Sunshine and Swimming

We have had beautiful weather the last week or so!  And since we can't rely on the 80-90's to stay we've been taking full advantage with bike rides (partly because we only have one car right now), walks, trips to the river and of course... the POOL!  We are so glad we accepted Grandma and Papa G's offer to let us have it.  It's wonderful!  Carson has made leaps and bounds with his comfort in the water in just the last week!  Here are a few pictures of their fun this evening with Daddy. 

Dillon was on the ladder waiting to jump and Carson wouldn't move so we told him to jump nice and high and go over him (just this once).  He made quite the jump, wish I'd caught it at the peak!

 This is the boy that wouldn't jump unless he was holding your hand even 8 days ago.

 He's hit and miss with how far he can swim.  Sometimes he can make it all the way across the pool (16 ft) and sometimes he barely makes it 4.  He loves to go under the water and wave at anybody who will sit under there and wave at him too.  Kayda and Dillon love it when he swims to them and constantly want him to jump towards them.  They're great about helping him stay up top, he can get there but isn't quite skilled enough to stay there yet.  He's mastered front floats already, we're working on "bobs" and getting him comfortable on his back, and of course the art of the quick breath.

 This girl is obsessed with diving.  We have MANY rules in place.  She is allowed to stand on the second step from the bottom and shallow dive from there.   Does pretty good considering she's starting with a third of her body in the water!  In case you didn't notice that back/belly... Kayda is in love with two piece swimsuits.  I was hoping to get her more of a tankini but...  We were going to a pool party today when I realized her last swimsuit is sagging a ridiculous amount.  So on our way we run by Fred Meyer.  Which of course is selling out the last of their swimsuits (WHAT!?! We're JUST getting warm!).  Anyways.  We managed to find two suits that fit her, one of which was a one piece which was borderline too small.  She had her heart set on a two piece though.  After a long discussion, I finally decided she could because it is not a triangle top, it's more of a square top with ruffles which make it feel more suited to a child.  I still have mixed feelings about it but she LOVES it.  At the party she didn't want to put her clothes on for the park portion, not because she didn't want her clothes wet, because she didn't want to cover up her swimsuit!!!  I was able to get her to put her top on first and then when she was ready to play on the toys (immediately after we reached them) she was willing to put the bottoms on.  We are in serious trouble with this girl.  I hope to be able to help her develop her own sense of modesty, not one manufactured by religion or society.  A rule set of her very own... We'll see how that goes...

 Look at that front glide position!

 Dillon swimming along side Carson.

A week and a half ago we decided to build a solar heater of our very own.  We had seen more compact versions for sale for 100+ each.  I looked at them and though "We could build one of those" and so we did.  We have 20 feet of black hose in there, it has our pool consistently running 10 degrees higher than our neighbors pool (same size and we both have solar covers).  We built it for all of 50-60 dollars and essentially have two of the ones you can buy.  It took longer than it should have because we had to deal with two holes, one that showed up in the end of the black hose where it connects to the filter hoses and one in the middle (nowhere close to where we were working)!  It was frustrating but totally worth it.  Our pool usually starts out around 90 degrees in the morning and ends up being around 94-96 by the end of the day.  It is magical to swim in and we can even use it in the evenings without everyone getting hypothermia!

Dillon's Pulled Tooth

Kayda had to have her front top teeth removed by the dentist due to an abscess and now Dillon had to have one front tooth removed.  This tooth was knocked into the bathtub faucet long ago.  It's been a little brownish but seemed to be okay for the most part.  Well, we went to the dentist a few weeks ago, they took xrays and discovered a few things: 1) the root of that tooth looked "sickly" as the dentist put it, 2) An abscess was forming around the root of the luck tooth and 3) it was keeping the permanent tooth from descending (it was stuck up about the root and growing into the root of the upper right lateral incisor).  The verdict... it needed to be pulled.  So today Grandma H came and played with Carson so I could take the big kids up to the dentist.  They gave him some Nitrus while he watched a movie and it came out with absolutely no issue.  There was no dramatic tugging (I was relieved because as Kayda tells it they had quite a hard time pulling one of her front teeth).  The most unpleasant time was actually how long he had to bite on the gauze.  

 He wasn't feeling very smiley as you can tell.  A combination of pain and the Nitrus wearing off.

 Notice that the root is all twisted and bumpy and weird (not that I've seen many tooth roots!).  You can also see the brownish tint more prominently in the root.  Hopefully this trend won't continue for Carson!

Independence Day!!!

This Independence day we decided to keep it simple and keep it to ourselves.  We did fireworks off and on throughout the day, made cookies, swam in the pool, jumped on the trampoline, went to the farmer's markets, went on a bike ride and walked around the neighborhood.  It was very relaxed and I loved it.  

Here are the kids yelling "fireworks!"

Pop its!

The neighbor kids, Anothony and Zoey, were out front playing with us for a while.  

Parachutes!

Dragon war!

In years past Carson had a terrible time with the sounds of Fourth of July.  This year was no exception.  It was a little easier because I was able to put some earplugs in and as long as I was nearby he was okay.  We spent a lot of the later time with my hands covering his ears too but he made it until 10:30!  I think he liked watching them. He just HATES the big booms.

This is early on in the day and he wanted to be with Daddy, Kayda and Dillon but hadn't adapted to the noise yet.  

Cookies!  We were having fun making "Yum" faces!

Carson was testing out the whole lip smacking goodness idea.

This was Kayda's "Mmmm! So good!" face.

There was a balloon dude down at the farmer's market.  Dillon got a dinosaur, Carson a horse and Kayda a penguin.

As part of our entertainment for the day we decorated paper bags to light up in the evening.  We had the candles lit from about 8:30 on, it was cool to have glowing paper bags lining our driveway.  Definitely a returning activity for next year, except I'll go buy some white ones so it works a little better.

We weren't able to convince Carson to go near many fireworks.  We were able to get him to throw a ground bloomer by....

Doing the ground bloomer crazy spin dance!

We did a few little fountains early on and he sat there saying "Fire, fire, fire" the whole time.

Kayda and Dillon did a LOT of the lighting this year.  We had no extra kids so we were able to give them more freedom.  They were very careful to get away as soon as it was lit.  I love that they can respect potentially dangerous situations so well and behave accordingly!

Another of the fireworks Carson was willing to do.  He only did one though, he wasn't willing to do another even with Mommy.

When you have tanks and such you simply MUST face them towards eachother.  The kids love it.  Next year we'll start showing them how to make the complicated suped up tanks of Daddy's memories.

Roman candle away!

Smoke dances!

This is how Carson and I spent most of our evening.  Except my hands were normally over his ears in addition to the bright purple ear plugs!  He would keep grabbing them and sticking them on until I finally stopped moving.

Daddy's attempts at convincing Carson that sparklers are okay.

He thought they were okay.  You could see him getting more nervous as the sparks moved closer and closer to his hand.  Smart kid!

I love the flashers.  Carson wouldn't let me go out there but dancing in those is one of my favorite fireworks activities!

 Ever since Tangled came out we've HAD to get these lanterns.  They were EVERYWHERE last night.  There was one point we saw about 20 of them floating off into the sky.  We typically tie ours to strings so the kids can play with them later, next year I think we'll let them go, it's so cool to see a sky full of them!  Maybe next year we can get our little town to release a whole bunch around the same time.

Happy 4th! So glad to be FREE!

Hopefully I can get kids to save sparklers next year and I can learn how to use my camera better.  It's great fun to make sparkler designs!

Our neighborhood is fantastic during fourth of July.  There is so much activity!  If you look out our front windows you can see the hills lighting up with the artillery shells and if you look out our back windows you can see them sparkling above the whole neighborhood.  The only problem is that you don't get to bed until around midnight no matter when you finish because of all the noise!