BEACH!

My FAVORITE vacation of the year....

This year we stayed a few miles away from the Beach in Carlsbad. I had found a nice BIG house that we could comfortably sleep 3 familes in. (plus Dusti and Taylor that came to help and enjoy the fun with us!) The weather was perfect, and we had loads of fun doing a whole lot of nothing! We got their late Saturday afternoon, and then on Sunday we went to church in the am(Brett and his family were there coincidently, as well as over 20 people that were there with us-so it was fun!) , and then hung out and had people over for a BBQ that night. I thought the kids were go crazy staying inside all day, but they did great! Some adults got some naps in with the little ones and the older kids just had a blast playing Uno and Go fish.

The rest of the week flew by. The beach was super sea-weed-y this year, but besides that it was perfect. Here's a summary of the week in photos:
BEACH:

Around the House/Misc Photos:

Strokers

In April/May Tanner and Kamryn took a pre-swim team class called a "strokers" class. They worked on teaching the kids their strokes 3 days a week. Kamryn enjoyed it much more than Tanner. Some of it had to do with how miserable his skin gets from the pool, but most of it was that he thinks pool should = FUN, not WORK.

She wanted to do swim team, but Mom wasn't ready for that kind of commitment. We lucked out and the swim coach offered the strokers class through the summer, and they were still able to RACE at our home swim meet!

We took the month of June off because we had so much going on, and signed her up for July. He loved going to practice, and the other kids loved being able to swim at the clubhouse 3 times a week while she was in practice!

PRACTICE:



SWIM MEET:
Brian had run home to get my camera that I forgot, so we missed her first race-freestyle. She placed 2nd, but somehow they gave her a first place ribbon. Hah-she was pretty stoked about it, so we let her dream...


Back stroke:




I forget what this one is called:
(I never swam, so it's all new to me!)



Needless to say, she is SO excited to be on the REAL swim team next year. These kids were all up against kids that practiced daily for months! They did awesome.

Kamryn, Olivia, Jackson, Anthony

"Stay"cation

We took our first "in town" Vacation! It was the Fourth of July and a friend of ours found really good prices at a local hotel that had a waterpark on site, so we packed our bags! The rooms were perfect...TWO bedrooms-which is almost a must these days with 6 people in the family. Plus, it's so nice to be able to shut the baby into his own quiet room to get the good nights rest that he so needs.

We slept in, then Brian went and picked up Donuts for everyone. Then we headed to the pool. It was PACKED! Duh-it was a holiday weekend! But we still had a great time. We stayed a couple hours then headed out for home. It was a super fast trip, but I'd do it again sometime.

It was HOT outside-he was a trooper


Payton stealing some sips...


Kamryn having a moody moment/day


Tanner had fun on the big waterslide


Blake thought he was pretty funny....he climbed into this drawer every chance he got. And then he kept emptying the suitcase...