In Summer...

This summer we did what we usually do as kids have gotten older and in school.  We plan to see friends as much as we can.  We go to the summer movies.  Hit the splash pads and pools, enjoy shave ice and frozen yogurt...anything we can do to stay cool!  

Alison cools off with a shake!                  Owen & Audrey enjoy Kei Lani Shave Ice, our favorite!

After a summer off the kids were back in swimming lessons this summer, an early birthday present for both from their Aunt Rae Lynne.  They are doing great!  Their 4 weeks of lessons are up tomorrow and have been well worth it.  They learned so much from this teacher, who happens to live across the street from Aunt Rae Lynne.  I finally feel confident to say Audrey is a swimmer!  She worked on proper breathing and strokes.  Owen has learned soooo much.  He will put his face in the water and swim on his own. He knows how to swim to the side if he ever falls in or needs to catch his breath. He still has lots of work to do, but I do feel safer with him around water and that's important!  Here's a short video of them on their last day of swim.  Audrey slides down first and swims the entire length of the pool, then Owen slides and swims to the side.

We tried out new splash pads with cool new toys!

We visited the splash pad in Fountain Hills, the kids loved the fountain.  
We have been before, but not since Owen's first summer.

Kids felt ready to brave the slides at the pool with their new swimming skills.

We braved the haboobs...

                       

 ...and played in after monsoon puddles.

We used up the last month of our Science Center Membership and checked out a planetarium show for the first time.  The kids picked "Stars of the Pharoahs" (no pictures of that though).

4th of July started out with our usual pancake breakfast at church.  In the evening we headed with our neighbors to our favorite fireworks spot in Gilbert.  We got a very close spot in grass at the church that puts on the show instead of parking off site somewhere.  We got there early to get a good spot so we brought dinner and hung out before fireworks started.

And finally my kids were excited to start a new school year!  They kept asking how many more days until school starts, so I made this countdown and they took turns counting down each day.