we love summer

For the past five years we have started each summer with a trip to Arizona State University to watch Bill's team play in a summer tournament.  It just so happens that there is a Cracker Barrel nearby, as well as a beautiful hotel with free breakfast and dinner.  It makes for a fun mini-vacation!  We also got the benefits of a wonderfully clean pool for three days!

 Right after we got home from Arizona, we started swim lessons.  We have had to change pool locations several times over the past 7 years, and thanks to Aunt Judy, we had a wonderful place to go!  Caleb did not like swimming lessons at all on the first day.  His crying was so loud, I was worried that the neighbors might think we were hurting him.  Miss Patty, our experienced swimming teacher, reassured me that he was capable and strong enough to learn, and to work through his fear.  After six lessons, Caleb swam on his own!  It was so amazing to see him let go of his fears and start to really enjoy being in the water.  What he also discovered was that my Aunt Judy provides an unlimited amount of strawberries as well as free Ipad usage! Caleb usually takes a long time to warm up to people he doesn't know very well, but it didn't take long at all with Aunt Judy. They became fast friends!

 Dylan decided he wanted to do two basketball leagues this summer. So we have spent a lot of time cheering him on.  Gracie decided she wanted to try out basketball for the first time also, and has been loving it!  I am so impressed how she gets out on the court, plays defense, and fights for rebounds with kids that are all older and bigger than her! I also love when family and friends come to watch Dylan, Delaney, Gracie and Luke.  It is such a fun way to spend time together.  Molly, John and Owen surprised us at one of the Upland YMCA games that Dylan and Delaney play on together.  This was Owen's first basketball game. He seemed to enjoy it! :)

 Another thing we have been enjoying this summer is trying out new vegetables in our backyard garden.  We had a huge harvest of carrots and beets!  I bought and used a pressure canner for the first time filling up over a dozen jars.  I guess the true test will be how they taste when we open them up.  Right now we are enjoying fresh tomatoes, and waiting for the zucchini and cucumbers to grow. 

 We got together with our homeschool group in July to start planning out our projects for the next school year.  Here Wyatt is showing the kids his hunting video game.  We enjoyed having Caleb Deniston around for a couple of weeks while he stayed with his Aunt Laurie.  Dylan and Gracie also liked their first sleepover at a friends house when they stayed with Caleb and Abby at the Woodside's for two nights while Bill and I went to Santa Barbara for our anniversary.

 Gracie wanted to try out the hunting game also. My mom couldn't stand watching her shooting at the poor animals!

 We have enjoyed our Disneyland passes so much this year.  We are all thankful to my mom for the best xmas present ever!  This was a day in early July that we went to go see what the new Cars Land looked like.  We were so impressed with everything but the lines were over two hours for all three new rides, so we decided to wait until another day to ride those.  We went over to Disneyland instead and enjoyed smaller crowds and lines!

 There is a wilderness park in the middle of California Adventure that the kids always want to do, and Bill is always saying it's a waste of time!  The kids won him over and we all climbed through the different trails and bridges.  He helped Caleb through all the climbing, which he loved!

 The first time we tried to take Caleb on "Soaring over California" he refused to let the workers measure him to see if he was tall enough.  He cried and cried every time they made us put him up against the measurement post.  This picture shows Caleb after he went through the line for the first time without being scared, and let them measure him three times.  It was a big deal for both of us!

When we went over to Disneyland we discovered that Caleb was also tall enough for "Star Tours" and I was thrilled.  For the past 12 years, I have always volunteered to stay behind with whatever child was too small to ride the faster rides, and it hit me... I don't have to do that much anymore. It was fun to ride it all together for the first time.