Happy 4th of July!

This week has been pretty fun. Kolby and Eli started up swim lessons at the rec. center, and they go on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. They are in the same class, along with three other kids, and they are the youngest in the class. I wondered if they should be in a different class, because there is a boy who is 5, and then a girl who looks 6 or 7, and another bigger boy who looks maybe 9 or 10. But they can both do everything that the class is doing right now without trouble – dunk their head under water, jump in from the side, and float on their backs and on their stomachs with support. I am glad they are doing well and enjoying it. I took all the boys with me on Thursday morning, and I think it won’t be too much longer before Camden will start swim lessons – it was hard to keep him happy and out of the water. After their lesson that day I swam with the boys, which was a lot of fun because there is a nice wading area and the water is plenty warm (and I hate cold water, so this is a big plus for me!)

On Wednesday evening I took Kolby for his night out with Mommy, and we went to the nearby mall. We had a game that we were given, but we already had that same game, so we went to return it at Deseret Book. With the credit from the game, Kolby was able to get a new CTR ring (“choose the right”), and a few fun little figurines. He wore his CTR ring all the time in Milwaukee, then lost it outside the afternoon that we moved, so I was glad to replace it. We made sure it was snug and talked about always leaving it on so it doesn’t get lost (this was my alternative to his idea: that we should buy more than one so we’d have an extra if this new one ever got lost), and he has done great with keeping it on all the time. It’s pretty cute.

Friday we had fun for the 4th of July. Michael was on call at the hospital overnight on the 3rd and got home around noon on the 4th, and he hasn’t had to go back in until tomorrow morning, so it’s been a nice little break. On Friday afternoon we went to my great uncle and aunt, Guy and Sharon’s house, for their annual family BBQ. We got to see some of my 2nd cousins who I hadn’t seen for years, and a few new little kids who we hadn’t met before. We swam in the pool for a while and then had a very nice dinner. Then we had to head out a little early because we were meeting Mel and Christian for fireworks. They go and sit outside the BYU stadium every year, and we joined them there. The fireworks were great – we all lay down on the blanket and watched them together, and all four of the boys liked them. I was happy that none of them were scared or bored – even Isaac held still and watched intently. The only down side was that the fireworks didn’t start until 10:30 at night, and then the traffic was so bad that it took us 2 hours to make the regularly 45-minute drive home afterwards.

We had some fun yesterday too. After dinner we got out all the bikes. We were excited to use the ‘new’ bikes I had found for the boys. Last week I was looking on craigslist.com and couldn’t really find an inexpensive kids’ bike for sale, so I posted that I wanted a bike for a 4 year old, that I didn’t care what it looked like except I didn’t want a pink one, that it needed to work well and should have training wheels, and that I would pay $10 to $20 for it. The next day I got an e-mail, we drove to Taylorsville, and ended up getting a bike for Kolby and one for Eli and only paying $15 total for the both of them. Anyways, we have been excited to go on a bike ride, so we pulled out all the bikes and pumped up the tires. Camden and Isaac rode in the bike trailer, Kolby rode his bike, and Eli ended up opting for his old Big Wheels tricycle because his legs are just barely too short for his new bike still. We rode down around the school and played at the playground for a minute, went across the street and down a couple blocks, and then over to the church parking lot and back home. It wasn’t a really long ride, but pretty good for Eli’s little legs. And I had fun – this was my first bike ride in years. I have either been big pregnant or it had been freezing winter for quite a long time now. So that was fun.

After we got home from the bike ride, we got out the sparklers and little fountain fireworks that I’d picked up the other day. We started lighting a few, and a couple neighbors ended up coming over to join us, which was nice. We met a girl with two little children who spoke mostly Spanish, and Michael had fun speaking with her. And we met a man with two of his little girls who just moved in across the street a couple weeks ago. The fireworks here don’t really compare to the ones in Milwaukee, since none of the ones here go off the ground, but it was still fun. We saved the sparklers for last, which is always the most fun for the kids. We got those extra long ones, and they loved waving them around in the air. I’ll have to put of some pictures soon.

Also, Isaac has started doing a fun thing. He doesn’t really scoot yet, but he can push himself backwards across the floor, and lately he has started getting up on his hands and knees and doing the rocking thing, but hasn’t moved his hands yet to take that first crawl. I have heard of kids that skip crawling and go straight to walking, but have you ever heard of kids skipping sitting up and going straight to crawling? (He can sit up a little, if we prop his legs and arms up, but he doesn’t last very long and he has never tried to sit up on his own). Oh well, every kid is different.

Oh, and congratulations to Michael’s brother, Alan, and his wife Jenn. They had their first little baby (a boy – there are only boy cousins in the family so far) on Monday. They named him Alanjerome and will be calling him Jerome. We’re excited to go down and visit them sometime hopefully soon (once Michael’s schedule cooperates).