Fatherhood Is...

I am in love with the United For Adoption blog.

After all, I have won 2 giveaways.

And they have wonderful articles and spotlights.

And they published a darling picture of Greg and the girls as a part of their Fatherhood Is... series. 

Check it out at

http://unitedforadoption.blogspot.com/2013/06/fatherhood-is.html

Amazingness

I got a great phone call last week.  Our friend Emily called and said that she used one of the pictures from my blog and created an art piece on it for her AP Art class.  And would I want the art?

Um, YES!!!

I knew it would be good, but I got a little teary when I saw the picture.  Emily used this picture:

and created this:

Seriously, right?  Seriously amazing!  I can't wait to frame it and hang it on the wall.  So beautiful.

Adventures

I invited some friends to go to the beach with us and we set it up for Friday.

I accidentally wrote it down on my calendar for Thursday.

On Thursday morning, we first packed up and headed off to swimming lessons.  Lynnie wanted to wear her pajamas, and I was fine with that.  She waits for sister's lessons like a champ!

Ellie did great and jumped right into the water.  I love watching her be brave.

Then we headed home to get ready for the beach.  And I figured out that I had the day wrong and our friends were coming tomorrow.

We were all amped up and so we headed out anyway.  We tried Highland Glen Park this time (right behind Lone Peak High School) and it was nice for a change.  The pond was smaller than Manila Creek Park Pond and there was some nice grass to sit on.  Ellie was disappointed to not be able to build sand castles, though.

 They entertained themselves for a long time playing Primary.  They sang songs and gave talks and said prayers.

 Ellie liked to tell Lynnie what to say.

 Bath time when we got home turned into an hour-long play fest.  The girls painted with some colored body wash, and loved creating bubbles.  Ellie was Santa Claus and got a lot of items for everyone's Christmas list.

Friday morning was a little chilly, but we all decided to brave it anyway.  I was so glad, because the weather was perfect at the beach.  Absolutely perfect!

Hope was hiding from the sun because she got a little hot.  So, of course, Ellie had to hide also.

 Our newest food obsession is barbeque potato chips.  And Lynnie was a little possessive!

 Hope's brothers are well-trained and very kind, and let Ellie help them build a pond.

 So much fun to hang out with Catherine and Traci!

 Lynnie was very brave today and waded in a little ways.  It took us about 5 minutes to get to this point, but then she was excited.

What a great adventure!

First Dance Clas

My visiting teachers came over today, and Ellie excitedly told them that her first dance class was in a couple of hours.  Sister Williams very seriously asked Ellie to make sure and take lots of pictures.

We were very happy to get to class and see the teacher inside.  She had had a family emergency last week and class was cancelled at the last minute.

 Mom, take the picture for Sister Williams!

 Class started off with a tour of the room.  It looked like the teacher was telling them what they could and could not touch.

 Then it was stretching time.  I know that stretching is important, but they stretched for 15 minutes.  In a 30 minute class.  Should I expect that to happen every week?

 Then the little girl standing next to Ellie had an accident.  Luckily, none got on Ellie's shoes (she was very concerned about that).  The teacher dispatched someone to fetch a mop and moved the girls away from the area.  They worked on their positions.  Ellie at first was more interested in her nail polish (she had painted her nails for class) than in the moves.

 But then she got into it.

A very successful and fun first class!

Swimming Lessons

We are excited to be taking swimming lessons with our friend Annie.  I was excited from the tip from Sierra to sign up in Draper.  It's only a couple of minutes farther than the Lehi pool and the facility is gorgeous.

Greg came with us to mark this auspicious event.  I was grateful because that let me take pictures without worrying about Lynlee getting away from me.  I'm nothing if not practical.

We went really early to scope everything out.  Ellie got a great picture of us waiting.

 And took some selfies.  She is darling!

 And oh, so serious!

 She really wanted her goggles.  Her nice instructor carried them all over the pool for her.

It was a successful first day!  Ellie was involved and did everything her instructor asked.  She said she loved it!

The Beach

We love going on adventures as a family!  Swimming at the beach (in the middle of the mountains) was a grand adventure.

ready to go!

When we got to the pond, we were the only ones there.  It was a little windy, but not too bad.  We unpacked our stuff and got down to some serious playing.

I was excited to pull out our Holiday Picnic Mat.  We bought it in Dubai and I shook out sand from the UAE when I pulled the mat out of the bag.

Ellie is getting very adventurous!  She dug right in (literally) and was just busy the whole time we were there.  Lynnie is in a cute stage where she wants to check everything out and observe for a while, but then she wants to do everything Ellie is doing.

 It took some experimentation to get the right ratio of water to sand to make the perfect buckets of sand for the sandcastle.

 Lynnie was content for a long time to just sit on the mat.  And eat snacks.

 Oh well.  It fell over.  Let's keep trying!

 This duck entertained us for a long time.  And came super close to us to pick up a piece of potato chip that Ellie had dropped.

 Success!  Lynlee was excited to scoop water.

 Sand castle super stars!

 Ellie loves making funny faces.  And Lynnie fell asleep almost immediately.

 And had a good nap on Grandma's guest room bed.