Never enough Swim Lessons

We try to take it easy in the summer, but one of the things that we always do is swim lessons. I didn't learn to swim well when I was a child (not my parents fault...they did put me in some swim lessons, we just rarely went to a pool so I didn't ever learn to swim without plugging my nose). We have a neighborhood pool and lots of free time so we go swimming quite often. I want my children to be strong swimmers both when they are young and throughout their lives. This year, Adam, Michael and Ellie all got to take lessons.

They went to lessons at Miss Lori's house. Miss Lori is the best teacher ever, the kids learn so much.

When Ellie smiles, her whole face lights up, I just love it.

Ellie learned to swim across the pool on the front crawl, she also learned to swim on her back across the pool.

The boys were already good at getting across the pool, but this year they learned strokes. They also strengthened their back floating. Poor Michael is not a "natural floater" so it takes a lot of constant effort for him to stay up on his back.

They also learned how to throw something into the pool to rescue someone. It is nice, in their swim lessons they learn how to do several different floats, how to tread water, and how to pull someone out of the water. things that may come in useful one day.

Here they are treading water, they both did it for one whole minute.

Nate really wanted to get in and swim. He kept throwing things into the water and sticking his hands and feet into the water...one time he even fell right into the water. (but that didn't stop him from playing at the edge of the water again). Next year he turns three right in time for swim lessons, I can hardly wait. By then hopefully he will have grown out of the "busy" stage...t wears me out.

Adam's front crawl

Adam's back crawl

Micheal on his back:

P.S. I recently got a new camera...aren't the pictures a lot more clear? I think so.

Emma's Baptism

Emma was baptized while Joe's sisters and Dad were in town. She looked beautiful and it was a beautiful program.

Her Grandma Crisp gave a talk about the Holy Ghost.
Austin gave a very heartwarming talk about baptism.

Emma even played us I am a Child of God on the violin.

Emma with her Grandpa Frost

most of the kids before the baptism- left Ellie, Lily, Jack, Nick, Ben, Grandpa holding William, Nate, Cole, Michael, Adam
Grandpa holding William
Kayti holding Ben

Margie and Kayti's Visit

Two of Joe's three sisters just drove down last week to visit us. Margie is from Maine and has 4 boys- Jack, Josh, George (Nick), and Cole. Kayti is from Ohio and has Ben and is pregnant and due in October. Kayti had visited us a few years ago, but Margie hadn't had a chance to visit us since we have lived in Texas.
We had such a wonderful visit, everyone got along so well. Margie's boys played really well with my boys and they actually all got to know each other a lot better. The adults all got along (sounds funny to say it that way, but it hasn't always been easy). We did so many fun things and packed so much into 9 days that when they left I was just utterly exhausted. (I'm not sure how his sisters did it, they still had to drive back home).
Here are the highlights of the trip.

One of the first days they were here we went out to our property. We borrowed one of our friends inflatable water toy and the kids played on that while we visited with each other. The kids also rode the four-wheelers for a little while.



Jack, Emma, Josh, Michael, Lil, Cole

Nate, sporting his swim vest

Lily on the slide and Adam and Michael climbing up

Kayti and Ben

Josh

Emma and Cole

It was hot, but the gigantic fan helped cool us off

the kids decided they would rather stay inside after a while and sit in the A/C and play their DS's

Lily and Cole

Jack and Lily

George and Cole

Jack and Michael

Another day, we went out to Lake Conroe to play. A few weeks ago Joe bought a small fishing boat. He also got a large blow up tube to pull. Lake Conroe has a small island (slightly bigger than our island, but mostly cleared of trees with a sandy beach). Joe took 3 trips and ferried us all out to the island to play in the beach. Then he would take 4 kids or adults out on the tube and pull us along. His boat could pull the tube fast enough for a nice ride, but the boat sure looked a lot worse than all of the other boats out there.

Margie's family-Jack, Nick, Margie, Cole and Josh
On the way back we took only two loads of people because we were running low on gas. That boat was very weighed down. We laughed about how funny we must look as the hill-billies of the lake. Here was the lesser of the two loads.

Kayti and Ben on the island

Koni, me, Kayti and Margie

Jack and Josh

Another day, we went out to an indoor inflatable play place called Monkey Bizness. It is very similar to Pump it Up but they are cheaper and the open play times were longer. Everyone had a great time playing, it was nice that both the little kids and the big kids could play.

Margie

Michael climbing the inflatable wall

Their slide is so fast, you go piling into the wall at the end to stop. Check out my sexy socks!

Kayti

Margie and Joe's Dad

me and Kayti

Adam

Joe's dad

We went to the pool three different times. The kids really enjoyed swimming. It was nice having so many cousins because everyone had a friend to play with, no one was left out.

Another night we went to Incredible Pizza Company. The kids played the video games, golfed and rode bumper cars.

We also made a trip downtown to Ikea and had an adults night out and took turns eating at each others houses. (It was nice to have Austin and Koni so close so we could all see them too).

Here Ben hurt his nose so he wanted a band-aid.

Cole is just being silly.

Emma was also baptized while they were here, but I will make another post for that.

Thanks Margie and Kayti and Dad for visiting. We had a great time!