Big Fish

This was Rachel's second year of swimming lessons this year. Her teacher during the week of swimming lessons in June was Miss Katie.

Here she is practicing floating and her kicks.

Her group also practiced jumping in the pool

and then swimming to Miss Katie.

Rachel's big milestone at swimming lessons this year is that she has learned to swim underwater.

She actually swims faster underwater than above water now!

More underwater swimming and floating on her own.

There is a big difference in these two pictures of Rachel going off the diving board. YES, this summer she started jumping off the diving board to Miss Katie without a life jacket and then swimming to the edge of the pool from the middle on her own! Yay, Rachel!

Because of the weather in June, her last lesson was with Miss Mackenzie in August too. This was neat because Miss Mackenzie was her first teacher during her first swimming lessons last year!

Here she is swimming underwater to Miss Mackenzie. She also is learning to dive for the diving sticks in the pool too.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Rachel at swimming lessons. Look at the two numbers on the wall. She is in the deep end and she had just swam across the deep end by herself with Miss Mackenzie beside her! She was excited about being able to do this!

Rachel, we are proud of you! You have learned so much in the past two years of swimming lessons (we are thankful for all your good teachers too). Keep swimming, "Big Fish!"

On the River

Headed to the river

We have enjoyed some great family on the water this summer! Saturday before the girls went to NC, Brent decided we needed a little family time in the afternoon all together. So he suggested we go over to St. Mary's River for part of the afternoon to wade and play in the shallow pools of the river. He had a hospital visit earlier in the afternoon and after that we headed to the river for a little while.

Here we are headed down the trail.

We found a grape vine growing over the river

Bethany even tried part of a grape.

This was the perfect time of year for us to go to St. Mary's. It is almost a creek where we were anyway and with it being so dry, the water level was perfect for our girls to play!

We also saw at least a couple dozen crawfish, of all sizes in the water.

Checking out the pools in the creek

This little lady had fun playing with the rocks along the creek.

At the deepest point where we were, Rachel found a spot in a pool that came up almost to her waist and she swam a little in the creek.

 They were using the stick to "go fishing"

Headed off from a fun afternoon on the creek. We will be going back for sure!

As we headed back down the trail, we met another group of hikers who had come back down from further up the river. They shared some watermelon with us. Bekah got a huge piece as you can see here and this was all that was left in the 20 minutes to our house! The girl loves watermelon!

Thankful for a fun afternoon as a family on the river!

Camp North Carolina

 On Sunday, Nana and Papa arrived for a visit and to take the big girls back to North Carolina with them for a visit with the family there. We call this "Camp North Carolina." This camp began last year around the time Bethany was born. The big girls got hand foot mouth the very same week Bethany was born and so Rachel and Bekah went to stay in North Carolina for a week with the grandparents and extended family. This summer they begin to ask when they could go to "Camp North Carolina" again. This was the week that worked for the grandparents so Camp North Carolina began today.

 Nana and Papa got some fun time with Bethany before they headed back to North Carolina today.

                         

 Here we are with the big girls before they headed out to NC today.

 You can't tell from the picture but Rachel is waving back at us. These girls were so excited about their trip to North Carolina. I may have let some tears fall as they pulled away but not until they were out of sight.

 Brent had some hospital visits today and Bethany and I had a little play time after her sisters left for NC. She quickly found her sisters' toys. She was very proud of herself. Here she is sitting in Bekah's chair too. She even wanted to try out her sisters' beds at bedtime tonight and could not stop grinning!

                                  

 Later this evening, we all got to go meet this beautiful little lady. This is Fraya, who was born yesterday. She is the daughter of the O'Neils and the Sherman's granddaughter. Here she is with her sweet grandma.

 Then we headed to get supper. I guess you could call it "Date Night plus One"

 We had a fun evening. We enjoyed our time with our littlest big girls.We missed Rachel and Bekah, but we know they are having a blast at "Camp North Carolina." We talked to them by phone tonight and they were so excited still!

 I am planning to do a blog re-cap of all the big girls' adventures at "Camp North Carolina" once they get back. Thanks to all the family who are being my picture takers with week!  We love you, Rachel and Bekah and NC family and we hope you all have a great week together! We can't wait to see you on Friday!