Our visit with Dane

This summer we got to spend a little quality time with Dane. He's the sweetest kid. The boys just love playing with him. First they played hide-and-seek. Uncle Aron helped Dane hide in a hat box but apparently that wasn't a good spot because Jacob found him rather quickly.



Then they all cooked in the kitchen and made a delicous meal of wooden veggies, cheerios, and raisins.

After that, they did a little demolition.

Then we had a sad moment when the boys went to take a bath and Dane didn't know where they went. Aahhhh!

First Day of School

I thought it would never get here, but it finally did, on August 17th the boys went back to school.

Sutter's Mill

For a break, the kids, Aron and I went to Coloma Resort for an overnight stay. We visited Sutter's Fort and showed the kids how to pan for gold. Here's a few pics of our visit.

Swim Team

So swim team wrapped up a while ago, about a month ago now. The boys did fantastic! Aron and I are very proud of them. We challenged the boys to improve their swim times and they achieved their goals. They each receive a Nintendo DS. Of course, the games have already been in long recoveries due to the boys inability to turn the games off and put them down. I'd say we have reached somewhat of a equilibrium now with them.

But, back to swim team....Jacob did great at Championships and went to the finals with a time of 26.86 seconds for the 25 yard breast stroke. He won several medals at Finals. For our team awards he received a Dolphin award for being the swimmer with the best attitude and who worked the hardest. For the candy awards, he received a Crunch bar because he needs to make more noise. (Our team gives out candy awards as a way to recognize every child's uniqueness. It's pretty funny to see how the coaches relate candy to a personality or characteristic.)

Jackson went to the finals with a time of 21.4 in the 25 yard freestyle and a time of 28.62 in the 25 yard backstroke. Jackson came on strong half way through the season. He showed up at the meet with a determined attitude and a new hair do. I think the hair made all the difference...the boys talked me into using a #1 on the clippers. I wish you all could have been their. It was so exciting, he exploded across the pool. His arms whipped around with each stroke. He was a machine. At finals, Jackson won several medals. He, too, won the Dolphin award for always wanting to improve and asking the coaches what he could do better on. For him, his candy award was the LOOK candy bar because when he got on the deck everyone would look since he was lightening fast.

And for us we have come to have a very close group of friends, several of whom have boys Jacob's age. We all sit under our pop up tent and waste the afternoon talking about nothing and everything and just enjoying doing nothing for a change.