The joys of summer

Anytime we can get there, we'll spend the weekend at the lake during the summer. Obviously we can't always go, so we have to find other ways to keep ourselves entertained. The girls will only accept, "not right now, I'm cleaning the house" so many times. So what started as a bowl of water for Kayla to repeatedly fill her watering can, turned into this:


No, she's not drowing herself (though I did get a little concerned at first). We're the parents who don't have a little pool for their kids to cool off in, so we went totally ghetto and just gave her a bucket! Don't knock it until you try it. That thing entertained her all afternoon. I think we went through a gallon of sunscreen just so she could stay out there.

Of course she had to step it up a little. The bucket can only be so cool for so long. She moved on to her playset to create her own version of the slip 'n slide. Pretty good work, if you ask me. I was just thrilled she was entertaining herself so well!



We were able to get some lake time in last weekend, and let Maren enjoy her first swim in the lake. Kayla was a little hesitant at first, but once she got going, there was no turning back. She's a little waterbug for sure.

Even though she was willing to jump off the deck by herself last year, it took some serious coaxing to get her to try it again. The first jump was great, but on round two she landed too far forward, and that was the end of that. Aaron did get her to jump off with him as he held her. I don't have the picture, but he even did a front flip while holding her!


Cupie, anyone?


Here's Kayla jumping off the dock; from her running start to her flying squirel.





It's not often that you actually take the time to put a baby into a two-piece swimsuit, so as we prepared for Maren's first lake swim, we had to document the occaision. I also included the side-by-side of Kayla in the same swimsuit about 2 months younger.






Here's the big swim. I at least got two out of three looking at me in this picture.