Summer

     Summer is in full swing here and I am loving it.  We have traded bedtime routines for late evening walks, catching fireflies, and double features at the Theatre in the Park.  The last ten day heat wave was counteracted by afternoons spent at the pool or the movie theater.  We bought passes for the pool this year and it has been really nice to be able to pack up the kids on a whim and go to the pool for a few hours.  The kids have really enjoyed it too.  Mikayla figured out that she is strong enough to go off the diving boards.  I was a little nervous the first time, but she did great.  Now she is perfecting her straddle and tuck jumps, and conquering the mild fear that another girl put in her about going off the high dive {she did it 3 times, but it only took seeing the girl come down 1 time to make her afraid}.  Noah keeps asking if he can go off of them, but we keep assuring him that he needs to get a little stronger at swimming before we will even think about him going on the diving board.  He is also a little sad because he is just shy of being tall enough to go down the water slides.  Maybe by the end of the summer he will be tall enough.  Mikayla is still going to karate and seems to really be enjoying it.  We decided that as much as we would like for Noah to do karate too, he is just not quite ready for it.  With only a five weeks {really!?!} left before the kids {and Mike} go back to school, we will have to see what else we can cram into the summer, maybe a dinosaur exhibit or roller coaster rides?

This is one of my favorite pictures.  This is from a family
gathering in June.  The guy with the beard is a family friend and had Mikayla
and Noah cracking up the whole night.

Did I mention we made a quick trip to Minnesota?
Noah and his cousins swimming.

Maybe a little too much fun with the smoke bombs???
 This was from Fourth of July at my aunt's.

Mikayla's hair from Theatre in the Park {with her go-to pose.}

Two silly kids.

It is so difficult to get a non-silly photo of him.

 

Now I know where Noah gets the silly faces in photos from.

Mikayla going off the high dive.  Not the best of quality, but at least we have something.

  {please excuse the guy exiting the pool, I did not choose the best of places to stand.}