nate the fish

I love that my boys LOVE the water.

By the end of last summer, Nate was swimming pretty well without any flotation device. He picked it right back up this summer and has been our little fish. Kiley found a swim teacher that ended up being PERFECT for Nate. She had just the right personality - he was willing to try anything for Kristy so she had him diving off the diving board and loving it. It's been fun swimming with him!

[There are three short videos combined in to one. I told the program "no music" but it did it anyway. Cheesy, I know].

And the best part about his swimming abilities? He loves the big water slides! There's a really fun rec center pool right by our house and he's just barely tall enough to go down the big slide and he LOVES it. [Thanks Aunt Sam for going with us!]

I think I found my future water park buddy.

8.6.11: a little boy turned FOUR.

Nate had a great birthday.  It was fun having it on a Saturday . . . it was like one endless day of fun for that little boy of mine.

It was kinda like Christmas morning . . . we started walking down towards the stairs when Nate saw the balloons ALL over the stairs.  He thought that was pretty fun.

As he turned the corner in to the family room – he saw his new bike with a bow on it.

And he just had to ride it.  He’s been talking about getting a Spiderman bike since his friend Chase got one in April.  I’m not a huge fan of character items but he sure does love it.  It will be nice when it’s not a thousand degrees outside so he can ride it more.

We had donuts for breakfast and then got ready for his party to start.  Nate requested pirates [and fairies] and bowling so that’s what we did.  While we were bowling, the boys got eye patches and the girls wore their fairy wings.

The party turned out well.  I kept it smaller this year which turned out to be great!  Nate LOVES to go bowling so off we went to the bowling alley with 7 three & four year olds.  They thought it was pretty fun.  Their reactions were priceless.

[you might ask . . . where is Ryan?  At home with a babysitter.  With my entire family not able to be at the party . . . Wes and I needed to keep control of the kiddos without worrying about Ryan!  The look on his face was the saddest thing when he realized he was staying home and all the kids were getting in the car.]

After bowling, we loaded up the pirates and fairies and went back to our house for pizza and cupcakes.

As soon as we got home, Ryan jumped right in all of the birthday fun.

According to the boys – this is how pirates eat cupcakes.

Nate had a great time at his party.  He got some great new things to play with and he’s loving it.

About 10 minutes after all of the kiddos left, we had a knock on our door.  It was Travis!  He couldn’t come to Nate’s party . . . he got home just as it ended . . . which was perfect timing for Nate because he was ready to have a buddy to play with all of his new stuff!  They played and played and swam all afternoon.  A perfect birthday afternoon for the Naters.

We let Nate decide what to do for dinner and he picked In-n-Out.  He loves that place.  He eats the entire burger [with everything but tomatoes], a few fries & a Neapolitan milkshake.  He loves that place.

            

Happy birthday, Nate!  Glad you had a fun day.

let the birthday celebrations begin.

i love birthdays - celebrating a little boy’s 4th birthday started yesterday and he’s pretty excited.

his real birthday is tomorrow [8/6] but since my entire family is either out of town or working tomorrow, we did a little family dinner at Metro Pizza last night to celebrate. [we missed you, Thompsons].

Nate had a pretty fun dinner.  He got to wear his birthday hat.  He got a special dessert.  And he opened presents.

Ryan was a monster all afternoon and he was exhausted but somehow he was the most well-behaved he’s ever been at a restaurant.  I think it’s because he was starving so he ate almost the entire time we were there.

This morning we met LOTS of friends at a fun indoor play place called Run Plus Fun.  It was our first time there and the boys LOVED it.  I didn’t see Nate for 2 hours [except for the dozen times he took Ryan down the slide] and Ryan was an animal [as always] climbing and going everywhere.

  

Nate’s party is tomorrow . . . it will be a fun day!  I can’t believe he’s going to be FOUR.  When did that happen?

college roommate reunion 2011

oohh, I love my college roommates.  Laurel P. / Laurel W. / Trisha  / and I lived together our entire time at BYU.  [Well, we lost Laurel W. to Brad our junior year, but still].  We had an absolute blast the entire time.

We try to get together regularly.  This summer it was in Huntsville, Utah.  And it was FABulous.

Laurel W’s parents . . . the Holt Family . . . live in Huntsville in a beautiful home on lots of land that happens to be on a lake.  If you picture an absolute dream spot to live, this is it.  And we got to spend a kid-free weekend there.

A few details . . .

. We took out the jet skis which was really fun!  All we had to do was walk out the back door, down the backyard, and through some tall grass and there you were at the lake & the jet skis.  I was a passenger to Laurel P. and it was definitely a wild ride.  She tells me right as we start driving that she’s crashed a jetski before. :)  But we didn’t crash this time and it was really fun to be out on the lake.  Laurel’s little brother, Price is a senior in high school so he still lives at home.  He was so great to us all weekend – helping with the jetskis, etc!

. We took out the paddle boards which was a first for all of us. [Laurel W is pregnant so she stayed back for a few activities!]  It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought but I still had a hard time balancing at times.  Trisha took a little fall but impressively stayed on the board and didn’t lose her oar.  It got a little tricky when boats came by and created some pretty big waves!

. We spent a few hours in the pool chatting, reading & relaxing.  Somehow in the middle of all of that Trisha decided to teach us an aqua aerobics class.  She’s a group fitness instructor at 24 Hour Fitness & felt like exercising.  It was actually a fun workout and I’m sore!

. We ate meals at weird hours because we could. It was great having freedom from our little ones schedules.  Between all of us there are 8 kids [and one on the way] and while we love them to death, it was great to have a break.  So we took advantage of it, for sure!  Next time we’ll schedule it for a little longer. :)

. We sat outside on these high Adirondack chairs and looked out at the lake and chatted some more.

. Price took us on a golf-cart tour of the cute town of Huntsville.  I’m starting to really enjoy small towns!

. We enjoyed the Holts beautiful home.  Laurel’s dad . . . Jeff . . . is one of the most creative people you’ll ever meet.  He comes up with these ideas and actually follows through with them and it’s pretty fun!  He has unique stuff all over the house.

[the house from the backyard]

[views from the back patio]

[the adorable chicken coop.  the farm fresh eggs were wonderful]

 

[flag pole & english garden]

 

[and you can’t forget the life-size Sorry board].

     

It was great to see you, girls.  A big thanks to Laurel W. and your wonderful family for opening up your beautiful home!  Can’t wait to do it again.

Oh, and a special thanks to Wes for being super dad while I was gone.  He surprised me and painted the playroom [I’ve been wanting it grey for a while now] while I was gone and Nate insisted that they buy me flowers at Costco for my return!  I love my boys.