six

First Days

The Good Pictures

A little more

Just a few to tide you over

OK Mother here are a few pictures from our last day in Paris to tide you over.  I'll try to get some more posted soon.  Also they are all public on Neil's flickr so those of you who know our last name can see them all over there if you would like.  Love you very much.

More Summer

Emily got the Enthusiasm award at her summer swim banquet.

Left to their own devices.  That's a sandbox lid.

At Oma's surprise party.

Elijah getting dropped off at sleep away camp.

Summer so far

Emily trying to add to Sam's tattoos.  She was excited to see that he was OK with being drawn on though she did also tell him they were funny looking.  Oh well.

Emily showing Elijah how to penguin walk after her dance recital.

More Swimming Pics

Elijah's former coach sent us a few pictures she was able to take of him getting out of the water at his open water swim.  Coaches get to be right at the finish so she got some really good ones.

Then on Tuesday he got to go to a clinic with a real live Olympian and had a great time. 

That's Elijah with Peter Vanderkaay a 3 time Olympian.  He had a great time as did all the other kids on his team. 

Swimming Saturday

This past Saturday was crazy.  Our kids are currently swimming for different teams and they both had out of town meets in opposite  directions on Saturday.  Emily had her first summer swim meet and Elijah had his first ever open water meet.

We'll start with Elijah.  He swam the 800 meter event.  By far the furthest he's ever raced before.  He did just fine though and I could pick him out the whole time because he swam breast stroke.  Not bc he was freaked out or anything but bc he likes breast stroke the best.  Whatever kid.  His coach said its too bad they don't do an 800 breast in long course meets.

Emily swam the 25 free, breast, and back at her meet plus the freestyle relay and butterfly in the medley relay.  She also charmed the big girls and most of the crowd.  Now we just have to get everyone to stop cheering for her so she won't stop and look around when she hears her name.

Little Grad

berry picking

Somehow despite living close to a number of farms that offer strawberry picking we had never gotten around to going. The plan was for all 4 of us to go this past Saturday but I had a nasty headache so Neil took the kids and the camera.  Thankfully I felt better after a good rest on the couch and they three of them had a blast.

They picked 4 full buckets.  I'm working on my second batch of jelly and we still have 1.5 buckets in the fridge at least.