Swimming...

This was our daily activity this summer. The kids feet were raw by august. (The other little boy in the picture near Kennedy is a friend, although he does kinda look like he could belong to us.)

Boating with the Moody's

We had so much fun this summer boating with our friends. Our kids were a little scared at first but slowly started to really love it. Mason still wants to feel safe but Kennedy is willing to have a little more of a wild ride. It scares me because she bounces so high on any little bump and I am afraid she will go flying off and then be so traumatized she won't want to get back on.

Emma is pretty confident and a little crazy too. :)

Don and I even had a turn.

Swimming Lessons

I usually have the kids do 3 sessions of swimming lessons each summer, which is 6 weeks and they are all ready to be DONE after the first session. There are some things that they can choose to do or not to do, this is not one of them for me.

Ryker usually just wonders around and plays on the chairs.

These two play in the kiddie pool while their brothers are having their lesson.

These kids have become quite the swimmers. Mason has been in level 6 these past 2 years (that is why he thinks he should be done) and now needs to perfect all the strokes that he has learned. Kennedy is still in level 3 but by the end of the summer she was doing very well with her crawl stroke and could hold her own anywhere in the pool.

It is so nice when you can go to the pool and your kids can swim and you don't have to worry about them. Thankfully their best friends are members too and so they have someone to play with when we go. It is always hard when we invite other friends because my kids forget their manners and just want to play in the deep end and their friends don't know how to swim well enough.

Next year I will have Mason do swim team and see how he likes it. If he wants to be done after that, I will be more open to it. However, I am hoping that if he earns a few ribbons he might think that it is fun and want to keep going for a few more years. Swimming is the best activity for these kids in this hot weather!

Ryker

This little boy is so much fun. He is crazy, wild, and into everything and I can't get enough of him.

Tennis Lessons

This year our pool offered tennis lessons in the morning during swimming lessons and Mason said he wanted to try it and I'm so glad he did. He had fun and it gave him something to do after his swimming lesson while he was waiting for Kennedy to get done with her lesson.

I know these pictures are awful...I hope that someday I care about having a nicer and camera and about taking more pictures. Maybe some pictures where you can actually see the kid. These are literally the only 3 pictures of his tennis lessons and I think he took for 6 weeks. I am awesome.

Couples Backpacking Overnighter

We went on an overnight backpacking trip with 4 other couples and had so much fun. (Much Thanks to Holly for keeping Ryker and my parents for taking the other 2.)

Suiting up for the hike in. It really was a nice easy hike, next time we would like to go a little further and do something a little more challenging.

Once we arrived at the small lake, Don and Jeremy started jumping in. Here they are discussing the angles of the jump. :)

Then they decided to swim across the lake...here they are on the other side.

Here is a little glimpse of the "campsite" and us cooking dinner.

It really was a beautiful place to sit and relax.

Here is mine and Don's set up. Funny thing...during the night I could hear something small outside our tent, then I could suddenly tell it was ON our tent so I got my flashlight and shined it around until I saw a little mouse climbing up the mesh on our tent. I woke up Don and made him get it off with a shoe...I was a little jumpy after that.

Hiking out the next day. The time went by way too fast. It would have been nice to stay another day.