Zek

We watched our friends the Stoddart's dog for a weekend while they went on a trip. The kids loved having Zek around. We took him everywhere including the pet store for some treats. He was spoiled! The kids waited on him every minute they could. 

Someday Jason will come home to a new family member!

Boating II

Last year was our first time our family went boating. We had a great time.
This year our friends invited us to do it again. It was a blast! After reading the post from last year I'm excited to say we raised the bar. We went on a weekday afternoon this time. The water was great and the weather was nice as well (not windy and clear skies).

The plan was for Malinate and I to drive over to Willard a little after lunchtime. Jason would then join us after he could get away from work stuff. After getting organized in the boat and out into open water the kids jumped in to get cooled off the first chance they got. It was a hot day.

 After the kids had some fun in the water it was Malinda's turn in the water.

She was setting the example I think because afterwards it was my turn. I'm assuming I did ok for my first time skiing. It took me a long time to get the ski's on, I didn't stand up and I swallowed a lot of water. Everyone was super patient due to a lot of this...

Nate and Malinda encouraged me and pressed for me to keep trying. I told them a few more times. They know me well enough to know a little pressing would get my so called few more times into several more times. I did get a little bit better after each run. The ski's wouldn't fly off every time and eventually I got semi-upright on a few runs.

I wish this picture wasn't blurry. 

I would only last maybe 3 to 5 seconds if that. To me the seconds seemed like forever.

 The gang in the boat cheered me on and I'm glad the kids saw me try something new. I'm ok with looking like this for this year...

however next year I'm going to look like this, I just know it...

After I was done the Nelson kids used the knee board for a bit. I saw huge improvements from them from last year. Jason called soon afterwards. After picking him up it was Jason's turn to knee board. He did awesome! Even went over some waves.

Korbin was a good sport and tried the knee board. I'll give him a hand, I honestly didn't think he would try anything other than the tube. He didn't struggle much and seemed to enjoy it. Horray for our Korbin!

Jason did some skiing afterwards and was awesome at it! He lasted longer than I did. 

Nate did some slalom waterskiing. He was great as well. 

We went to the beach and had dinner. The ride over was beautiful. I loved the color of the water.

After dinner we did some tubing. Madison loves the tube and did a few runs with the girls. Korbin and Ben had a fun ride and Jason and I did as well. 

Abby was brave and said she would ride the tube by herself.  I'm not sure what happened but the tube did a nose dive and Abby went face first in the water. All you could see was little legs kicking like crazy. It made us all laugh. She's a funny little thing and was so proud of herself and didn't cry. 

We had a super fun night. We're lucky to have such awesome friends that encourage us to try new things and make us laugh. 

Pineview

This is the second year I have taken the kids for Pineview Day for some beach fun. The end result is the same thing. Pineview Day is just a fun day at the beach with friends. Why don't we do it more often? Everyone always has such a great time. We eat, catch up and play. We had 18 kids in the water at one point. Next year we'll have to do it every month in the summer.

 We even tried and squeeze in another Pineview Day but the weather didn't cooperate.

Summer water

This summer we've had a few fun/lazy/structured and unstructured water days.

Country Club Pool
With Synda in town we used the country club pool more this summer than any other. We had about 4 cousin swim dates there. The kids enjoyed swimming and ordering food.


North Shore
Malinda, Callie and I scored a fabulous deal to North Shore for this summer. The week after we got back from Moab. Wendy, Callie and I went to North Shore with the kids. The kids had so much fun and ran around and had a blast. I heard all about our Stake girls camp this year. I'm so excited when Madison gets to go in 4 years.

Later in the summer on a sunny day I took Korbin and Madison to North Shore with a friend each. The kids of course had fun and kept well entertained and I didn't have to get in the water once. I even bought myself a treat and just relaxed.

From the deal we scored it included some Zumba passes. We finally found a night when Callie,Malinda and I could go together. We got ready and went down ready for a night of unknown dancing only to be told classes ended the week before. They should really have the expiration day match the last day of the class.

Surf N Swim
This summer we went to Surf N Swim twice. Once with cousins and once with Malinate and the kids.

The first round was with cousins. McKenzie is such a sweet sport. She really is the example of what a perfect older sibling and cousin should be. She didn't leave Madison and Emery even though some of her friend were there. She always teaches them what they should be doing in a really positive way. Jake was a brave young man and went off the diving board a few times. Dena and Ryan were going on a trip with the kids to Florida and were planning on doing some water parks and other stuff and Dena really wanted Jake to build up his confidence in the water before the trip. With all the cousins going off the diving board he did it too. It was really good for him.  He's a great swimmer just needed a little encouragement to go off the diving board.

Our second round of Surf N Swim swimming was with Malinate and kids. 

We really enjoy spending time with this gang. We spent a pleasant day/evening of water fun with them at the pool and afterwards for smores at Callie's. I was even able to squeeze in some lap swimming while Malinda and Nate watched the kids. Madison really surprised me and went off the diving board over and over even when I wasn't around. Something she's never done before. Maybe going with her cousins helped her self confidence. After so many swimming lessons I'm glad she's going for it.

Splash Pads
This summer we went to the splash pad twice.
Once with Mariana and her kids. She invited me to join her and her friends for an afternoon picnic and water play date for the kids. Mariana and her friends are amazing athletic women. I learned so much from them about living healthier. Sometimes I follow along and get the lingo and vocabulary sometimes I just nod and pretend I know what some grain or nut is (I do know what agave is now).  I'm also learning to be a great kid tracker at the splash pad. The two nearest splash pads I know of around here get so packed. I really wish our city would have put the splash pad that's in North Shore at a park instead. It would be used so much more.

(Pictures)

Our second trip to a splash pad was with Colton and Kyler on a Saturday. Russ and Lisa and the kids came down for a few days. Last trip before Colton started school in Colorado. Jason chased the kids around. Penny wanted to join them but couldn't. No dogs in the pad.


Swimming Lessons
The kids had the best swimming lessons we've ever done. It was convenient and the kids learned so much. We did session after session.
The swimming lessons were held at a neighbors pool. Diane was the instructor. She was amazing with all the kids. She was very patient and was strict on only five kids in the pool at a time. The kids rarely just sat around and they all had fun and never complained.
Korbin did three sessions and Madison two. The extra sessions were unplanned. During the first session Diane really encouraged me to have Korbin do more with swimming. After talking to Jason about it we jumped in and asked Diane what else we could do. He did two extra sessions with Conner and Conner's older brother learning different strokes and techniques. Korbin can really hold his breathe. I'm glad we have possibly found something Korbin can do as far as sports goes in the future.
Madison has a strong kick to her and that makes her a good swimmer too. She's timid in the water though but not as much as she use to be. It's so awesome to watch.
I signed up for a session too. A friend Amanda and I had two full weeks of swimming. We both would go home so tired. Diane didn't take it easy on us. She pushed us and I'm glad. We learned how to 'properly' swim. I still hate having my head in the water. It's just not normal. I think next year I'll do another session. Watching Diane dive was awesome! I dived too. I don't plan to do it often but push my kids to do it all the time.

Lagoon

We took the kids to Lagoon for the first time this summer. Our stake provides a discount pass for a day once a year. This year we took advantage of it.
A friend had a season pass and joined us and told us it was a great day to be there and we got lucky. Not overly crowded and the weather was nice. We rode all the rides we wanted to and only waited in line once for a long time(our second round of Rattlesnake Rapids). The kids had a great time the entire day and didn't stop until the park was closing.
Korbin rode most of the rides with Conner and Madison rode most of them with Jaycee.
Madison takes after Jason and loves roller coasters. My stomach can't handle rides like it use to so I'm glad everyone had a partner and I could sit out on a few and sit with some friends Kerri and Wendy. Jason was a great sport and took the kids all over the place.

Madison loved Wicked! Korbin loved Colossus! Jason loved all of the rides and I loved Rattlesnake Rapids!
Madison is really pushing for us to get season passes next year. I told her to ask Santa for it and she didn't respond. I guess she doesn't want to go that bad.
Madison was so lucky and was right on the line(46 inches) to be able to ride most of the rides we wanted to ride. It was a sign that we waited just the perfect amount of time for our children's first trip to Lagoon to be this year. Madison's face wouldn't and couldn't take more than one let down during the day. She was a bit bummed she couldn't ride Jet Star 2. On our way home we stopped and bought the kids treats for being such good sports all day long.

The following Saturday we used our bounce back passes. Everyone warned us that it would be packed. We went anyway. We spent a few hours at Lagoon A Beach. It was fun until about 2 hours later, it began to be jammed packed. We stuck around for a bit but then decided it wasn't worth it anymore. We won't be going back on a Saturday ever again.

We went on a few rides and then called it good.