Our summer ... so far

Here is what we have been up to since school got out. Travis took Maddy and Jacob to see Prince Caspian and all but Ally swimming over Memorial Day weekend. They would all rather go swimming with their dad since he'll throw them around in the pool. Maddy is starting to push his limits though. ;-)

On the Tues. after Memorial Day, our ward had a big temple day where the nursery age and above kids were babysat at the church next to the temple. They did temple related activities, got to go on a walk around the temple grounds, go into the lobby, and get their picture taken in front of the temple by the fountain. Originally they were going to watch babies as well, but we found out just a week before that this was not the case. Luckily I have a college roommate who lives really close to the temple who was able to watch Ally. It was a really neat day!

The next day Maddy and Jacob started swim team. We go M-Th from 7:45 - 9:00. Maddy absolutely loves it. This is one sport that she really excels in and has interest in for that matter. This is Jacob's first year. I thought it would be more difficult for him since we haven't swam all that much this spring, especially not laps. He's done pretty well though. He's a little nervous about the swim meet this Sat. though. He's used to being the fastest or one of the best players on any team sport. He knows he doesn't swim as fast as many of the other kids and he doesn't really know what to make of that. He asked Travis, "What if I'm last?" Travis said, "Then we'll get to cheer for you the longest!" I think after this first meet he won't worry any more. Really, the best thing is to just compete against yourself and try to improve your times at each meet. Everyone gets a ribbon (1st - 8th place) for each race they compete in, so it's all fun. Here are the kids are on their first day.

Last Saturday officially wrapped up T-ball and basketball. Bryson had his closing ceremonies and got his trophy. When he got the trophy he said to Travis, "WOW! This is BIG!" He thought it was pretty cool. He had a lot of fun playing T-ball, even if he was distracted some of the time. He really improved a lot by his last game. I think he really enjoyed having his dad help coach his team. I'm really glad that Travis loves to do these kinds of things with the boys. It's great father/son time and makes fun and lasting memories for them all.

Jacob had his last basketball game. Jacob always makes several baskets (like I said, he's just naturally athletic and is used to doing well). Jacob's coach asked him to pass it to the one kid on the team who hadn't made a basket yet. The other boy over shot the basket. Jacob got the rebound and passed it to him again. He missed again. Jacob got the rebound again and passed it to him for a third time. The third time was a charm and now everyone made a basket in the last game. Jacob has really had a BLAST playing basketball. He has improved a lot and was a real team player. We are very proud of him. We were in charge of snack for the last game, so I got a cupcake cake to celebrate. Go Roadrunners!

Here is Jacob with his cool trophy and certificate.

Last weekend Travis had a projector from work from a demonstration that he did on Friday. The kids love to watch movies on the wall. We can motivate them to do all their jobs and be on their best behavior to get to watch a movie each night. Here they are watching Flushed Away. Even Ally was watching towards the end. She just loves to be upstairs and loves to be where the "big" kids are, because after all, she's "big" too.

Bryson started swimming lessons on Monday. I put him in level 2 this year and he's doing really well. He has his lessons from 9:15 - 9:45 which is nice because we come for swim team and stay for his lessons and everyone gets their swimming in before Ally and I start to melt. Ally is so tired by the time his lessons are over and she falls right to sleep in the car.

They get to ride the slide on Thursdays when lessons are over.

The kids love to push Ally around in the laundry basket. This time they started putting pillows in to "cushion her" so that she wouldn't slide around in there. They were going to put more in, but I told them 2 was plenty. She was getting kind of squished!

We got these funny hats for the kids at Travis' work water party the weekend before school got out. We have a pink, purple, and orange monkey and a yellow dog. It's even funnier when Ally puts the hats on backwards because the monkey hats have a tail in the back that hangs down between her eyes. She doesn't seem to mind. Ally already likes to be silly and have everyone pay attention to her. Hmmmm - that sounds exactly like all my other kids.