Swimming Lessons

I decided to sign Ryan up for swimming lessons this year and was very pleased with that choice. He loved getting into the water to swim for a little while each day. He learned how to float on his back by himself. He's learning a little more about the water and that's a great thing. We may even do another session this summer.
Ry took lessons at the pool that I was a life guard at for many years. It was a little strange going back as a patron. But lots of fun!

Here's Ryan with his teacher doing a tummy float.

Back float ride.

Showing me some kind of a trick in the water.

Blowing bubbles in the water.

Ryan with is buddy Maycee.

Hey, look! He's sitting on the steps with the rest of the class like he's supposed to.

Splash Park '09

We've been trying to think of ways to stay busy and cool this summer. The Splash Park is always a hit. I took Ryan, Curen, and Evan out there one day this week. We had a great time!

Fireworks at home

the rocking horse

On Ryan's second birthday, the Dean's brought us out this rocking horse all the way from Maryland. It was Colin's when he was a little boy and Karen and Bruce saved it all this time. They've were waiting to hand it down to Colin when he had a child that could use it. Ryan was a little bit big for it by the time we got it, but he still rode it a little. I think it is so cute and has tons of character. Evan has really enjoyed it and he's been able to have it around for a little longer than Ryan, so he's really gotten some use out of it. I know Karen will be thrilled to see some pictures of Evan on it, but I just had to post the ones of Ryan too. I guess I think it's cool how similar they look and at the same time, they look a different too. Ryan is 26 months in these pictures and Evan is 15 months. So they're about a year apart, Ryan being older when the photos were taken than Evans. However, they're about the same size. Ryan's face looks older but they can wear the same clothes. I know because Evan wears a lot of hand-me-downs and can fit into the stuff that Ryan wore at this age.



Ryan on the rocking horse.
Ryan.
Sorry about the bandanna, I think he was copying Colin who was trying on Halloween "costumes".
Evan riding the rocking horse.
Evan.

Independence Day

The fourth of July turned out to be quite a fun day for all of us. We spent the morning just relaxing and doing our favorite activities around the house. In the afternoon I got bored with that and went to say goodbye to my relatives that had come up for Lois' funeral and Happy Birthday to my Grandma.

Justin came home with me to see the fireworks with my little family. Colin and I like to go over to the High School and watch our City fireworks there. Its a lot of fun to just bring a Frisbee and a football and let the boys run around on the big grass lawn. Before I married Colin someone told me that they were jealous of the Dean family growing up because they'd always bring a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken with them to some annual event. I sort of feel like we carry on that tradition when we bring a little KFC with us to see the fireworks. Its perfect to bring a little dinner and sit on the grass while the sky turns dark and the kids run around. I love it!

We had a great time this year. The kids had a lot of fun and they were actually pretty good boys too.

Jen, Justin, Evan, Ryan, Cole, Emry, Jess at my Moms house in the afternoon.

Shane & Frank

Cole, Emry & Jess

Colin

Colin & Jen

Colin, Evan, Jen, Ryan

You'll notice I'm not in very many of the rest of these... This is why!

Colin

Colin, and Ryan with a pinwheel

Evan with his pinwheel.

Colin tossing Ryan around.

Ryan Shamus

Evan Miles

The E. Not sure if I've mentioned it, or how many times, but this child is absolutely obsessed with balls. I have to take one everywhere we go so that he's entertained.

Colin and Evan playing.

My Evster.

Ryan ran around almost the whole time we were there. He ran around so much that he could hardly enjoy the fireworks. He was so exhausted.

He's pretty fast, he gets that from his dad.

The boys running around with the other kids at the school. Ryan and Evan both made friends with a few of the other families their enjoying the fireworks.

Love this shot of the boy.

The four of us playing in the grass.

Me and Evan. This shot reminded me of this one, from two years ago.

The Apache helicopters flew over to wow the crowds.

So, we stopped to take a look at them.

Justin came along with us and took this cute picture of the four of us.

See... and here he is holding Evan.

Here we are watching the fireworks. My friend Megan showed up in time to watch with us.

Enjoying the show. Our city does a great job on the fireworks. The shows last a while and are full of awesome works.

Happy Birthday, America.

Goldman Barbecue

Another rainy event this summer was our annual Goldman Barbecue. It was held at the Bicentennial park this year and it was pretty low-key but fun. Let's just say I'm really glad that it wasn't our kid going home with 8 stitches.

The boys were very good. Evan chased balls around the park like he does everywhere he goes. Ryan was his usual social self and made at least three new friends. By the time we were ready to leave, two other boys were sort of fighting for Ryan's attention. Kind of funny.

Good food. Good Friends. Good Times.

P.S. I was there too but I guess I hid from the camera.

Rainy June

I hate it when I'm behind in my blogging, or worse, when my posts are out of chronological order. However, the next couple of posts will be that way, so bear with me, these photos are "old".

We've had a very unusually rainy June this year. We've spent a whole lot more time indoors than we've wanted, but it did help while I'm finishing out the school year. I think it may have even kept my students slightly more focused these past weeks, so I can't complain too much. Now that the heat is here, my energy and water bills will be higher so there's another plus to all of that rain we got.


E-man with his juice and blanket watching the rain and lightening, listening to the thunder.
An awesome rainbow I captured in our back yard a few days ago.
Ryan watching the rain. He's not too sure about the thunder and lightening but he's getting more used to it I guess.

Cowabunga Bay

Weekend weather was finally nice enough to hit up our brand-new local water park. Colin and I love going to the water parks in the summer. Our past experiences have been really great. I grew up loving 7 peaks. Colin and I love that water park and usually spend a day there each summer. I was especially excited that our city was going to be getting a water park of its own. I've been counting down the days until it opened. June was strangely Seattle-like weather and we were unable to check it out until this weekend. We were quite disappointed that our children weren't the worlds biggest Cowabunga Bay fans. Oh well. I guess we can maybe try it again once more. Colin and I were totally ready to pull the trigger on season passes, but just couldn't do it with the way the boys behaved. They basically hated it. BUMMER!
















Colin's Review:

Took the wife and two boys to Cowabunga Bay this afternoon. It's a pretty fun water park. The angle on this place is it a "water play structure" or something to that effect. It's not a full-blown water park.

The structure is pretty large and has probably 10-12 different slides on it. You've got your smaller kiddie slides and the longer extreme slides for the older kids. The cool thing about this structure is there are all kinds of water gadgets on it, so as you climb up to get to your slides, you can drench people on other platforms below you as they climb up. This feature adds an entirely different element of fun to the place.

There are two large buckets on the top of the structure that hold hundreds of gallons of water, and they tip over every five minutes or so dropping a huge splash on the crowd below. A bell starts to go off when they are about to tip over so the kiddies can rush under it and get drenched. The kids there were all screaming with delight when this happened.

There is also a pretty lame beach entry type pool area that feeds into a small lazy river. Good place to chill out. Lots of chairs and umbrellas to chill on/under. Standard snack bar with jacked up prices. The soft-serve cones were very good.

This place is a lot of fun, but my two boys (1 and 3) were terrified of the structure. The water on all the squirt gadgets and slides was noticeably colder than the beach pool, and they were trembling and whimpering as we forced them to climb up with us and ride down the slides. We might try it one more time this summer, but they need to be a bit older to appreciate this place.

Overall though, I would say check it out this summer if you have kids in the 6-16 range. They'll love it.