Down Weeks but Fun Weeks

The next two weeks after camp were down weeks. We didn't have much other than swim team so we just planned fun days.

The evening of the day the counselors left we hosted our small group at our neighborhood pool for a cookout. Almost everyone was there. Everyone brought their own food to grill and all the kids enjoyed playing in the pool. It was a nice and mostly relaxing evening. We have four boys that were all born within about two months of each other. They are hilarious together and have so much fun together. I am sure they are a mess at church. Each Sunday they all run through the list of their friends to make sure their friends will be at church that morning. "Is Denver going to be there? Is Keller going to be there? Is Anders going to be there?"

One afternoon, after playing at the pool, I was running to the grocery store and remembered that our local park started having a farmers market. It isn't too big yet so there wasn't much but they did have King of Pops that the kids enjoyed.

We have had dinner at the pool a couple of times.

At the last swim meet that we were going to be at, Lance and I had to work the whole meet. We are usually there for about five hours and we knew we couldn't keep up with Hayes for that long and do our jobs. Luckily, our sweet friends kept him for us. They took him out to dinner...

And he had a pretend sleep over. The swim meet ended about thirty minutes earlier than it would have because of thunder and lightening. The boys were both in bed but we talking and giggling.

One night we walked up to the kids school to play and so that Reese could pick her cabbage they grew through out the year. It was huge!

Another afternoon we tried something we had never done before. Rock Climbing! Sam's sweet little friend invited us to go with them. Their family goes all of the time and are members of a local rocking climbing gym. We got to go for free with them since it was our first time.

It took Sam a little while to get warmed up. He wasn't sure about it and he definitely did not trust his rope to keep him safe. He would climb about half way up the 25 foot wall and them climb back down again. He was scared to let his auto belay bring him down. I finally showed him what it would feel like for it to catch him and he got a little more comfortable. We would cheer for him and he would get shy and come back down. If we weren't watching him and working with someone else, he would attempt to go all the way up.

He finally made it to the top right before we left.

Reese, on the other hand, loved it! She wasn't scared at all and just went for it. She did tons of courses on the 25 foot wall. Once she was comfortable with that, her friend (who is on a rock climbing team) belayed for her while she was on the 45 foot wall. She made it all the way to the top TWICE! She was so determined to make it to the top and I was so proud of her hard work. She has been begging and scheming to go back.

Sam had been begging for me to make chocolate chip pumpkin muffins. One afternoon I looked through the pantry and realized we had everything we needed so I told Reese and Sam they could make them. Sam decided he didn't want to make them so Reese did it herself. She rocked it and the muffins were delicious!

One Saturday morning, I took Reese to get her nails painted and her hair cut. She chose navy and gold for her fingers and a coral color for her toes. We swung by to get a hot chocolate at Starbucks while heading to get her hair cut. She got five inches cut off and looked like such a big girl.

Later that afternoon, we went to hang out with Adrienne and her family. We went straight to their pool first and then back to their house to cookout.

These two were so silly together! They ran around like crazy boys the whole time.

And these two were so cute together. They went straight to the playroom and played so sweetly together. Reese had spent the night out the night before and was up way too late and had to wake up way too early. She was a little bit of a grump that night and she just laid on the sofa while the other four played.

They all watched Zootopia while we ate dinner and visited. It was a fun night and I hate we can't do it more.

Getting some wiggles out after dinner by walking through the neighborhood.

Reese and Sam both ended up with ear infections so our swim season was cut short. Reese had a bad case of swimmers ear and Sam had a double ear infection. It was actually kind of nice to sleep in those days though.