Swim Team

This year was also Brooklyn's first year of being on the swim team. We had two meets in Lamar and this was one of them. Brooklyn's age group just used the paddle boards and swam across the small pool. I thought it was a little lame. When Abby was that age the had to actually swim across the lap pool and do all the different strokes. The teachers had to help them across but at least they were practicing for a real race! They had too many kids on the team this year to be able to fit the youngest racers in so this was their compromise. The kids all had fun with it anyway.

Here's Brooklyn racing across the pool. She did really well with it and didn't even push off the bottom like a lot of the kids were doing.



And here she is with her participation ribbon!

This is Abby gearing up for her race. Abby is doing really well with all of her strokes but she loves freestyle and backstroke the most. We're trying to get her not to look around at the crowd during her race and stay focused! She's much faster that way! As it is she always starts out in first and then she gets too tired to keep up her pace. I think she ended up with a couple of first place ribbons, some second, and some 3rd for both meets. But she's usually only racing against 3 or 4 girls!

Grandma Lu and Grandpa Sim came to cheer the girls on. Jace loves Lulu (as he calls her)! And Grandpa Sim is always sure to bring some candy to keep him occupied! What's not to love?

T-Ball Recap

T-ball has come and gone but I thought I'd post a few pictures of the season. There's not a whole lot to say about it but we were lucky enough to have Abby and Brooklyn on the same team this year. It was very nice to only have one team to worry about instead of two separate teams! This was Brooklyn's first year of t-ball and she was the youngest on the team. She did a pretty good job - as long as she stayed focused!

Here she is up to bat.

Here's Abby coming to score. She really loves anything competitive ( as long as she thinks she's good at it anyway!)

Like I said, as long as Brooklyn stayed focused she was able to do a pretty good job........But most of the games we found her doing things like this. Back turned to the action, drawing pictures in the dirt, turning around in circles. Pretty much anything to keep from being "bored".



She did try to be in down and ready position. Luckily I snapped a picture!

Jace spent his time running around and riding his scooter.



And drinking lots of gatorade! It was HOT!!




Here's Abby swinging for the fences. One of her coaches (Darren was also a coach again) made a deal with the kids that if their ball made it all the way to the fence he would buy them milkshake. Abby earned three!



And here are my two little ball players. Good job Abby and Brookie!

Jace turns 2

Jace's birthday was July 26. We had to celebrate early because we were headed to UT so this was actually a week before his birthday. Jace didn't mind! We were driving to ID on his birthday so it was good to get it celebrated early. He also got presents from Grandma Dena when we got to UT so it was more like a birthday week.

Here we are opening presents. The girls were great helpers, of course.



We let the girls earn money so they could buy Jace a birthday present and this is the one Brooklyn picked out. It's a microphone. Abby chose a ball that has water and glitter inside. He loved both of them!



Here's the crew. Grandma Lu, Darren, Pa (my dad), Grandpa Sim and the kids. I was taking the picture (like usual:) and my mom was in CA with Heather and her new baby so she wasn't around.



The birthday cake was not a birthday cake....Jace doesn't like cake (or at least hasn't been eating it lately) so I decided to try something different. He LOVES fruit so I made one of my favorite desserts - Pavlova! I learned about this dessert at one of the restaurants I used to work at and it's fabulous (if you love sugar anyway;). It's a meringue shell filled with fruit (strawberries, blue berries, and raspberries), and whipped cream. Mmmmm, yummy. I will say not everyone agrees with me (booo, some people can't handle sweets...) but I think it went over fairly well. Jace loved it (or at least tolerated it) and that's really all that matters!

Some things about Jace at 2:

He's starting to say more and more words. Some of his favorites : Abby, Cookie (for Brooklyn since we call her Brookie alot it's his way of saying it - very cute I might add), hungry, WOW, scary, and Scooby-Dooby Doo are a few.

He's very in to things being "scawy" and runs to me anytime he deems it too scary to cope - such as when he's left alone downstairs or he hears noises outside.

He LOVES baths, 4 wheelers (he rode them at Grandpa Ed's), boats, and motorcycles. He's also very good at riding his scooter and we can get a lot of walking done while he's riding that thing!

He's pretty good at sleeping all night but still goes through phases of getting up - I know. Wait 'til I move him to a big boy bed. I'm dreading it.

He's been a fairly finicky eater lately but loves any kind of fruit, lasagna, mac and cheese, and go-gurt. He's obsessed with otter pops and drinks of any kind except milk.

Happy Birthday Jace! We love you!