Swim Lessons!

Kristen's the only one taking lessons this year. And she had a grand time, passing Level 3.

With her whole class.

Kneeling dive off the side.

This picture makes me laugh. 

Doing the front crawl

Waiting her turn.

I'm glad she loves to swim!

The Things We Do For Camp

It was Monday night; they were leaving bright and early for Girls' Camp Tuesday morning. Caitlyn looked at her hair --which was more than halfway down her back -- and thought about a week of dealing with it in the heat and dirt and sweat. And so, she decided to cut (some of) it off.

Fourteen inches, to be exact. (We realized, too late, that we should have donated it to Locks of Love.)

It's a change.

But a good one.

And it made camp week SO much easier.

Visitors, Part 2

I forgot (it's been a long week) that Wayne and Rebecca and kids stopped through on their way back. They stayed Monday morning to play (both Russell and I had to go to work), and Kristen snapped these pictures of Paela and Aderyn. Cuteness.

Kristen's Outdoor Adventures

When we asked Kristen what she wanted to do this summer, she said that her favorite thing from last year was the creeking adventure she went on. So, nature-oriented things  it was.

We did sign her up for creeking again, but the creek was too high (a strange problem for us!) so they moved the creeking to the Water Center, which we didn't even know existed. It's a pretty cool place, in itself, but Kristen got to go tromping through the ponds, looking for and at things. She had a grand time. I didn't stay and get pictures, but I brought the camera when I picked her up and gave it to her, saying "Take pictures!" So she did.

That's one happy nature girl.

Then, later that night, I had popped out to get some ingredients to make a last-minute cake for church. When I came back, I found that Kristen and Russell had gone outside to catch fireflies (they're the only ones who really do anymore) and that Russell had taken pictures.

Yay for that! Though it's been so rainy here (again, unusual for us) that Kristen ended up with a huge mosquito bite on her forehead. She wasn't pleased with that. Ah, the downside of being nature girl.

Still, she loves being outside!

Visitors!!

We love when people come to visit us. (It's rare, because Wichita isn't really on the way to anywhere.) So, when Wayne and Rebecca needed a pit stop (I always picture the guys from Cars saying that)  on their way to Austin, we were more than happy to have them come by.

So, we took them to our favorite places. Riverside park for playing and dinner (fried chicken, which was okay, but we forgot the ketchup, which was disastrous).

I swear my words were "Don't get wet!"

And to the fishing clinic that they do every June

Usually, everyone catches a fish. This year only Alison did.

And the Keeper (at night, so we could see the fire. Which we did for about 1 minute, before they turned it off because it was too windy).

We also played with the cute baby

and games

I'm thinking we need to get Munchkin Fu now.

And got out the slip-n-slide because it was hot and we didn't want to drive to the pool.

It was fun! (I think everyone had fun. We also watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, which most excellently held up through the years. It was hilariously stupid, and everyone loved it.)

Alison's First Swim Meet

Every summer, we let the kids choose a summer activity. Alison, this year, decided that she wanted to do swim team. Every day at noon she bikes down to the local pool for an hour of practice (some days, it's fun. Some days, it's cold outside -- in the 70s -- and it's not so fun). And when the first meet came around this week, she decided to compete.

8:30 a.m. is an early start time, especially in the summer.

She had to choose two events. She chose backstroke, because she LOVES it. And freestyle because she had to choose another event.

We discovered a couple of things at our first swim meet. One: it was a lot of hurry up and wait. Get there to get your numbers, and then hang around waiting for them to be called.

Then it was waiting in line to line up for the actual event.

This one was taken for Alison's second event. They had a streamlined system going, lining all these kids up to keep the meet going. The only pause was right before Alison's second event which was the 50 free, and they had to move the tents for the timers to the other side of the pool.

Alison did fantastic in her backstroke heat. She came in third, in 19.09 seconds across the pool

She was very happy.

She was not so happy with the freestyle. I took a video, but she has banned me from posting it "BECAUSE I'M SO SLOW" so all I am allowed to put up is the starting one.

She said it was a fun experience and she's glad she went. Good thing, because there's three more this summer!

Alison's Drawings

She's discovered that YouTube is a great drawing school, and is gotten into cartooning. Here's what she's been doing lately: