The End of Summer is Near

Wyatt had one more swim meet to finish up his season. I won't bore you with the details or pictures. I just took one video this time! Enjoy!!!

Here are a few pictures, though, of Annabelle's last Guppies swim lesson. She is loving swimming, and is quite a fish!

Volunteering for something...I don't remember what!

Floating...

Jumping off the diving board! Whoopeee!!!

Funny Wyatt

Our patio is DIRTY, due to us being on "drought watch" and having to conserve water (so I can't obsessively hose it off!). Because of this, I plead to the kids to not walk on it with bare feet...they get FILTHY!!! So, when I asked Wyatt to shuck the corn on the cob (which he LOVES to do), he rode a little scooter that's close to the door over to his wheel loader, rode that back to the door, picked up his supplies - the corn and the compost bucket and rode his stuff over to the chair where he wanted to do the shucking. I told him he could just sit in the doorway and do it, but he had his own ideas! Notice how his feet still aren't touching the ground! He returned the same way, with the load on the wheel loader, and finished the task with clean feet!

Wyatt's First Dynamite Dolfins Swim Meet

The swim meet consisted of three different strokes, the freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. I'm pretty sure the coach had the kids lined up so that they would be swimming against others that were pretty fairly matched. It was so fun to watch. Most kids just jumped off the starting block, some tried to dive. There were coaches in each lane to encourage and help kids to the other side. At the other end, were swimmers from the swim team, ready with ribbons in their hands to reward first, second and third places. After the swimmers were done, they had a little award ceremony to show off their ribbons and then a pizza/cupcake party! Way to build excitement for the real-deal next year! Wyatt had a blast, and Matthew was more proud than ever!

Standing in line, waiting for his heat. Yes, he's the only one in a speedo...I can't get him to wear anything else! He is so proud to wear that water polo suit!!!

A little pep-talk with Papa. On the way over there, Wyatt told me he was scared of racing because he was worried he wouldn't come in first! Matthew talked him down from his nerves!!!

Ready to jump in for the freestyle!

Making his way! The other two girls in his heat were really fast! Wyatt got third!

The Backstroke

He looks pretty good right here, but he ends up almost side-ways at one point!!!

Proud Papa watching his boy! Wyatt got second this time!

The dive for the Butterfly heat.

I couldn't seem to catch him above water...but he's doing it!!!

Here's how Annabelle spent her time...she could really swim if I could get her off the stairs!!!

He won first place in the butterfly!!!

The "awards ceremony", where each child showed off which ribbons they earned!

Fourth of July Week at the Lake House

It was close to constant activity while we were at my mom and dad's house on Summit Lake. The lake is west of Olympia, Washington, where my parents have now lived for almost 15 years. It's hard to believe that I was almost out of college when they bought this little bungalow, and now it's their haven. The weather was beautiful at the beginning of the week and then turned typical Pacific Northwest on us. It didn't stop anything, though. The kids had so much fun and were on vacation let-down once we got home!!!

Here are a few of the highlights!!!

Grandma hid presents for the kids, of course!

Grandpa had to work, so he arrived home a while after we had been there. He got a grand welcome from the kids!

We couldn't resist the Coppertone tushy!!!

Playing in the water, while...

Wyatt gets his first fishing of the week in! He caught many little perch babies this time.

Grandpa giving Annabelle her first golf lesson.

It takes a lot of concentration...





The unveiling of the new remote control speed boat!


Wyatt was beside himself. He has wanted one of these for a looooong time! This one stays here at the lake!

This is Sunny. He is the best pet a neighbor could ask for. He belongs to the neighbor and comes over every day to visit my parents when the neighbor gets home from work. Sunny LOVES to fetch the ball, so Wyatt was throwing the ball off the end of the dock, jumping in and then swimming back in with Sunny. I'm not sure who had more fun?

Round one of s'mores (I think they had them 4 or 5 times throughout the week!)

What a great chocolatey face!

Helping Grandpa cut down some sticks with the loppers (Wyatt will do anything to help Grandpa, and especially if it involves tools of any sort!)

Matthew arrived on Wednesday...first thing to do??? GO FISHING!!!

Annabelle's party trick: she makes this funny noise by suctioning her tongue against her bottom lip. She was trying to teach everyone!!

S'mores, round 2. This time I roasted the marshmallows. I must say that I am a master roaster!!

One of only two boat rides we took. Usually there's at least one every day, but the weather just wasn't cooperative. Annabelle wasn't so hip on the boat last year...can you see how much she loved it this year?! What a difference a year makes!

Matthew, the kids and grandpa went out fishing, and Wyatt came back with this good-sized trout! He couldn't wait to eat it!!! He makes his papa proud!

Getting ready for the first annual Summit Lake Boat Parade. The theme of parade was Proudly We Serve, so we transformed my dad's boat into a gun boat!

Playing with bubble guns that Great Grandma sent!

Fitting the boat decorations!

Seeing if Annabelle fits in the "shooter".

The kids had a grilled cheese dinner on the deck!

Visiting the concrete mixers with Uncle Sean.

The kids got to go in the cab and honk the horn!

We had fireworks leftover from last year, so we were able to set them off as a preview on the Third.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

The beginning of the Boat Parade!

The USS Wybelle goes underway!

After the boat parade, we were able to watch the end of it!

The kids got these cool packages of fireworks that weren't worthy of waiting for dark, so we had a mini show in the afternoon.

That night the fireworks were unbelievable! Practically every house around the lake had amazing fireworks. It was hard to choose where to look! This was Annabelle's first time for seeing "real" fireworks!

The kids playing with their new friend Jackson on Saturday.

Enjoying bar-b-qued oysters!

Putting together a new Lego set with Uncle Sean!