I told you so

In my last post I admitted that I didn't have any pictures of Olivia swimming because she is an absolute psycho in the water. She needs to be far away from the pool if I am busy taking pictures. Well last time we went swimming Dan went with us and I remembered to bring along the camera to capture her amazing LOVE of the water.

So.. with Olivia there is no gradual acclimating yourself to the water - she just takes of running full speed into the water - the game is to get to the water before her (last night I ended up in the pool fully dressed - thanks Liv).

At Dan's parent pool there is a large top step so she has a HUGE shallow end that she can swim on. She feels like a big girl because she can play on it all she wants without being held (she hates to be held and she REALLY HATES those stupid floatie things) but this can only hold her off for a short time.

Before long she is anxiously awaiting a turn for the diving board!

She loves jumping in the water, she at least gives us a little countdown but we don't know what number she is going to jump on.
one...two....free.... or two...free....one.... or free....one...two...

After a while the diving board is just too pathetic so she has to move up! To the rock platform! The problem with the rock platform is she needs help getting to the top. Usually she can talk someone into taking her up. Okay she doesn't really talk but she stretches out her arms at you and says "Peeese!" So you just can't resist!

Can you hear her squeal of delight?

Then once she has been on the rock platform she remembers that there is a rock slide! And for whatever reason she prefers her Uncle Ammon to take her down the rock slide. She even learned how to say Ammon (maaamn) just for this occasion. Thankfully Ammon is a great sport and has taken her down the slide more times than I can count. She even had little road-rashes on her elbows from the slide!

After I watch her be a crazy in the pool I think to myself that she is amazing and where on Earth did she learn this behavior, then I see Ethan....

She really loves Ethan.

Fun in the Sun

We have been here a month officially. All of our bill have been due and paid already so it is really setting in that we are home and not on some really long vacation. It has been HOT! It even got up to 116* one day. We have decided that we really really need TINT on the windows of our black car with black interior!

We have the good fortune of living within a 1/2 mile of family with a pool- a great pool - even. Usually we take the kids over at least twice a week. They are all little fishies. Olivia is especially crazy about the pool. She is actually psycho about the pool. She loves to go down the slide by her self, jump off the diving board by herself and jump off the rock platform by herself. She HATES being in floaty things and she doesn't even like to be held. She finds it hilarious when she gets to go all the way under the water. As a result of her bravery she cannot be in any pictures, because if I am busy taking pictures she has to be safely on the other side of the fence.

Super Fun

This past weekend we had FUN! Our friends, Ethan & Jen, invited us to go with them to Eagar, Arizona for the 4th with another couple and their 2 kids. Of course we accepted! We were so excited to hang out with friends again (it has been since Texas that we have really had good friends to hang out with) So we piled into the van and drove the 3 1/12 hours.
On the 4th of July the town of Eagar has a huge parade down main street - so we took all the kids (we had 9 kids!)
How cute are these 2 little boys? They are the boys of the other family that was there.

When the "floats" and cars and horses would drive down the road they would throw things at the kids, mostly candy but sometimes it was otter pops and Frisbees.

Then after the parade we took the quads for a little spin. The kids (especially Olivia) got SO DIRTY!

Boys and their toys....

The boys had fun playing Frisbee in the out and open.

The older kids (Ryleigh, Tayler, Kylie, Spencer, Ethan, and Everett) wanted to climb the hill so we let them. They made it about 30 feet up the hill and turned around, but it kept them busy for a while.

Then we went out for fireworks and has SO MUCH FUN! We had some of our own that we lit and enjoyed and then the town of Eagar put on their own show and it was really impressive. We had so much fun!!