Float to Stroke Swim School

Avery, Sage, and Lafe have been going to the Float to Stroke Swim School for the past 3 weeks. It has been quite interesting. They start kids as soon as they can crawl. The goal of the program is to teach kids to be able to survive if they were to fall into the water. They spent a lot of the time going from a swordfish on their stomach to flipping over to their back and floating to the side of the pool where they flip back over and climb out. Avery was already quite comfortable in the water as long as she could touch. She never dared to go into the deep end or jump off the diving board. She is now a lot more comfortable in water of any depth. Sage's experience was a little bitter-sweet. She cried for pretty much every lesson, the whole lesson. She didn't like to float on her back and even more didn't want to go onto her stomach. Even though she cried the whole time by the end she could go from swimming on her stomach to flipping over to her back and kick her feet til she got to the side of the pool . In this picture the teacher is there behind her but she is floating all by herself.
This was one of the hardest parts of the lesson. The teacher would ask us to take Lafer to the diving board and drop him in. When she first asked me to do it I thought, "Are you crazy?" I felt terrible just dropping him off the diving board. But as soon as I did it he came right up to the surface and floated on his back with no help.
Like Sage, Lafe would cry the whole time. The teacher would put him in the water on his stomach and just let him go. He didn't like that much. But he was amazing at flipping immediately over to his back and just floating.
I actually video taped some of the lessons and was going to put them on the blog but Chad said that it would break his mom's heart when she saw her grandbabies crying. But seriously it was an amazing experience to see how much they learned and how capable they are of being great swimmers.

Our little ball boy!

The other night Chad and I walked out of our room to find Lafer and his collection of balls all lined up in a row. They were all lined up neatly along the line where the carpet changes.
He worked so hard to get them all evenly spaced. He didn't want to throw them or hit them he just wanted them all lined up so he could sit and admire them.
Then he had a good old time running back and forth and jumping over them.
He was so proud of his ball collection. He is in love with balls!

Cousin Weekend!

Last week a bunch of the cousins came to town to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Parrishs. It ended up a huge cousin weekend. The kids had so much fun spending time with each other and playing.
Everybody's favorite uncle. Uncle Scottie is hands down the kids favorite uncle. The kids don't get to see him that often but you would think it's Christmas every time he comes. The kids run to him cheering that, "Uncle Scottie is here!" Even the shy kids that won't go to hardly anyone will go to Uncle Scott. We are so glad that he made it to the Cousin Weekend.
There is always a game of football everytime the boys get together. This has been going on since Isaac was probably 2 and as the years go by the game gets a little better and a bit more rough too.
The kids love getting together with their cousins! It's always a party and there are always a few tears when it is time to go.

It's always fun attempting the group picture. We take 50 pictures trying to get just one where their is no one crying and where everyone is at least looking at the camera. I think we were short at least 10 cousins in this picture too. Thanks goodness it was warm and the kids spent most of the time outside.

The Spoon

Sage has a favorite spoon. She won't eat her cereal until she has it. If it's dirty she'll wash it herself to make sure she gets to use it. I don't know what is so special about the spoon. Maybe the fact that we only have one of them. It's a cheap semi-disposable plastic spoon. And in a way I guess it's stolen. It belongs to Harvey Clarke Elementary School in Forest Grove, Oregon. One of the older kids accidently left it in their lunch box after using it for their cold lunch. We forgot to send it back. If I would have known it was going to be such a favorite I would have had the kids leave them in their lunch box more often! Maybe I should see what kind of spoons Alpine Elementary has! Look at me I am turning into the thief!

Family Night at the Rodeo

It has been a long time since we have been to a rodeo. Isaac and Shina are the only kids that have gone to one. So that means about 7 years. We headed down to Spanish Fork last night and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells (not so much). The kids loved it. At the beginning they had two guys jump out of a plane and land in the arena. The kids thought that was amazing. The rodeo clown was a whole bunch of fun. Sage couldn't figure out how he could climb in and out of his big barrel.


Lafer loved seeing all the big horses and bulls.

Da Bulls!
Da Broncos!


After the night was over I asked Chad if he had fun. He said, "Shina asked me to teach her how to ride, that made the whole night worth it." So we may have a cowgirl on our hands soon. Maybe more than one.

Catch!

My littler Lafer LOVES balls! He doesn't care about trucks or super heroes or dinosaurs, just BALLS. He can spot a ball a mile away. It doesn't really matter what kind. Anything round will actually do. Lately he likes to play catch. He will grab two gloves and a ball and bring them to who ever is around and say, "Catch!".

How does your garden grow?

Well since Grandma and Grandpa Parrish are on their mission in Atlanta they let us use a portion of their garden to grow our own garden. We planted tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, zuchini, walla walla onions, and a variety of different squash. We have spent a few family nights there planting, weeding, and watering. Shina was very proud to pick the first zucchini! It was a little bit overgrown but she didn't care.

There was a beautiful sunset last night and we got a nice shot of the temple from the backyard.
Grandpa planted some garlic before they left and it is almost ready to pick. Lafe and Sage thought they would just have a taste.

What a pleasant surprise to see that everything is growing so well!

Lafer is usually a muddy mess by the time we get done but he loves to help too! What a learning experience this has been for the whole family. We really look forward to being able to harvest the fruit of our labors!