't phase him.
I love Trey's little face just poking through the water's surface.
(floating without assistance!)

Tacy floating:

Here is smiling Tacy. She always had a smile on her face.

Tacy and Trey chugging in their "train" down to the diving board. They are just too cute and could ALMOST pass as twins with their goggles on.

Brave, brave Tacy! With a little help from Miss June, Tacy jumped from the diving board and was all smiles.

(look how proud Miss Emily is of you Tacy! You can see it written all over her face.)

Trey this year tried a cannon ball off the diving board; with a little encouraging from his cousins Jacob and Katie of course. As you can see in the following pictures, he didn't quite get both legs underneath him. BUT, I would have admit his splash caused quite a funny face on Miss Emily's face!!! (I am sure she would not appreciate me posting it, BUT I will anyway.)

(see Emily's funny face? Hilarious!)

I worked a graveyard shift on Trey's last day of swimming, therefore, he only had 7 lessons and did not attend the last class! In his 7 lessons, he accomplished enough to pass to the next level of swimming. Advanced Beginning 2 here we come!!!

Miss Emily on the left, and Miss Megan on the right.

Waterpark Trip #1

Hands down, one of our favorite places to be in the Summer is the waterpark. Tuesdays are spent with friends, and weekends are spent with family. Today was our first outing to the waterpark and it was a success. Tian spent most of his time with a toy duck in one hand, the other hand swatting at water. Trey enjoyed the big rides with Justin.

Promise, Trey enjoyed himself this afternoon, although this picture might not give him justice. I think he was just bummed the afternoon was coming to a close!

swimming #3

Trey is just getting so much better at swimming with each lesson he receives. He loves spending his morning in the pool, and I love the time I get to spend chatting with my sister-in-law while our children swim. The memories our children are making with each other are priceless; something I never experienced and only hoped for my children would have.

This class was pretty tight. They loved waiting patiently for their class time, and would sometimes all hold hands.

Tacy, brave girl jumping into the pool. As you can see, I wasn't quite ready with my camera and barely caught this shot. Even though it is blury, you can see just how brave Tacy was! I loved this next picture. Both cousins working on their swimming skills at the same time. They both improved so much over the last few lessons.

Trey swimming solo, head in water, feet kicking IN the deeper portion of the pool! I am so proud of what you have accomplished this Summer Treyman. Such a difference from last year.

what NOT to wear!

We were getting ready to go to "the cousins" home Sunday evening, and THIS is what I find Tian wearing:

A future "What Not To Wear" episode in the making. Justin dressed him, I giggled!
Thankfully, "the cousins" love us no matter what! Even if we match or not.

chicks

This last Tuesday afternoon, prior to Activity Days, we had a pleasant visit from some baby chicks! Trey and Tian, along with the rest of Activity Days fell in love with the chicks. I asked the chicks owner (my good friend Judie!) if I could bring the boys to her home Sunday after church to look at the chicks some more. We love their family, any chance we get to spend with them is a wonderful event.

I was completely unaware of all the fun pets Judie has. Her children participate in 4-H, so they have all kinds of chickens and a bunny. Tian wasn't too comfortable with the baby chicks, but he dug the bunny.

Judie's son Devon is so sweet. He has always been so kind to Trey and Tian, and as you can tell, his sisters love him.
Zayne was one of our Sunbeams years and years ago. I guess this chicken likes to ride on his shoulders.

For some reason Tian LOVED this chicken. It had crazy feathers which made him look like Einstein.

Thanks Judie for letting us crash your afternoon. My boys loved it.

Iron Man-Boise

I love Reality TV. There is nothing to be ashamed of. I choose to watch the more tame ones, and years ago, I got hooked on the Bachelor. Then it was the Bachelorette, starting with Trista's season. From Trista and Ryan's season, I have always had a slight obsession with Ryan Sutter. He was quiet, charming, athletic, and quite the looker. Very similar to Justin!!! (I love you Justin, but you know I have my celeb crushes!) A few years ago, I came across Ryan Sutter's website and read he participated in the Iron Man in Northern Idaho. I definitely couldn't convince Justin to drive 9 hours to catch a glimpse of Ryan Sutter, so, I just had to dream.

Well, the Iron Man is held in Boise every Summer and I have always had a desire to watch the Iron Man JUST to possibly catch a glimpse of Ryan Sutter competing. So, when our ward volunteered to help with an "aid station" on the running portion of the Iron Man, I was THERE. Justin was volunteering for a "shift" in the early afternoon, and I was going to be taking a shift in the evening. If I would have been thinking clearly, I would have switched Justin shifts just in case Ryan Sutter was in Boise.

Instead of seeing a tv celeb though, I was able to watch a "local, community celeb", and that is Oscar Williamson. This man knows EVERYONE and everyone loves him. He is one of Justin's great friends and he was crazy and brave enough to sign himself up for the Iron Man this year. He also heard that BEEF had their own "Iron Man" sponsored team and knew he wanted! Not only did Oscar get sponsored by BEEF, but BEEF donated hamburgers and hotdogs for our volunteers. Amazing group of people.

So, here is my work at being a paparazzi for our "local celeb" Oscar. Oscar downing a hamburger

(I was wondering how he was going to finish that hamburger while he was running, until I saw him spit it out moments later!)

Oscar had quite the fan club. Here he is showing he cares!

Vicki, my friend and Oscar's wife, and Zachary, Oscar's son waiting for Oscar.
Vicki, not only working her tail off handing out Power bars, soda, oranges, water, sponges, etc. but also waiting patiently for her husband to pass her by.

Oscar had told Vicki on his last lap, he would leave her with a kiss. The kiss everyone had been waiting for!

Look at all of our youth participating. This aid station was a service project THAT they got paid for. Rumor has it, we had the BEST aid station and next year, our group has the opportunity to snag any station we want!

This event was touching, awe inspiring, and exciting. We had a participant crash due to dehydration and heat stroke at our station (she came to the right place! We had two nurses and one sports medicine specialist all in our aid station that this participant had NO CLUE about. We were not a FIRST AID station, just a water, juice and food station!). I saw many participants missing limbs, many walking arm in arm or hand in hand with a spouse, sister, mother, etc. Amazing what people can do with a little strength, help and support from others!

Although there were no sightings of Ryan Sutter, I feel the night was a success. Much better then a reality tv celeb sighting!