mid-summer: four-wheeling, guppies, and a graduate!

So I have to play a little bit, or a lot bit, of catch-up because Daren had my camera on his trip and then I had to get other pictures from Gpa Airplane from our extended family gathering last week. I seem to always be running a week behind on these posts lately...

FOUR-WHEELING FIRST-TIMER!
Will was so excited to go on his first four-wheeling trip with "Daddy." Just before they left a week ago Sunday afternoon, Will packed up his backpack with books and a couple of Chevron cars to keep him busy in the car, and then refused to take it off until he had to get buckled up in the truck. He was more than happy to smile for this picture with all their stuff packed and ready to go. They went with Daren's brothers, Brandon and Brett, and Brandon's son, Aydan. They were somewhere up by Sun Valley, Idaho.
Monday was full of four-wheeling, and yes, that is snow that Will is sitting on and eating. One of his favorite things in the world is to eat snow, clean or not--but it's the "not" that grosses me out sometimes, and yet he's still alive, so it can't be all that bad, can it?!!

This is a great picture of Brandon and Aydan on their trip. Daren and Brandon used to take Ben and Jack on four-wheeling trips all the time when they were younger, but the trips have become fewer and far-between because the boys are getting older and are in school more. Now it's time for the younger ones to have their turns.

On the second night of their trip they camped out in the mountains, and according to Daren it was quite chilly, but they survived and had a great time. When they got home late Tuesday night we heard the doorbell ringing over and over, so we knew it was Will. We opened the door and he stood there, dirty face and all, with his arms out and he said, matter-of-factly, "Well, I'm home!" We were all glad to have them back!

GUPPIES AND GRADUATION

In the meantime, while they were gone on their little jaunt, we were still enjoying time with Gma and Gpa Airplane. On Monday afternoon we took them to Salt Lake to stay at Little America (their choice--it wasn't because nobody else wanted them!). They had planned for all of us, including Brenda's and (brother) Darren's families to get together at the pool that afternoon/evening for swimming and dinner. Photo 1: hanging out by the pool. Photo 2: brother Darren's cute little Kate (she's one month younger than the twins).

The kids spent most of their time in the pool, though. Brenda and Jake were having fun in the shallow end, while Ben and the other cousins were having way too much fun in the deep end--that's Ben in mid-air.

Ciera, Chloe, and Ben--our guppies! There were almost some battles over these new goggles of Jake's that we got earlier in the day-everyone wanted to wear them.

They all had a blast lining up and jumping in together (l to r): Ciera, Chloe, Ben, Darren, Eli, Liam, Jake and Garrett.

After the jumping in together got old, they decided to put a "twist" on things. The boys went first, but the girls weren't about to be shown up! The cousins had so much fun together they couldn't wait to get together again...

...and fortunately for some of them it didn't take long. Ben and Liam hatched their plan Monday night at the pool for a sleepover, so on Wednesday evening when Daren and I were heading north to Kaysville for JD's graduation, we dropped Ben off at Liam's house for a sleepover. Ben packed his own bag, which included the stuff you see below in the first picture...

...including his two pillows, a clean shirt and pajamas, toothpaste and toothbrush, the monster book he made, and his clock, because he just might want to know what time it is :)

Anyway, our brother-in-law JD Frazier graduated from Weber State's nursing program last Wednesday night, and this is a picture of their cute little family. He was voted by all the teachers as the one they would most want to take care of them if they were in the hospital--congratulations JD (and Brenda, and kids), we are so proud of you! After the fun and festivities of graduation (including dinner at the Olive Garden), we brought Garrett home with us to sleepover and play with the twins the next day. He was asleep five minutes after we got in the car, and the twins were asleep when we got home, so they all slept in peace and played hard the next day. When we took him home Thursday afternoon, we all got our hair done by Brenda, and then took Gpa and Gma Airplane to the airport to fly home. It was a fun trip with them and we miss them already!

SWIMMING LESSONS

This swimming session Ben is in the same class with Leslie Bennion, a friend who he has been swimming with before they could even talk--they started swimming together in a "Mom and Me" class when they were just over a year old, and they have continued on together every summer since. I was too lazy to find any older pictures than this one, but it is from four years ago when they were just 3 years old! The funny thing is that Ben is just 2 weeks older than Leslie, but look at their size difference! The summer is really the only time we see these guys too, but it's always fun. Ben and Leslie are in the corner-to-corner class this session and are doing great.
Jake couldn't resist pulling a funny face when I was taking pictures this day!

Of course the favorite thing to do is at the end of swimming lessons when they get to jump off the diving board. Ben got to the end of the board, looked around and smiled, and then jumped off into the biggest cannonball he could, looking pretty proud of himself like he had gotten away with something!

Swimming lessons have been somewhat of a challenge this year for Will and Jake. They got to be real good swimmers over the winter because I took them swimming at our gym all the time, so I put them in the "step" class--this is six kids to one teacher for an hour, and most of the kids are older than them and some are quite afraid of the water. Will, especially, has been a challenge for the teachers he's had because he doesn't like to sit on the step when it's not his turn. He LOVES the water so much and just wants to play in it like he does at the gym, but having to sit and wait his turn is hard. He's had to sit on the side a few times and even miss out on the diving board once, but he's getting better at it. Jake, on the other hand, just likes to be crazy and he gets a talking to from time to time, but he is a great swimmer. They have learned a lot, though, and are getting to be even better swimmers. It's nice to finally have them all in class at the same time, so it's worth camping out at 5am for swimming sign-ups at the end of April!

One cute thing Ben said the other day to end on--Will was doing something that made Ben laugh, and he turned to me and said, "Oh Mom, I'm glad you made that kid come out cuz he's really funny!" Kid's sayings, you gotta love 'em!!