Florida Reunion - Pool Pictures

Here's my first batch of reunion pictures! In my opinion, the key to any successful beach vacation is having access to a pool. While we LOVE going to the beach, it's nice to have another option for playing in the water that doesn't involve sand or lugging a million things to the beach. Our accommodations on this trip were fantastic. We rented 3 beach houses on a dead end street and we had a pool and private beach access. It was AWESOME! On most days we spent the morning at the beach, came home for lunch/naps, spent the afternoon at the pool and then went back to the beach in the evening. It was perfect. I didn't take a ton of pool pics but we certainly enjoyed our time there. The kids loved racing each other, playing chicken on the uncles/dads shoulders, diving for rings and playing games that Aunt Meghan made up! It was great.

{Addie became a little fishy this summer and is able to swim proficiently on her own!}

{18 month old Madeline}

{The closest I got to Ems looking at me and smiling}

{Grandkids + grandma}

{Uncle Jake & Leslie}

{Aunt Tess & Eli}

{Aunt Meghan & sleeping Claire}

It's been awhile....

{for sure I will have that song stuck in my head all day now!!}

Whew. It's the middle of June? What a whirlwind of month it has been. And frankly, I don't really have time to blog but if I don't do it now, who knows if it will happen.

So what have we been up to?

First, a little trip to Albuquerque for me and Al. We did some important house stuff: signed the lease, negotiated a few things in the contract, figured out preschools and utilities and the like. But we also had lots-o-fun. Eating at YUMMY restaurants,

{gorging ourselves at the Melting Pot}, attending the temple, sleeping in, working out together, taking hikes, taking naps {shhhh...}, shopping, watching movies... you know, all the things you swear you would do if you had no kidlets around. It was such a nice couple of days together. I will say that I did NOT love Albuquerque and have been quite emotional about the move since we got home. The house is totally fine {though I don't love the floor plan} and the area we will be living in is brand new and very nice. I'm just so sad to be leaving here and starting over once again. If I did not KNOW without a doubt that this is where we are supposed to be, I'm not sure I could handle this move.

While we were gone, our kids were having a marvelous time being taken care of by my friend Terri. She is a veritable miracle worker as she got Addie to WALK as her primary source of transportation {remember, she's been able to walk since MARCH but is just now doing it on her own all the time} AND she got her to eat fresh fruits and veggies! Thanks Terri! Our kids had a grand time with her kids. It is so nice knowing they were in capable, safe hands.

Last week, my friend Kayla brought her three girls for a quick visit. We have known each other since our CT days and have remained good friends via many phone calls, emails, blogging and an occassional visist. After 48 hours together I'm still amazed that we NEVER run out of things to talk about {it is nearly impossible for us to spend less than 1 or 2 hours on the phone together}. The weather was so nice last week so it actually allowed us to play outside!

My kids had a great time with her girls! And a big thanks to Kayla for making the trip and for her patience with all the surprise things I was dealing with last week!

On Monday before she arrived, I was making breakfast and heard what sounded like a huge rock or ball crashing into my back patio glass door. And then I heard the glass shatter! Scared the heck out of me. For some unknown reason, the glass in my back door shattered into about a zillion pieces. So I had to deal with that getting fixed. Plus, I somehow contracted a virus on my computer and I had to have that fixed too - all while she was here - hours of people in and out of my house fixing things. When it rains it pours, right?

{my shattered door}

The rest of the week has been busy with play dates, swim lessons, craft camp, lots of time at the pool, Makenna's dance dress rehearsal, a primary party, preparing and teaching church lessons, 3 trips to D.I. thrift store to drop off bags and piles of our things and finishing up about a million little things in preparation for the move.

{last day of swim lessons}
{Addison during a trip to the pool with a handful of Otter Pops - she LOVES these - can you tell?}

On Friday night, some of our friends hosted a wonderful going away party for us and another family who is moving next month. It was so generous of them and fun to see people from both of the wards we have lived in since we moved here. I will have pictures of the party soon but it was a blast!

Today I can officially say we made it through 8 weeks of Allen traveling back and forth to New Mexico for work. It was a little rough but we adjusted and it ended up being ok, although it is definitely not something I'd ever want to repeat. On Wednesday the packers arrive and we move into a hotel, they load our truck on Friday, Kenna has her recital on Saturday and on Sunday we will attend our ward for the last time and drive to Albuquerque. It is almost impossible for me to believe that a week from today our belongings will arrive from AZ and we will begin the process of moving into our new home and life. Sigh.

So THAT is what we've been up to. I'll be back later today to load some video of Addie walking for my mom and then I probably won't be back to blogging until we are in NM!

Swim Lessons: Week 2

Oh what a difference a week makes!!

I am so pleased that Makenna has been a champion swimmer this week. No whining, crying or complaining. We have practiced several times on our own this week and that seems to have made all the difference for her. She is swimming the front crawl completely unassisted and swam the short length of the pool today. She has lots of the work to do to get her arms and breathing perfected but she is doing GREAT! Here's a video of her swim today!

Carter has done great too and has officially "graduated" from swim lessons. No surprise that I feel a little bit emotional about that. He'll be on the local swim team next year.

After lessons we trucked off to Target to let Makenna pick out her reward for her great progress this week. She chose these sparkly red Fancy Nancy shoes (I must say that I have bought a few things from this line and they are SO adorable and well made). She's been trucking around in them all day.

We're off for the next session and then Makenna will have 2 more weeks of lessons in July.

Swim Lessons: Week 1

Today we completed our first week of swim lessons for the summer. To sum it up nicely, Carter is bored out of his mind and Makenna is scared out of her wits. Actually, Carter has perfected his front crawl and spent the week learning the back stroke and diving. He is SO ready for swim team and I'm a little sad I opted out of it this year. Practicing back stroke:

Makenna has been an emotional basket case the last 3 days. It's a little ridiculous because she swims like a fish when we go to the pool but freaks out during lessons. She was especially bad today but I'm chalking it up to the fact that she was awake last night from 12:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m. and was exhausted. She went to bed the second we walked in the door.Crying and begging me to let her out of the pool.
And of course my favorite poolside partner:

Since I'm not above bribing my children, I told Makenna that if she makes it through all three lessons next week without crying that I will buy her some new dressups. I'm crossing my fingers or the next 3 weeks of lessons are going to be pretty painful.