Swim Lessons

Swim lessons have been a big hit!  Asa hasn't been scared of the water, but going in with a teacher was a whole new ballgame.  He has come quite a ways from crying the whole way home day one to going off the diving board without fussing at all today!  We're pretty proud of him! He and Amara got to be in the same class which was really fun and he LOVES his teacher.  They've all been fantastic with them.  We play swim lessons a lot at home now so he can teach Ida.
(Can you tell this is a total "mom" moment by the number of pictures?? Preview of what school might feel like?! Yikes! Time's flying.)

Today was life jacket's for the deep end.  

 

Ida just watches and eats.

Washing Machine game

Amara on the diving board

Asa on the board

 

 

 

just hanging out in the deep end

 

 

Asa the Photographer

My buddy has always been enthralled with the camera, but lately being the subject of pictures isn't enough, he wants to take them.  So these are all his, unedited straight from my camera! He had the strap around his neck and was careful not to touch the lens. Not too bad - although Ida might think differently!
Grandparents - we've added a kid camera to his Christmas list!  (He talks about it frequently...)

 

 

 

Stand on Your Head

love these goons

Beach Babe

Aunt Naphtali got some Ida shots!

 

Summer's starting

..and still no pictures of the kiddos!  I need to get the camera charged and out! These pics were from a wedding this past weekend and we got all the peonies from the cutting garden - there's still some blooming by the way if you haven't gotten any!

 We celebrated Father's Day with Mom and Dad C at our place.  (Dad took some pics and I'll steal some later, they're just a tad busy packing up their house!)  Ida had a 103 fever all weekend so we kept it low key.  Mike grilled.

Steak with blue cheese mushroom sauce for Mike and chocolate bread pudding with bourbon ice cream for Dad.  It was a hit - and the ice cream was really killer!  And I don't even like ice cream that much.
Mike asked me what bourbon I used, I didn't realize we had more than one.  And I naturally missed the plastic bottle and went right for Mike's birthday bourbon...  but it made good ice cream!

Happy Father's Day Mike, the kiddos and I are so blessed by you!

And Pop and Dad and Opa!

And we launched Asa into swimming lessons.  He started Monday in 50degree weather with rain.  Thankfully, they heat the pool.  He comes home to teach Ida everything they did that day.  He did tell Nana he didn't speak to any of his classmates today, so that's our goal for tomorrow!

A little catch up!

I think I need an iPhone.  I completely missed taking any photos when the Owens were here and we celebrated Mike's birthday and celebrated our anniversary!  Yikes!  Just too busy to have the camera out.  But they all happened and we had a bunch of fun!  I stole a few photos from Mike's iPhone (he didn't have any pics from his bday unfortunately but we did have his pick of lemon cake and it was tasty!).
Here's Asa and C out at Nana and Poppy's soon to be house!

Riding Poppy's new tractor.

I went to Spokane with Naphtali and my Mom for a shopping spree and the kiddos went with Mike to the Safety Fair (Asa was thrilled about this helicopter - even if he and Ida look a little grumps here!)

 And at the end of May (on our anniversary weekend actually) Mike and I went up to Couer d'Alene so I could run my first ever half marathon!  Thanks to Kelly's running group I found myself signing up for a half marathon - and I actually enjoyed it!  (helps when you're running along a gorgeous lake! And, just so you know, they give medals to everyone but it still makes you feel extremely accomplished, I mean how often do you get medals as an adult?)

We left the kiddos with Nana and Poppy so we could stay at the resort.  And after the run - Sunday brunch at the resort to celebrate our anniversary! 

Trying Some Southern

So we attempted our first hush puppies and we loved them!! (Pretty hard to go wrong with deep frying and a remoulade!) Mike really did all the work on these - the deep fryer is his domain. 

Chrissie approved and she's from the South soo....

Katie's yummy pork and slaw

Chrissie's wonderful bread pudding