Another pool day!

Another day, another pool! It's always more fun swimming with cousins though and today there were plenty!

This was the highlight of everyone's day. This pool is Sara's parents and we love going every summer. It's perfect for kids. What have you been doing this summer? I feel a need to switch things up. Maybe use our pogo pass more.

Tumbling week 3

Avery and Zara have been doing tumbling class for three weeks now. They both are doing so well too! Check out Avery's flexibility in that first picture! I think Zara is one of the oldest in her class and you can tell because she follows directions well and doesn't need a parent to help like some of the other kids in her class. It's just so good to see them learning and having fun. I think I'll sign them up for the July session.

Flagstaff photos

Here are some more photos from our Flagstaff family photo shoot a couple months ago.  We really have a plethora of good family photos to choose from.  Last time I shared family photos of us in front of our dorms.  These first three are from NAU north campus as well.  The last one is in the woods of a nearby park. 

One thing I love about this last picture is being in nature.  I'm partial to AZ forest.  Growing up our family vacation was going to Camp Geronimo and playing in the forest and creek catching minnows, finding grasshoppers and horny toads in the meadows.  I love the smell of the pine and the fresh air.  All the stars visible at night.  It's such a part of my youth and me today.  It was funny going to Sherwood Forest in England with the kids a couple years ago and not seeing or smelling our pine I'm so used to.  A very different forest.  Still beautiful, just different.  I hope my kids learn to love nature. Especially here in Arizona. :)

FHE activity

Tonight we went to Rhodes pool for a Family Home Evening activity. Rhodes has a really cool flow rider that simulates waves so you can try to surf. None of us did it but it was really cool to watch other people. The kid area is really fun too, which is where Zara was swimming while I took these pictures. Zara is quite the fish!

Avery made an attempt to go off the diving board for the first time. I know it was hard for her and she only jumped off the side as you see in the picture above. She was scared it was too deep. So proud of her trying to overcome her fears! 

 It was so fun watching the beautiful sunset while swimming together as a family.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there! We celebrated by making Andrew breakfast. I sleep in so it wasn't breakfast in bed....but it was still breakfast! Above is a picture of Andrew sharing is photo book with Zara. It was from Pinhole Press and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was a Father's Day gift using pixies from our recent family photo shoot. I usually talk about making photo books but never get around to it so this was a good motivator.

We also gifted Andrew some framed pictures to put in his office since we never updated the ones from a few years ago. Tonight we got to see my sister Ruth, and her family who just flew in from Iowa last night!  It was our first time seeing baby Allen. We will be spending a lot of time with family while they're around the next couple weeks, especially with Chris and Kristy coming this weekend!

I am so grateful for Andrew in my life. He really is a good father to our four children. He's the fun one. :) I hope he had a good Father's Day. I also made his dinner request which was mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, carrots, baked homemade chicken fingers, and homemade honey wheat rolls. A great Sunday dinner!

Last day of band

Three weeks have come and gone and Elliot had his informal band recital today. The clarinets, saxophones, and flutes played and I was surprised with how well they played and the many songs they learned. Being an orchestra junky, I don't really know that much about band. It's been fun learning with Elliot. I learned that the clarinet has the most notes out of all the band instruments. I learned that the flute is hard to learn at first but gets easier but the clarinet is easy to learn at first but gets harder.

^^ Aunt Nora taught the kids how to do Jacobs Ladder. ^^

After band we went to park and ended up in the sprinklers. That's what happens when it's 100+ outside!

School lunch

Today we had free lunch at school for the first time. There are certain schools that serve free breakfast and lunch for kids under 18 during the summer months. Julie had the girls over for a tea party this morning while Elliot was at band, so we met there after. I was surprised at the amount of choices, and of course, it took me back to my school lunch days. That really seems soooo long ago.

I'm glad the schools do this because I'm sure we'll be going back again. It's nice not having to prepare another meal.  I asked the kids what their favorite thing they had and they said chocolate milk, juice, and pizza. If that doesn't sound like school lunch I don't know what does! :)