Memorial Day Weekend

Rachel at swimming lessons with Miss Allison.  Reminder to self:  on the next child, try to avoid goggles!!

Bubba enjoying some homemade peanut butter chocolate ice cream at a Memorial Day BBQ

Rachel wanted to build Chicago with her blocks - not too shabby if you ask me!  

Andrew - filthy dirty at Fathers and Sons Campout

For the last seven weeks, Rachel has been taking swimming lessons with Miss Allison in Mesa and she absolutely loves it.  I absolutely adore her teacher - she is meant to work with children and is so positive with them.  This may sound silly, but she has inspired me to do a better job giving Rachel positive praise and has even changed the way I speak to Rachel in stressful moments.  The class always has four students around her same age and they practice freestyle, butterfly, breaststroke, correct breathing techniques, diving, jumping off the diving board, ring dive, and swimming across the pool.  Rachel has improved dramatically during these swimming sessions and dare I say that she is a better swimmer than I am (which is not saying much, but still!).  She obviously hasn't mastered all of these, but she can swim independently if needed and understands the different strokes and how to breath and swim underwater, and most importantly, she loves it.  *In Rachel's first class, all the little girls wore goggles every time, I got her some (she picked that bright green color) and I feel like they are kind of a pain.  Hopefully with Andrew, I can convince him that he doesn't need goggles and avoid that whole thing!* 

We really enjoyed Memorial Day weekend and took a day trip up to Payson, AZ to create a camping experience without actually having to stay the night.  It was actually unseasonably cool in Phoenix that weekend, which meant that it would have been too cold to camp in the mountains.  What sparked the whole idea was that Brandon attended Father & Sons with Andrew in May and Rachel wanted to go camping with daddy and kept talking about going to Father & Daughters with him.  

p.s. Against my better judgement, Brandon took Andrew to Father & Sons.  And surprisingly they both had a great time!  Brandon didn't get very much sleep next to the little wiggle worm, but they both said it was a lot of fun.  

So we headed up to Payson on Saturday morning (an hour and a half away) and we went on a small hike and ate lunch near a stream where Brandon caught a fish with his bare hands in about 5-10 minutes - not even kidding!  The kids and I were both very impressed!  He said it was something he learned as a scout?  After letting the kids "pet" it, he let it go back in the stream since we didn't have a place to store or clean it.  Then we went to the fish hatchery, and then to Rancho Tonto Catch a Trout in Christopher Creek since we figured this would be an easy place to go for our kid's first fishing experience.  And it was a quick and painless fishing experience (great for me since I am not a big fan of fishing!).  We rented a pole and caught 3 fish within seconds, and you can pay to have them cleaned and put on ice right there.   Sign me up!  It was super easy and fun.  Rachel understood that we were going to eat them, but she really wanted one as a pet.  One that could play with her and sleep in her bed with her? ... it was a fun conversation.  Anyway, we took our freshly caught fish, found a campsite for the afternoon and cooked our dinner while the kids played in the dirt.  It was a fun day trip, and we all slept good in our own beds.  Note to self:  we need to practice our camping cooking skills - it was just ok, but not great.  

On Monday, we enjoyed having Brandon home and met up with the Perkinson's at the Clubhouse for swimming and a BBQ.  We're so lucky that they share their families with us and include us in family parties - they are great friends and belong to wonderful families.