2 Little Chiefs

Beach Vacation

Almost 7 and 5 years old...this seems so unreal!

I LOVE this picture of them!!

True to our style, we didn't have to use too much sunscreen - like we never had to reapply! But we bonded true to our family style so it was all good. Lots of games of Qwirkle, flying objects, funny stories and dreams of the next vacation!

First we had to say goodbye to Auggie as we dropped her off at her resort for the week! We were all sad to leave her but she had a great week too. The home coming should have been recorded! AUGGGGIEEEEEE!!!!

Packed and ready to go!

Their favorite dolphin, Winter

First steps on the beach on day 1

Protected turtle eggs. We were hoping we would see some hatch while we were there, as there were 3 nests close to us, but no luck and Uncle David wouldn't camp out on the beach with the kids! Just kidding, we were there a few weeks too early for them to hatch.

Grant was so proud to hold Megan...Megan was well, she tried to like it :)

Running in the cool am temps at high tide was very difficult and I eventually gave into walking barefoot

Mother hen :)

Hey the sun is out kids!

Grant needed his hat or shades, poor squinty eyes!

Height of her glory!

A bottle from Uncle Brandon

Flying the drone that he had delivered when he looked ahead at the forecast.

Flying lessons for Grant - shirts are optional on our vacations

Pops made paper airplanes with the kids to fly (you thought I was kidding about the shirts, I wasn't it!)

Sure! Why not! (they are temporary!) - we love us some St.Jude

This looks very involved and loving - in all reality it lasted less than 5 minutes and we told Pops to stop because he was getting so frustrated when they would just move the pieces - you know just for fun!!

Who needs a selfie stick when you are married to a man with monkey arms?!

Early risers...within the first 15 minutes Grant would ask if he could swim every morning. We told him we at least had to have our coffee first!

Pinky's was closed so we settled for Ryans. Drove back by and Pinkys was open, so we bought candy! It is vacation after all. And Pinky was in rare form.

Last morning snuggles.

Big old jet airliner...take us home to Auggie!

Swimming

Elizabeth has been swimming for the last two years but this summer is the first time she has wanted to compete. Ok, maybe saying that she wanted to might be a stretch. We told her she needed to try it so she would know if she liked it. Otherwise we had probably gotten out of swimming what we needed to get. Not to our surprise, she loves it! This girl is a fish in the water. I am going to brag a little, so just skip this post if you don't want my biased opinion. She swims in the 8 and under class, so she is one of the younger ones on the team. She swims on a relay team with two 8 year olds and a 7 year old and they are so fun to watch. It is so awesome that she gets to swim with these girls and she is learning a lot from them. She has progressed from jumping in off the edge, to an actual dive off the side to diving in off the blocks (and it is a good dive) and she has also perfected the flip turn for the long free events (that's freestyle, 2 lengths of the pool). She was extremely hesitant to do the butterfly event the other night and we she finished a solid 2nd she decided that she was pretty good at "fly". It is pretty amazing to watch your child do the butterfly stroke, as there is no way we could swim these strokes the way this girl does! The IM (individual medley, all 4 stroke, 25 meters each) was challenging for her. She went into it tired and at one point she stopped and looked at me and shook her head and her eyes said "I can't finish, don't make me do this". I purposely stood back a bit so she couldn't grab my leg and pull herself out. Luckily her coach came down and encouraged her to finish and she did, but she was scared of any future IM events! Last night after she conquered the fly, she said, "I'm ready for the IM now!" Next year baby!

We were lucky to have Stella swimming with us at the beginning!

I bring the big tub of popcorn, popped in coconut oil to all the meets :)

A typical swim meet involves getting her there at 5:15 for check-ins, warm-ups at 5:30 and meet starts at 6:00. She usually swims 2 relays and 2 individual events. These are of course spread out from the beginning to the end. The other night she had events 1,11,61 and 71. Which translated to Grant having a good 2 hour nap between the first two and the last two events! We usually get home around 9:00. Out of almost 4 hours of being at the pool we watch her swim for less than 6 minutes on average! But we love supporting her and she has really taken this sport. We are learning a lot about the sport of swimming that we never knew! And Grant has decided he is ready to give it a go next year too! I never would have guessed we would have swimmers!

We finished up the season with the county swim meet which is kind of special because they have a 6 and under category for two strokes. I am proud to say that we have the fastest 6 year old girl freestyler and backstroker in the county! Brandon will correct me and say, "the fastest 6 year old that was at the meet" but whatever (I'm proud!). The relay team brought home a first place too :)

I can always find her in the pink cap!

G wanted to wear the goggles!

He sleep between events 11 and 61 - that is a 2 hour nap!

Just hanging out snacking, having an apple while big sis warms up

And yet another swim meet nap. Ima's lap is getting smaller! My gosh he looks like a big boy in this picture!

And that's a swimming wrap!

4th of July 2015

A few days earlier I had Stella and Briggs over for a sleepover so the kids made their 4th of July t-shirts. They did a great job and I was just glad to have them done before midnight on July 3rd! Amber thought I was brave for letting 4 kids paint on shirts and encouraging their creative side to "do whatever!" I laughed and said "as soon as they got bored I sent them to Uncle Brandon and I finished all of them!" Amber and I are of like mind -- we don't like mixing play-doh colors and it's hard to watch our kids craft because we want to do it! But we let it go, take a deep breath and let them do what they want (and sometimes fix it later when they aren't looking!).

We had a cookout the night before with friends, but called it an early night because we had a big day ahead of us. My friend and I did the Firecracker 5000 run downtown. It was different route due to the flooding downtown and we didn't get to run by the giant flag by the river...I was kind of bummed about that, but we had a great race. Because we finished soooo fast we had time to go to Panera for breakfast! Then we headed to a parade, where the hubbies and the kids had gone earlier to save us seats.

That evening we went to a riverfront hotel that hosts a 4th of July celebration. They had food, games and activities. We had a front row seat to the fireworks, which were fabulous! The kids tried to sleepover in their cousins room, but they both ended up with us by midnight. We all slept in and then headed down for breakfast. Amber found us a wonderful spot outside to eat and it was a beautiful, peaceful, calm Sunday morning breakfast. I love eating breakfast outside! This was probably my favorite part of the whole experience!

They could have played this all night!

They had a band and Elizabeth could not walk by without dancing! Briggs was a willing participant!

The outdoor breakfast

Brandon and I are going to have to brush up on our American history because the kids are starting to ask questions. Thank goodness for Google (and I know that won't be the last time I say that!)

Her Majesty's Tea Room

Here is a little hidden gem that we have just discovered thanks to a dear aunt. A real British high tea experience right here in Illinois. Part gift shop, part tea room - it's just adorably eclectic! Elizabeth has already asked to go back!