Another Catch up

This is another long catch up post. The past few weeks have been crazy. Every time I think things are going to slow down they seem to get busier. We finished up swimming lessons awhile ago. The girls did awesome and I am so glad they swim so well and are comfortable in the water, although Kaite may be too comfortable! I will say it again, the college has THE BEST swimming program!

This is the video of Kaite doing the elementary backstroke. She picked it up very quickly and has an awesome crawl stroke too. Kaite was swimming the width of the pool and back just a few days into this session. She is doing this all by herself, her instructor is very close to her though.

These are videos of Ash diving. She picked up the backstroke very well and made a ton of progress in the water.

We have spent a ton of time hanging out with Harriet and George. I am happy to say that George is officially a Navy man! He got the teaching position. He will be teaching Calculus and Physics to start off, and then eventually thermodynamics and nuclear stuff. He will be finishing up his bachelors and possibly masters before heading to S. Carolina to teach on the base there. I am way excited for him!
George showing us his anti-gravity strength!

This picture was for George. Last week all us girls went bridesmaid dress shopping, and then hit the mall of course. Marianne drug us to some crazy stores and even got me to try on pants at Wet Seal. We found this ninja turtle hat in one store and since the red turtle was George's fave we had to get a picture.

We have also spent some time at the splash park.

We spent some time with family at Chantelle's baby shower.

Gene and Taylor came up for the weekend and stayed with us. We had so much fun with them. We played this new game Monopoly Deal and loved it, we are totally hooked now. Taylor is awesome and I really enjoyed getting to know her better. I can't wait until the wedding next July!

I made the cake for the shower and it did NOT turn out the way I wanted it to.

Since Chantelle doesn't like purple I did pink and white. However, the day I was planning on decorating it was the day from ****. First this happened.

Sam found a porcupine. Thankfully there were only three quills, all in his nose. He actually did quite well when we yanked them and only yelped twice. I was also dealing with a puking kid from having to much milk, and a potty training toddler that picked that very day to boycott the toilet! I didn't finish the cake until 1:30 am and by then I just wanted it edible. I am pleased with the way it turned out considering all the chaos that day. The shower went very well and Ash enjoyed hanging out with the grownups for awhile. Chantelle got some really cute clothes, she is getting close!
My cake helpers.

I have to mention all of Kami's accomplishments in the past few weeks. We transitioned her to a big girl bed and it went VERY well! She loves it! She still has to sleep with all her animals, but I think she is sleeping better.

She has also been seriously potty training. She is waking up dry and has been dry for the past four days in a row. She loves to wear her big girl panties! She isn't completely trained yet, but she is so close. I am excited!

Last week we said goodbye to my cousin Amy. She is done with school for the semester and headed back to Washington to see her family. She gave the girls all her Webkinz before she left and now they have 25. They were so excited.

This past weekend we hung out with my family. George and Harriet are flying back to London today, so James came home for the weekend and we had some fun. They came up to the barn one night and we had a fun game of sardines and monopoly deal. Now that everyone is gone Marianne is the only one that is home, that is the first time in like a year. We won't see Harriet again until the wedding. We also went to the blue angels (post later) and hung out with Mahon and Cindy. Mahon graduated this week and yesterday they had a homemade ice cream party for him. This is Kami chilling on the bean bag.

We also had a girls day and have been catching up around the house and garden. We discovered a pleasant surprise last night- we have a skunk living under our back stairs! I don't know how Ky didn't get sprayed and now the hunt is on! I will post about the blue angels later, but I am still trying to catch up on laundry, ugh! I realized that there is only like three weeks until school starts, so that adds to the list of stuff to do!

4th of July festivities

This year we decided to spend the weekend up at the cabin for the fourth. Before we headed up we had some other activities planned.

We set off fireworks in the driveway Friday night. I really should have gotten video of the starball we set off, they fly about 30 feet in the air. Also, my pics of the kids didn't turn out so well.

Saturday we got up and went to the parade with my family. Harriet spent most of the time "helping" the girls get candy! She was hilarious.

Kaite's favorite float...Bumble Bee!

My favorite float.

One of the best moments of the weekend. I wish I could have gotten a pic of Marianne's face when she first touched the snake.

We then went back and had a BBQ and packed up for the cabin. The girls found these in Marianne's room from Cali.

We had plans to spend the evening watching fireworks from the boat on the lake. Unfortunately, that fell through since we couldn't get the boat working. So, we headed to Lakeside lodge and sat directly under them. We were way close (actually we were closer but I insisted on moving) we could feel the fireworks booming. One of them even exploded right on top of us, I thought the blanket was on fire and poor Harriet jumped right out of her skin, good thing we weren't closer! Here are some pics. They put on a pretty good show. Ash and Kaite loved it, Kami just hid her face. Next year we will be on the boat, I am so excited for that!
Here are some other pics from the cabin.

Sawtelle
Ash up reading late.

Sparklers
Smores. Kami was way mad that she didn't get one of the first roasted marshmallows!

Here is a pic of the sparkler Kami threw in the fire. I thought it turned out really cool. Ky said I should enter it in the fair.

Fishing.
Kaite's first fish! She was so proud and only had her pole in the water for a few minutes.
Kami had to check it out too!

She really wanted to get in on the action.

Ash didn't catch any that night so Ky took her again the next morning and she caught 6! Then Kaite had to go back out and caught 5 more. So 6 fish for each girl!
If you look real close you can see my line where I snagged it years ago when me and Audra were fishing! There are some very funny stories behind that trip! I can't believe it is still there!
We had a good weekend. We took our bikes and road around some. Kaite learned not to ride at mach ten when she is on gravel roads! We spent some relaxing time together and played a few games. We never did get to boat...maybe another weekend when the boat is fixed.
Before we left we also went to the drive in and saw Toy Story 3. The girls loved it and Kami didn't scream through the movie! We also went to a S&R appreciation dinner at The Anglers Lodge, yum. It has been a busy couple of weeks but swim lessons are almost done! I will have more pics then!