Lil' Dean Fam

This year we took swimming lessons at the South County Outdoor pool in Riverton.  We've had really good experiences with group lessons in the past.  Cheap, close, and great instructors.  This year, our experience wasn't quite as favorable.  However, I don't think the kids noticed AT ALL except for the two days that the lessons were canceled because the heater was broken, so I won't go on about it any more.  Evan is finally old enough to take swimming lessons so he was absolutely thrilled to be able to get in the water with his big brother and "swim" for a while.  I'd like to do another session since we only had four 45 minute lessons, but we'll see!    Ryan, Maycee, and Curen Elementary back stroke: monkey, airplane, soldier  This is Ryan's attempt at back stroke.  When I showed him this video, he said, "Mom, I thought I was really swimming".  But then I showed him the front-crawl video and he was satisfied with his swimming...

 The water park at the Wolf Lodge was where we spent most of our time.  The boys thought they had died and gone to heaven!  The major part of the water park is indoors.  There is a structure a lot like the one at Cowabunga bay in the middle, four large water slides, a wave pool, a wave rider, a lazy river, a climbing area, a pool basketball area, and a kiddie area inside. Outside there was a pool with a basketball area and a kiddie area.  After Evan wore the water wings and discovered he could float in deep water on his own, he was great in the life jacket at the Wolf Lodge.  This was the largest of the water slides.  It's called the tornado.  You start out inside a tube, then go down a quick drop-off and launch into a tornado tube.  It was really fun and pretty crazy too.  Once I did the whole ride going down backward and that was pretty scary!  Stuart and Ryan had a blast on the flow rider.  I think they each rode it ...

For our little family reunion this year, we wanted someplace where we could all meet together, and somewhere people of all ages could enjoy.  After much planning and communication about it, Karen found this awesome lodge not too far from where they live in Maryland.  It's located in Williamsburg, Virginia and it's called the Great Wolf Lodge.  There are a few other locations around the country too. This was the one time we could all get together before people start going their separate ways again.  Stuart and Brooke are taking their second Foreign Service post in Singapore and Erin is turning in her mission papers soon.  The timing was great because Katie is a teacher in China and her school year just ended.  Colin also had to take two consecutive weeks off from work sometime this year, so we took it when his family could all meet together. Erin attends school at BYU-Hawaii and her school year was done in April.  Stuart and Brooke flew in to the DC ...