War Eagle Cavern

Rhonald and I have been talking a whole lot about being intentional in our lives...with everything.  Making an effort in all things.  One of those things being undivided family time.  It is so easy to be together having fun but constantly checking facebook, email or texting friends.  To never really be 100% in.  So, we wanted to plan a morning, away from home, to spend time with the kids without distraction.  This past Saturday we spent the morning at War Eagle Cavern and had so much fun (and learned a whole lot too)!  There is so much to do there - we were kind of surprised.  It was hot, hot, hot so we started the morning with a tour of the cavern.  It was nice and cool in there.  Cole was in heaven - the tour guide told us so many facts about bats, the cavern and other random things.  Cole was smiling and taking it all in.  When the tour ended we were able to hike down to Beaver Lake and feed some of the biggest carp I have ever seen, "dig" for Dino fossils in the big dig area and then share a snack.  After we hiked back up to the gift shop we mined for gems....hands down both of our kids favorite activities.  I wasn't sure if Lily would even know what was going on but she really loved it!  They each got a bag of gems to sift through-whenever we would pull Lily's pan out of the water she would squeal with delight at all of the treasures and yell, "Do that again!"  Everyone around us loved watching her.  Cole was having a blast too but was a big more serious.  We ended the morning with shakes at Susie Q's Malt Shop-the biggest hole in the wall place with the best milkshakes ever.  It was such a beautiful place to make great memories!

Boys Night Out

This seems to be the summer of kids movies!!!!  I am so excited because our family loves going to the movies!  There is nothing better than popcorn and cokes and the big screen....except maybe doing all of that with friends.  Last night Keisha and I took Jackson, Cole and Ben to dinner and a movie.  A big boy date night.  It was so funny to listen to these boys talk and joke and realize just how big they are getting.  The boys (and the mommy's) had so much fun and stayed up way too late...we definitely need to do it again!

Wordless Wednesday

Swimming Lessons 2013

 

 



This is Cole's 3rd year to take swimming lessons.  Although he has improved each year we decided to try a new teacher this year.  I am so happy that we did!  Miss Dana teaches lessons in small groups at her home (with help from her teenage daughter).  Cole finished up his first week today and has learned so much more than ever before.  He loves it and he loves that he is learning so much.  They are working on back strokes, free style and even some survival skills in case there was an emergency.  Miss Dana makes them work the entire class without much of a break so they get a lot of practice time.  And Cole is fairly worn out at the end of class.  At the end of the class each day Miss Dana lets the kids jump off of her diving board and swim to the side of the pool.  That has to be, hands down, Cole's very favorite thing to do!  He tries to be the first in line each time and loves to show that he is not afraid to jump!!  We could not be more proud of this little guy.

 

My Little Fish Swam Back

These smiles do not ever leave their sweet faces the entire time we are in the pool!  These two have loved swimming ever since they were tiny and they are thrilled that the air is hot and the water is perfect!  It took awhile for these hot temps to arrive but now that they have we are in the pool as much as possible.  I am so thankful to have this time with them and to see them become more confident and more brave every single summer.

Garden Helper

Gotcha!!!!