Little Fishy's

Kaiya started swim lessons the week after school got out. Each session is 2 weeks long and its every weekday morning . I only intended to put her in 1 or 2 sessions but she is doing so well and loves it. We are on our 3rd session of the summer. She is really competitive so its fun to watch her race (and by race I mean watch them try and catch her. LOL) against the other kids in the class. One of the parents even mentioned how his daughter comes home from class and is excited when she can keep up with Kaiya. They have been spending the majority of the time in the deep end doing laps (I got these names from Kaiya so I'm not sure if they are correct - front glides, back glide, crawl stroke, back strokes).

Last session I signed Ella and Cirdan up for a parent/tot class. Ella loves the water so I thought she would enjoy it but not so much. Towards the end of the 2nd week she finally started to kick her legs around and would let Cirdan move around the pool with her. I think we will wait a few more years until we sign her up again. It was also at 8:30 in the morning and she was still tired and crabby most mornings.

Ms. Ella is growing up fast!

Ella has become quite the big girl lately. Its bittersweet for me to see her grow up. We got rid of the binky about 3 weeks ago which at first was a struggle but now she only asks about it 2 or 3 parts a week. She hasn't been sleeping well and naps don't happen consistently like they did when she had her binky but I am glad to get rid of that hurdle!
She is also has been potty training and been doing a fantastic job! It just clicked one day. She loves to wear her Elmo and princess panties. As soon as she has to go potty she yells..."pee pee!!" and whoever is around her she makes go with her to cheer her on. We took our first trip in the car with no diaper and she didn't have an accident. At home she hasn't had an accident either! I am so proud of her!

Kaiya's Dance Recital

Kaiya had her dance recital in June. I was very excited to see the development that she had made over the year. She was in 2 different routines. The first was her tap/ballet class and they danced to a Little Mermaid song. Her other dance was hip hop and it was a High School Musical theme. Kaiya did a wonderful job! She practices here routine and you can tell...she is the kid in the class who leads the others.
This Saturday is tryouts for the Xtreme team. She was nominated by one of her teachers at the end of the year. Its will be a lot of work and she will be dancing about 4 days a week but she wants to do it. I am kind of nervous knowing how busy she will be since she is also in piano and she has activity days (church) every other Wednesday. Kaiya has the drive to do it and her dad helps a lot taking her to her classes so lets hope it won't be too much! Go Kaiya!!!!

Ms. Ray (her 2nd grade teacher) came to cheer her on.

Lake Chelan

The week Ava was here my mom called me and told me that my dad and her were heading to Lake Chelan that weekend. She didn't have to work until Wednesday so they would be going 4 days. We decided to join them for a little family getaway. Nate, Amy and Emma also came along. One perk about owning your own company is that we can pick up and leave for the weekend. Cirdan can always work from the road.
We left on Saturday around 2:00 and got there just in time for dinner. I was a little worried about the 3 hour drive with Ella but we took the Michael Jackson DVD with us and she also got in about an hour nap. The girls did great.
That night Cirdan and I headed to Walmart to pick up some dinner and food for the remaining days. That night was HOT! It was a pretty uncomfortable night's sleep. Made me really appreciate my air conditioning that we have at home.




On Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for the beach. Then we headed down before the crowd to claim our spot. The girls had a blast playing in the sand. Kaiya took swimming lessons last summer and has been in lessons since school got out this year. She felt comfortable with the water and loved swimming in the lake. Ella watched her for a while and decided to give it a try. The water wasn't freezing but it was cold... that didn't matter to the girls. Ella was shivering but still didn't want to get out.

Ella wont ever get enough of her Michael.

Kaiya gathered a bunch of rocks at the beach. I didn't know what she was doing but when we got home she set up shop. She made a sign that said Rockes (Rock-es) For Sale with pricing. She hassled us the rest of the weekend to buy her rocks that she found. She is a entrepreneur in the making!

On Monday the weather changed and became very windy. There was hardly anyone at the beach, we decided to head down there anyway. The water wasn't warm so it was especially uncomfortable with the wind. The only good thing was the big waves it made. Kaiya braved the waters and soon after Nate and Amy jumped in. They seeemed to be having so much fun that Cirdan also joined in on the fun.

My parents, Emma, Ella and I sat on the beach area freezing and annoyed by the super wind.

The girls managed to get a nap in despite the winds.

My mom and Ella walked over to feed the ducks.

Waiting for a wave...

After Cirdan played in the water he realized that he had the brand new wireless drive in his pocket for internet. He dried it out as much as he could and it still worked when we got back to the house! Sooooo Lucky!

That night we hung out at the house and played a couple games of BINGO.

Tuesday we all got up and started to pack our bags and the car. Nate and Amy left earlier so that Nate could get to work. After we got the car loaded we decided to go into town so that Cirdan and Kaiya could ride on the go carts. We had Subway for lunch and took it down to the water to eat. Meema took the kids over to the playground to play and get out some energy before the ride home.

The girls enjoyed beating on Papa to get him up in the morning...

Do you see Kia?

Wonder Dog!!

Cirdan with his must have - 5 hour energy.

The trip ended with yummy shaved ice and we headed home. The 4 day vacation was super fun and it was nice to get away with the family for some fun in the sun.