our swimming pool

Instead of a backyard we now have a swimming pool.  This thing is huge (at least for our backyard it is).  I am not sure I'm liking the cramped feeling our backyard has now, but it is nice to be able to just go out back and take a swim to cool off.  We have actually been doing a ton of swimming the past 3 weeks, not just in this pool, but at swimming lessons as well!  Still, the kids couldn't get enough swimming in.  They would come home from swimming lessons and still want to go in our pool!

When we first started filling up the pool I asked the kids to each guess the amount of time it would take to fill it up.  I got responses such as: 45 minutes, 3 hours, 1 hour.  We were all wrong.  It took over 10 hours, probably closer to 15.  We stopped keeping track after a while.  We even had to stop it for bed and finish it the next day!  It's kind of crazy to think about how much water is in that thing.

This is when it was still filling up.  It was almost there!  The kids were excited to get in.  We even ran a hose from inside the house for the last 2 or 3 hours to get in as much warm water as possible so it wouldn't be too cold. 


Aaron was READY!  He wanted to go swimming.

April thought it was a little cold at first!  It was, and still is.  We keep having too many cooler/rainy days.  But, it's still do-able on a nice sunny day.

Alex just loves the pool!  He gets upset if he can't go in, and can climb that ladder no problem.  We have to take it out after each use because this kid has no fear of the water.  Here are some pictures of him splashing around with Daddy one evening.
 

Do you know what's even more fun than just a 'pool'?  A wave pool!  The kids loved it when Daddy made it a wave pool for them.  He got a the water going just right with a tube by pushing it up and down, and it got bigger and bigger.  Then, the kids would ride in the middle going up and down.  It was silly fun...

They got some height in those waves!

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 I love summer, and swimming!  I love that my kids are learning how to be strong swimmers too!  They have learned a lot from swim lessons, and now they get to practice it all summer long.

 

Bowling fun

They have this thing now where they offer free bowling for kids during the summer, so we signed up!  We get our free bowling vouchers in an email each week, and we finally used them this week.  It was so fun.  I wasn't sure how Alex would do because he's just so busy and there wasn't much for him to do, but he did pretty good.  He loved to see the balls pop up out of the thing when they came back, and would get super excited every time.

The kids really had a good time, and they all really tried to do it 'right' by holding the ball with their fingers and thumb.  Aaron really had a good technique going!  I think he may have won, but I forgot to look at the score!  I was going to get a picture of it but we got into such a rush at the end for some reason.  The best part was...I didn't have to play!  I just watched them play.

Aaron working on his technique

Look at that grin on his face, he thought that was pretty good.

We decided that April could have used the bumpers this time around, but she tried it without!

Aric wouldn't leave the balls on the tray!  He dropped it a few times...look out for your toes!

 

Ice cream afterwards, yummm!!  They have a pretty cool little diner there.

 A fun time was had by all!
 

Maria wedding pics

Taking these wedding pictures of Maria and Kevin was the most humbling, exciting, nerve wreaking, beautiful, joyful, and awesome experiences.  I stressed about taking their pictures for a good while, and when I was there taking the pictures I remember why.  There are too many people to deal with!  I'm not an extrovert!  But, I had fun, and I survived.  And, I think they were great for the camera.  It was kind of funny, because they came out and were a little unsure of what they should do next.  They did great just enjoying their new status as husband and wife and posing for the camera though!

These are just a few of the ones I really liked, but it was so hard to choose because there were so many!  I took over 300 pictures of them.  Of course there were multiples of some poses just to make sure we got a good one, but still it's a lot of pictures.  Enjoy this lovely couple!
 

Wordless Wednesday: Summer fun!

I promise I will post something else soon!

 

Thoughts from the day...top 10 list

We had a good day today.  Here's my list of 10 thoughts from the day:

1.  I discovered that my "shark's!" blog post had been featured on the homeschool share blog.  How cool is that?!  I noticed in my weekly stats email that my page loads jumped to 135 last Tuesday, and that got me curious.  I never usually have more than 20-30 page loads in one day, so I did some looking on Statcounter to find that traffic coming from homeschool share blog.  Although, I hope people aren't too disappointed when they actually click over because this is just me, in real life.

2.  We (April and I) finished our volunteer shift at the library tonight, and the librarian said we only had just over an hour left of service before we had the official 11 hours needed to get our card!  Even better than that, she said she would go ahead and approve us to get our out of county card now, and that we could finish the 1 hour left sometime later.  Tomorrow's library day!  So excited to sign up for the card we worked so hard to get.

3.  I just realized that I only posted 5 times in May.  Wow, I have been pretty busy (and distracted)!   I have been thinking a lot today about what I have to post about, and it's not much.  So, that leaves me with a question:  What do you like to read about here?

4.  We went bowling today because we are signed up for the "kids bowl free" summer deal.  I really wanted to take them because I love bowling, but I had also been dreading going because I have a 1.5 year old who doesn't sit still.  He did surprisingly well, and loved all the "balls."  He didn't really run off which I was worried about, and the kids had a great time too.  We forgot to look at our score at the end though, so we don't know who won!  It was a pretty good game though.  I also loved that I didn't play, just the kids. 

5.  One of my favorite parts of today was sitting outside this morning, in the backyard with my boys, in my pj's watching the chickens after feeding them.

6.  It has been fun going to the local pool everyday for the past 2.5 weeks, but I'm glad this Friday is the last day of swim lessons.  It'll be nice to not have to go everyday, and hopefully it'll warm up soon so we can just use our new pool at home!  My kids have learned a lot from swim lessons though.

7.  With all this cool weather I keep having to remind myself that it is actually summer.  I am kinda looking forward to Fall though...sorta.  Okay, I still want summer to get here, then I'll be ready for Fall.

8.  I'm in the middle of planning a unit study about the U.S. constitution/government/elections.  I use the term planning very loosely.  I don't plan too well, but I am making the lapbooks completely ahead of time, and hoping to get a good list of library books ready.  I was thinking about how the kids will take to this unit study.  I'm not sure if they are going to be excited or not, but that will determine how deeply we get into it I guess :-)  Maybe we'll plan a field trip to the state capitol.  April did that with her class

9.  I realized today that I need to start a household binder.  I have been thinking about it for a long time, but I really should do something about it soon.

10.  April likes to change my background on my computer desktop.  I like when she does this because 1. I don't have to take the time to do it, and 2. It's fun to see what she comes up with.  Today she changed my desktop to a picture from camping last year with red, white, and blue lights on it.  It made me happy about camping, and I realized that it's almost time to go on our big 4th of July camping trip again!  Next week!  I'm both excited, and a little bit frazzled.

Desiree

I am Thankful

It's Thankful Thursday, and I wanted to take the time to post what I'm thankful for this week in our life and our homeschool.

In our homeschool I'm thankful for...
I am thankful that I don't feel the need to sign Aric up for preschool this fall.  I'm thankful that we can save some money too because of that.  I'm thankful for all the progress that he's made at home, and I'm thankful that I'm so happy and comfortable to do preschool with him here.  I'm thankful he loves it too.  I'm thankful for the great homeschool group that is forming right here in our own little town, I have been hoping for this for a long time.  I'm thankful that we won't have to go far and wide as much anymore to find other homeschool friends.  I'm thankful for all the great math and other homeschool ideas that I'm finding on pinterest tonight.  I am thankful that I can take the time to seek out new and great things to add into our homeschool.  I am thankful for a great homeschool friend that April has quickly become best friends with, and that she was able to have a sleep over with her this week.  I am thankful for the confidence I am gaining as we approach 6th grade.

In my life I'm thankful for...
I am thankful for WinCo, and that I can get so much food that my family needs for good prices.  I only wish we had one closer.   I am thankful for the volunteer time I had at the library this week, and that I have this opportunity.  I'm thankful that I could help a patron find something even though I don't know the library very well.  I'm thankful for libraries and the wonderful resource that they are!  I am thankful for books and that I'm finally starting to learn to love reading them more.  I am thankful for the challenge that my kids are getting at swim lessons, and that it is finally working for them. I will be thankful when tomorrow morning is over because that means I will be done taking wedding pictures (which I'm very nervous about), and off to have a fun weekend with my family.

Desiree

Wordless Wednesday: Chicka chicka boom boom

We are doing a chicka chicka boom boom tree on our wall this summer. My preschooler loves it!

Wordless Wednesday: Strawberries!

The best strawberries on earth are the ones from your garden!

 

My new camera

We celebrated our 13th anniversary this past weekend, and I got a new camera!  We went out to dinner on Friday night, and afterwards we went to check out the top camera's on my list.  I came home with a Canon EOS 60D.  This camera is loaded (at least with more features than my last one)!  I still have a lot to learn about it, and much more practice to get familiar with it, but here are the pictures from the first day of use.

We started with a photo session with the kids.  They weren't too thrilled about getting their picture taken, and it was hot, so we didn't get a lot of smiling faces.  These are the ones I thought turned out the best out of like a bazillion shots.

The construction zone...This was my last attempt to get a good picture of them, and it is actually my favorite!  

  Aric...I tried to get a shot of each one by themselves too.  Aric's turned out so cute.
 

This wasn't planned, just a candid of them.  They were all walking toward me and I told them to stop because I liked how they were spaced.
 

Aaron's face cracks me up in this one, but it was the best one for this pose.  I love Aric's and Alex's smiles!
 

This one isn't my favorite, but I love that they are all looking at the camera, and smiling somewhat.
 

Other shots...

I am getting ready to take wedding pictures for a girl from my church.  She surprisingly asked me, and for some reason I said yes.  Actually, I am very excited, but I am also VERY nervous.  She is having me do her pictures at the LDS Temple where they are going to be married, so to get a little practice we went up there to take some pictures too.  This is actually where I planned to do the kids' pictures, but they were being kind of wild, and the temple grounds were very busy, so I just opted to walk around myself and get a feel for what areas we might take pictures in for the wedding.

The fountain...

 

The reflecting pond.  This is such a great place to have pictures!  It was crazy to think that I had my wedding pictures here just 13 years ago at this same pond.
The whole temple...here I was trying to get a feel for how much I could get in one shot. 
 

 A silly shot...this is the #2nd picture I took with my camera before we went out.  I was sitting on the couch getting the settings adjusted, and playing with it while the boys were playing with their army guys.  I asked Aaron if he could line some up for me to shoot.  He happily obliged. Which picture is your favorite?