Swimming

Since we have a neighborhood pool I decided it was high time that we get these boys in some swim lessons.  We signed them up through the city and the boys did great.  James and Alex had lessons in the morning and William's were in the evening. 

James was a little fish--always has been.  He is even more confident now and I don't think I'll ever get floaties on him again.

Alex was hilarious.  He learned to get his face wet (sometimes) and is not clingy at all in the pool any more.  In fact, with floaties on he'll go all over the place by kicking his little legs.

The funny thing about Alex was that during most lessons he looked like this the majority of the time.

Yes, that is Alex laying his head down on the concrete.  The thing is he wasn't sad or even difficult--just said that he was tired.  The life guards quickly realized that if they just picked him up and asked him to do whatever is was that they were learning--he'd do it!  Happily even!  And then he'd go right back to the wall and put his head down.  Silly boy.

William did great.  He is so much more confident.  He can tread water and swim the short length of the pool.  It was just the confidence booster that he needed in the pool!

William's lessons kept getting rescheduled because of late afternoon thunderstorm (and once because of an "accident" at the pool.  Gross.)  What should have been 2 weeks of lessons turned into 3!  But I'm so glad that we got them signed up... and even more glad that they are over!

Davidson

Last Sunday we took a little drive down to Davidson College which is only 15 minutes away.  We had a great time exploring the beautiful campus.

We found these awesome statues and had fun messing around with them.

We also discovered this awesome tree swing.  It reminded me of a swing we had when I was little living in Corona--except with this swing we never swung into the tree!

Wandering around led us to this great field.  The boys had a great time rolling down (I told you they are obsessed!)

We played in the field for a while and the boys even had some races--William is a little speedster!  He wanted to race me and even though he had a slight head start it was hard to keep up!

Earlier this summer we listened to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as well as Prince Caspian (and then watched the movies).  When we saw this lampost we decided we had better follow it because this just may be the road to Narnia.

Turns out it was just a path--but it made for a beautiful walk!  So many of the trees around here are covered in vines.  The boys call them the "vine-y forests".

The boys are already talking about going again (I think they want another ride on the swing).  Perhaps we'll have to go again soon--it did make for a peaceful Sabbath evening.

Discovery Place and Big League Hotdogs

Along with Discovery Place Kids our pass lets us into 2 other museums.  So last Saturday we took a trip down to Charlotte to check out the Discovery Place.  This place was amazing!  Our first stop was the kid's area which was very similar to Discovery Place Kids--but on a smaller scale.

There was a really neat ocean exhibit.  There were even some jelly fish which were super cool under the black light.

The rainforest exhibit was pretty awesome too!  We saw some neat colorful frogs and got to walk in with these birds!

And the rope bridge was really fun to walk across... and a lot harder than it looks.

There was so much to see and do here!  We only had the chance to skim over the exhibits but we had a blast!

While Rich was out here on his own he discovered lots of places to eat (since he was eating on the company dime).  One of his favorites was Big League Hot Dog.  After visiting Discovery Place we decided to treat the boys to some hot dogs.  It was a fun set up with baseball memorabilia all over... and we even got to eat our dinner in the dugout.

This was the perfect way to end our Saturday of long, hard work.  We can't wait to do it again!

Charlotte Knights

The company Rich works for invited us all down to a Charlotte Knights (minor league baseball) game this last weekend.  However, they do not play in Charlotte.  They do not even play in the state... we traveled down to South Carolina to watch them.  Weird. 

Before the game we had a little company picnic with hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, watermelon... the works.

There was a promotion that night and all the boys got baseball gloves!  Awesome!

While we ate there was a downpour.  That actually happens pretty often here.  One minute will be pretty nice outside and then suddenly it's pouring rain!  And then it only lasts for about 10 minutes and it's sunny again.  Needless to say, the game was a little delayed.

But we had lots of fun wandering the stadium and eating our snacks.

And right before the game started a double rainbow appeared in the sky (you can't really see the second one).  It was pretty awesome (the second one I've seen this year) and reminded us of one of our favorite youtube videos.

Since the game got such a late start we didn't stay for much of the actual game.  I don't think the boys minded at all.  For as much as they love going to baseball games they don't really watch much of it!  I hope we get another chance to watch the Knights in action soon!

Pioneer Day

For the first time in years our ward had a Pioneer Day celebration on July 24th! I had planned to do some fun pioneer games but with swim lessons in the morning and the evening we didn't get in as much as I would have liked.  We did try out hand at some taffy pulling.

It turned out to be one big giant, sticky mess.  And it didn't taste good anyway.  So maybe I'll find another recipe for next year... or give up on the idea all together.  We  did have a fun time singing pioneer songs while we pulled the taffy so it wasn't a total loss!  (But really, if anyone has tried it do you have any tips for us??)

That evening we met up with our ward at a park near our house.  We had a delicious picnic and had fun visiting with the other ward members.

The boys all had fun with the tons of other kids that were running around.  James especially loved rolling down the hills.  It might be that the grass is softer or maybe that there are more hills but the boys are loving rolling down hills lately!

We are grateful for our pioneer heritage and talk to the boys often about the early pioneers.  Hopefully we are teaching our boys to display the same courage, faith, and endurance that their ancestors.  Like the primary song says:

You don't have to push a handcart, leave your family dear, or walk a thousand miles or more to be a pioneer.  You do have to have great courage, faith to conquer fear, and work with might for a cause that's right to be a pioneer!