Swimming at last!

So for the last two weeks the kids have been taking swimming lessons. It was amazing to see the progress they made! Spencer can finally swim! He has previously struggled with staying afloat. It was SO cool to watch him jump off the diving board and be able to swim to the side- I had to call Nate at work the first time he did it. He can also swim the width of the pool now. And this was only the level 2 swimming class.

The teaching style was so much better than what Spencer had while in Utah -I really wish that I would have signed him up for swimming lessons last summer but life was in such a transition mode that lessons were not a high enough priority.

Jenna did swimming lessons for the first time so she was in level 1. She LOVED it. She loves being in the water and she is able to float by herself and was doing a few strokes unassisted. The teacher commented on how she liked Jenna's CAN-DO attitude.

I didn't manage to get any photos of them in class but I am going to try some photos of them when I take them swimming at the beaches and the pool this summer. I am going to try and go at least once a week so that they don't forget what they have learned! We went tonight and let them jump off the boat with life jackets on and you could still see how much they learned- but no still no camera with me. I think I need camera toting lessons from Regan- she always seems to have hers around.

I may also sign them up for another session at the end of the summer. They offer lessons during the school year also but we tend to be so busy. It is great to be in a place that has indoor swimming pools so you can swim year round. It is also great to be in a place that values the skill of swimming- with so much water around everyone should really learn to swim.

A Weekend Getaway!

Nate and I have now been married for 10 years! I can't believe it has been that long. We have never gone on a vacation that was just for fun without the kids. (It took us until this year to take a "just for fun" family vacation to Florida.)

Nate found a cute bed and breakfast that was about 2 hours from here so that we could get away but not have to travel too far. We went to Spicer Castle- sounds impressive doesn't it?

The first night we participated in a Murder Mystery Dinner. It was so fun to play with some of the other guests. We all dressed up for our parts and enjoyed a delicious meal. Who was the murderer? It was me! I was pretty surprised but so was everyone else because I was pretty good at diverting the attention away from the details about my character. Here is a photo with all involved. It was funny because at breakfast the next morning we had to reintroduce ourselves to those we had met last night because we only knew each other as our character names.



While there we enjoyed wonderful meals, a dinner cruise on the lake, an afternoon free to wander and we went to see a movie... It was a fun weekend and I would encourage all couples to take time to get away and don't wait 10 years to do it!



And here is a photo from the lake side.

Disconnected

I have never really thought about how much I rely on my computer and using the internet. While taking down a tree for me this weekend my dad and brother accidentally took out the cable connecting me to the virtual world. (Luckily it wasn't the power lines.) I didn't think this was a big deal- a couple of days without the internet...

Well, no internet means no phone since we use Vonage. I was able to forward my calls but didn't realize that I had to actually forward them and not use the simul-ring function because calls were going straight to voicemail.

No internet also meant that I had to find the phonebook I never use to look up Comcast to find out when they were coming to fix the problem. I normally use google or the online white pages for that.

No internet meant that I had to wait a couple of days to pay bills since I do that mostly online now. Yes, I could go to my parents or elsewhere to do this (and I did) but I use Quicken and that is loaded on my computer so I had to check what was do at my house and then use the computer next door. I know that this does not sound like a big deal but it sure felt inconvenient.

No internet also meant that I couldn't catch up on my favorite online comics or on the family blogs and I was already behind since Nate and I went out of town for the weekend and were unplugged from technology then also.

It is amazing how computers and the internet have changed our lives. No electricity would have really messed me up - I may need an emergency plan for lack of power if that were to happen for several days.

New Toy

We purchased a jet ski last Fall from my sister's future in-laws. The kids have been dying to try it out. So we finally got a chance last week. Here are some pics of the evening- I opted to wait for our next outing and stood lifeguard and photographer while listening to the kids' excitement. You could hear Jenna over the sound of the jetski as they went by- Yeeeaaahh!

How is the reading coming?

Okay, I am getting excited for the final Harry Potter book. I have not had the time to sit and read all of the books over again. It used to be so much easier when there were fewer books! But I have been checking out the audio books from the library. The narrator is awesome for those of you who haven't listened to the books. Nate and I normally try to find the CD Books for road trips.

So anyway I am currently on book 4 the Goblet of Fire in my quest to at least listen to the books before the new one comes out. Spencer is enjoying listening to the books too. He is currently ahead of me in book 4.

Once I reread or more likely re-listen to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince it will be fun to guess what happens in the last book. I don't know if I truly believe what happened in the last book at the end...but I won't get into that now.

Is anyone else re-enjoying the Harry Potter series?