Swimming Lessons

Last year during the summer we went up to Ephraim for two weeks to do swimming lessons at the college and of course to hang out with my family. Since Ethan had so much fun that he kept asking when we were going to do it again, we decided to do it again this summer. He loves swimming lessons but his very favorite thing is going off the high dive. He did it last year when he was four (I know, he's a maniac), so the first thing he asked me when we were headed to swimming lessons was if he would get to jump off the diving board again. Since he was in an older class this year, he got plenty of chances and he took full advantage of it.

Ethan going off the low dive

Ethan going off the high dive

He went off the high dive as often as they would let him. When his teacher gave us his certificate of completion she told us that he was a great swimmer and said that he could probably skip the next level because for him it would just be a review of what he could already do. I guess all that swimming out at the spring pays off!

Little Helpers

Ethan loves to help out with anything outside, especially if it involves getting dirty. One of his favorite things to help with in the late spring is getting the manure to fertilize the garden.

 He would stand on the top of the pile and shovel it in to the wheelbarrow. Then Jake would take it into the garden, dump it, and bring the wheelbarrow back for Ethan to refill. He actually stayed out there and helped for quite awhile, until he got too hot and it was lunchtime.

And of course after a hard days work, the day ends with my two boys falling asleep on the couch watching Phineas and Ferb.

Olivia also loves to be outside and is becoming so independent every day. She wanted to help me water our flower beds one day so I was helping her hold the hose over the flowers.

 She got mad and took the hose from me yelling,"No, hep! Me water! No, hep!" She can be VERY demanding.

We just had new neighbors move in so we decided to make them some cookies. Since Ethan loves to make "shape cookies" we decided to make those. He is actually a really good helper in the kitchen, but we were being a little goofy that day and got in a little bit of a flour fight...

Olivia loves to be outside and gets so upset if Jake and/or Ethan go out without her. Jake was out working in the garden one morning before Ethan was even awake and Olivia was freaking out at the door wanting to go outside so I put her shoes on and sent her out in her pjs and she couldn't have been happier.

Why do kids love to ride around in wheelbarrows so much? I think we have pictures of Ethan riding in Jake's wheelbarrow since he was probably 2. Doesn't look very comfortable to me, but whatever!

A Visit to Salt Lake

In the middle of May we were supposed to go up to Salt Lake for our newest nephews baby blessing. Well I ended up not feeling well so I sent Jake and the kids up and I stayed home so as not to infect everyone (especially the baby). I was pretty bummed because I knew they had lots of stuff planned and I was totally going to miss out. Which I did.

They left Thursday after Jake got out of school and headed to Delta to spend the night, then they got up early Friday morning to head to SLC.

They went to the Living Planet Aquarium where I am told that Ethan loved touching the stingray and Olivia was enthralled with the peguins.

On Saturday they went to the zoo with some of the Lester cousins. Jake let Aunt Stephanie do Olivia's hair so of course she had to have a big bow right on top of her head.

They are doing some sort of Dinosaur exhibit thing this summer so they have all these fake dinosaurs around the zoo. I think they may have been Ethan's favorite "animal"

They both loved riding the carousel, and with the aunts season passes they got to ride it 2 or 3 times.

Grandma Sandie was obviously not watching where she was going and got eaten by a dinosaur!

I think Ethan was looking down the dinosaurs throat to see if he could find grandma ;)

They also got to ride the zoo train for free using the season passes. Thanks Aunt Sheri and Aunt Steph!

Since we rarely go to the zoo, Jake decided he would buy a souvenier for each of them (what a softie!) this time. Ethan actually wanted a shark that I guess was super expensive but then Jake talked him into this snow leopard mask because he loves to wear masks around the house and try to scare people. And Olivia loves hats so it wasn't too hard for her to choose (with some help from Jake I am assuming) and now she rarely goes outside without it on.

On Saturday afternoon it was cousin Q's birthday and they had rented out a bike track. Ethan was still using training wheels and was having a little bit of a hard time I guess, when one of them broke off. He wanted Jake to fix it, which he couldn't because it was completely busted, so instead they took the training wheels off and lo and behold Ethan rode right off. Jake said Ethan was loving it, cruising around the corners and up and down the hills like he had been riding with trainers for a long time. Now we can hardly keep him off his bike!

 They must've had a ton of fun because at the end of the day Olivia completely zonked out without getting into pjs or anything!

Kinda sad that I missed out, but I know they had tons of fun and it was probably good for Jake to get to spend some quality daddy time with the kiddos!