Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

It is too stinking hot to do much outside this summer. The only good outdoor activity is the pool. Good thing we have a pass! It is worth the 20 minute drive to get there and we've averaged 2 visits a week, for about 2 hours per visit. The base has 2 different outdoor pools, and this week we went to the second one both days. We were there today!

The pool has these super-fun float thingies. Actually, they are only fun if there are not too many people at the pool. When there are too many people, there is too much drama and fighting to gain control of them and they tend to bang into people while kids brawl over them. Fortunately, the pool was nearly empty on Tuesday, due to overcast skies, and today it was also not overcrowded. Marian secured this float and her sisters immediately wanted to play on it. I asked Joshua if he would get out, dry off, grab the camera, and get a picture of them on it. He obliged and this is the result. Well, its the result, after I cropped myself out. The water gave me a very large derriere and I refuse to consider it may truly belong to me.

Callie is getting quite brave with her jumping in. The shallowest part of the pool is still 3 and a half feet deep, so she can't touch the bottom. Less fun for me. I have 3 girls at all times who require close supervision. Callie had a ball jumping in. Repeatedly. She jumped in with the pink tube there. Then she jumped while I held her hand. Then she jumped to my hand. She's got great hand-eye coordination! I would hold my hand on the water and she would leap in, grabbing my hand as she did so, and she got my hand every time! Delaney got brave at the end and crawled around the side of the pool, holding on to it.

Marian was queen of these floats. She doesn't care who is on it, she'll jump on and join them. Then she liked to jump back in the water. She's so fun to watch!

Up and down, that's what she spent the afternoon doing. I would look for her and get alarmed because I wouldn't see her. Then Marian would pop out of the water, where she'd been swimming on the bottom. Like I said, she's a lot of fun!

We brought Joshua's friend to the pool with us and he had a good time. They entertained each other, which was nice, because I was wrapped up in 3 little girls. I can't wait till all the kids are self sufficient!

And this is how tuckered out Callie was! 4:30 I looked over at the computer and noticed the screen was black. Callie had fallen asleep in the chair! Being the mom I am, I immediately grabbed the camera. Then I carried her up to her room.

Fun and Trouble

It has been hot and muggy here, but until this weekend, there has been no rain. The grass was so dry and dead that it crunched when you walked on it. It looked like it had been freshly mowed when we came back from our 2 weeks away in Florida. Yep, it was so dry and dead it hadn't grown at all while we were gone! To assist the grass is growing I let the girls play outside in the pool and they did a nice job of watering the area around them. And the next day we got rain. We've had rain off and on for the past few days and it is joyous to see the grass turn green and grow! I never thought I'd be happy to see rain, but I am.

Here are my swimmers. Delaney was so funny with her sunglasses. Marian wanted me to take a picture of her while she was swimming. She didn't understand that I want to see her face.

So, here is Marian, swimming. See how well she puts her face in the water? It comes in handy now that we're going to the base pool twice a week or so!

Callie played in the pool and then she was off with the tricycle making me laugh.

And I did mention that there is trouble brewing in the house, didn't I? Rylee is 9 1/2 months old and she is moving! Joshua and Marian count her steps whenever they see her walking and her record is currently 37 steps. Today I watched her stand up without help, toddle across the room, crouch down to pick up a toy and stand back up again. She is big trouble!

She's also a wee bit blurry. Its hard to get a picture when she moves so fast!

And her dress is too cute. I think Marian got it as a gift from my in laws and all the girls have worn it. I love it.

Check out that face. She is looking so grown up and adorable here.

I think I am going to have to start stalking Joshua, paparazzi style I don't have many pictures of him......

Pull my hair out vs. laugh at it all

The most common phrase around the house right now seems to be "Duh-LANEY!!!!" That kid. I swear she may be the death of me. She is such a crack up, and then she just does things that make me crazy. Last Sunday, in the middle of sacrament meeting, she threw her shoe over the pew in front of us. Since we sit in the second row, it rebounded off the podium with a thud. It was not my proudest moment.

This past week has been even more fun. The other night, all the kids were sent to bed and it was quiet up there. I went up to get ready for some shut-eye myself and discovered that Delaney was not only NOT asleep, she was not in bed. She was in the bathroom making the toilet water pink. Pink with what, you ask? Pink with the Dora toothpaste that was also smeared all over the counter and floor. She was stirring it in the toilet with her hands when I discovered her. And yes, the water was pink.

Another night, Joshua came to tell me Delaney had thrown a towel away. I wasn't paying attention, and thought he just meant that she had thrown the hand towel on the floor. When I went to the bathroom later, I saw that there was, indeed, a towel in the trash. When I picked it up, I noticed it was coated with lotion. My very expensive moisturizing lotion. Delaney had poured it out and wiped it up with the towel. Since there was so much on the towel, she thought it needed to be thrown away. Aaack!

Delaney likes to be independent. This means that this week alone she has spilled 3 cups of milk that she poured herself, dumped a can of pineapple on the floor as she tried to drain the juice, nearly clogged the toilet as she used half a roll of TP and 40 flushable moist wipes when she went to the bathroom like a big girl, and she smeared peanut butter all over the counter as she scraped the jar with a spatula so she could make her own sandwich. Did I mention that she is 3? Not even 3 and a half? She is a full time job!

She does make up the most fascinating stories. Today I was informed that her grandma gave her her "skirt" for Christmas. Since I had just given her the scarf (not a skirt) 2 days prior, I know where it came from, and from whom. She told me her daddy didn't like her to go to bed, and she related a very elaborate story about chasing kittens out of the tree tonight. I really need to just strap a voice recorder to her to catch all this stuff. There was something that had me in stitches and I was going to remember it to share with you, but of course I have forgotten it. My favorite one is still when she looked at me, then looked at her empty hand, and in that sweet voice said, "I don't have a cookie in my hand!"

Watch Out World!

Last week Rylee was getting comfortable taking one step at a time. Tonight, with much cheering and encouragement from her big brother and sister, she demonstrated that she has become much braver. Marian claims it is because she (Marian) has been teaching Rylee to walk. However it may have happened, Rylee is on the move! Here she is at just over 9 months!

Every good thing comes to an end

Our time in Florida is over. We had a marvelous time and it was even better than my wildest dreams. To be honest though, my wildest dreams really just had us surviving the 2 weeks there. The fact that it went so well, that everyone had fun, and we all got along was a bonus. Fabulous weather and wonderful memories was the icing on the cake. I was actually sad to leave! I thought going home would be a relief (due to my children, not so much the extended family!), but the time went so well that I did not want to go home. But we did. We got home yesterday evening after 2 days and about 13 hours of traveling. The kids were surprisingly great for the drive as well. So I declare the Great Florida Vacation to be a success!

For the most part, I haven't got anything new to say, except that with all these cranky kids, I'm wishing I was still in Florida! And I don't really have pictures of us doing anything new, but I'm going to put some up anyway!

This is us. This is all of Dan's side of the family that was there. These are all the people that were squeezed into a very large beach house for a week. And these are the people I had a wonderful time with!

And they did not spend all their time at the beach! Joshua was thrilled to have cousins who had Nintendo DSs. He has wanted one for a very long time, but I refuse to buy something so expensive that I really don't want him playing anyway. He was happy to spend his free time playing on the DS while he could.

Here are all the kids on the balcony of the beach house. Aren't they great?! And yes, that would be my child, climbing on the railing.

Delaney said, "Take a picture of me with my eyes closed!"

The kids and and adults spent a lot of their beach time over the course of the week digging holes. They dug one up high enough that it lasted a while. It lasted until Marian climbed into it and Callie and I helped to bury her.

After Marian climbed out of the fairly deep hole. Callie lay down in it and we buried her! I love, love, loved that the girls played nicely together. There was so much less unkindness going on last week. It was so nice to see my girls getting along.

And these 2 had a lot of fun too. I don't know how many castles were built and then stomped on. It was about as much fun as the water itself.

I am grateful to have a wonderful family. I am so blessed to have wonderful in-laws. I think it was my sister-in-law who said she kind of imagined that the Celestial Kingdom would be like the beach house. We would all be together and having fun and enjoying each other. I hope it will be like that. I am so blessed!