Swimming Lessons 2010

"I want your arms way out of the water"

The DEEP END!?!

NO problem!!!

Lay Back, Relax, and Float

Practice makes perfect

It's a lot higher than it looks!

1, 2, 3 JUMP

Ready or not here I come.

 Diving Boards

EASY!

Swimming is SO MUCH FUN!

I don't want to get out of the pool.

Marcus was very apprehensive about swimming lessons.

If you will remember there were a lot of snot and tears last year.

This year...

Not so much.

Brandon is awesome.  He is the exact type of teacher Marcus needs.

He makes him take risks.

He doesn't get sucked into Marcus's negotiations.

He praises him when he does well.

Marcus LOVES his lessons this year!

The Last Day of First Grade and Field Day

If I said I haven't shed a few tears about the end of 1st grade I would be lying.

Marcus has had a fantastic year.

We LOVE his teacher, Ms. Mandic.

He has had a total LOVE of learning.

And he has made some Great friends!

Field Day At West End is a BIG deal.

All the first grades tie dyed t-shirts.

There are these super fun bounce houses. Which is where I spent the day helping.

The kids have soooo much fun playing games, going on the bounce houses, eating snow cones and cotton candy, going in the dunk tank, and basically being wild all day.

Marcus loved playing in the Battle Dome (basically dodge ball in a bounce house you can imagine the good times) he also loved the Shark Attack Slide (I don't have at ton of pictures because I spent most of the day running the Battle Dome.

The Fallon Fire Department brings a water truck for the kids and we close off the whole street so they can play.

Marcus was very into the sponge war game.

It was a great day to end a great year.

Thanks Ms. Mandic for instilling in Marcus a love of learning!

(yep I'm crying again)

Home Run King..

Marcus hit a home run at Tee Ball and nope I didn't have my camera.

If You Are Between Bridgeport and Smith Valley You Don't Want...

 Your motor home to start on fire.

There we were driving a long praying our very tired kids (mostly Hazel see previous post) would fall asleep when suddenly we crested a hill and saw a motor home across the highway with smoke coming out the front end.  There was one other car pulled off to the side of the road and he reported that it had just caught fire while driving down the hill.  Of course being surrounded by mountains cell phone were not an option.  Lucky for us we had On Star.  So we pressed the red emergency button (for the first time ever) and nothing.  Not even On Star would worked.  We quickly drove about three miles until we got a weak On Star signal.  To make a long story short after several brief minutes Fire Trucks were dispatched from both Smith Valley and Bridgeport.

When we arrived back on the scene this is what we saw...

Not a whole lot left.

And then we sat,

and sat,

and sat,

and sat,

and sat some more (poor Rachee was stuck between the babies who wouldn't leave her alone, she also was suffering a little PTSD from her own recent car fire, really her not so hold Mazda 3 spontaneously started on fire, or the fact that she had to pee) until...

They all finally arrived.

Honestly it took over half an hour for anyone (and not a fire truck with water) to arrive and let me tell you

a motor home burns up FAST so there was much left for them to do.

And still we sat for another hour before we could go.

And by that time...

This is all that was left.

Let me just say that I honestly believe that if this would have happened in Churchill County it would not have taken the fire department over a half hour to respond.

We jokingly call the Fallon Volunteer Fireman, Fallon's Finest but I am sure glad they take what they do seriously!

Once we finally got on the road home we had to make another emergency Pee stop for Rachel who accidentally ended up peeing right by a giant ant hill.  Which caused a few problems the rest of the night.

Memorial Weekend At Twin Lakes

We got to the cabin in the early evening on Thursday.

We made the mistake of putting the babies car seats right next to each other.

Maleen pulled on Hazels shirt and stole her pretty the entire two and a half hour drive.

She looked like a mean little alley cat by the time we got there.

We all quickly settled in.

Rachel went straight to reading the Spellman's (which is so so funny!!!!).

We woke up bright and early to several inches of snow!

We attempted a walk.

We didn't even make it all the way down the lane.

We were freezing!

Hazel was a great sport.

She did a LOT of walking, a LITTLE falling, and LOVED every minute of it.

No, I didn't bring winter coats.

It was Memorial Weekend for heavens sake.

Needless to say by the time the little girls went down for a nap the boys were a little stir crazy.
We took them to town to get milkshakes and my-o-my were they delicious.

Our kids are super lucky to have Rachee for an Aunt.
She was a god send when Mel and I wanted relax on a Lafuma and read.
She went on numerous walks, hikes, trips down to the lake to throw rocks, crystal finding expeditions, and bug hunts.
We love you Rachel!!!

Hazel and Maleen have a love hate relationship.
They get super excited to see each other and have short spurts of time when they play so nice together.
But most of the time Maleen is pulling Hazels hair, Hazel is pushing Maleen, and they are both trying to get what the other one has.
Case and Point. Who can sit closest to Grandma?
It just depends on which picture you look at.

Our babies love a sink tubby-tub.
It was really cute and fun,
Until they started throwing water all over the kitchen.

Saturday we had beautiful weather.
We got to spend time at the lake,

Suck up bugs ($15.00 well spent),

examine them and...

keep them in a jar.

At the cabin you don't have to get beautiful,

you can just kick back and relax.

The boys are getting big enough to play outside alone.
At least that is what we thought until we heard Marcus yelling,
"Can we get some help here.  Hey we need a little help."
Once again Aunt Rachel to the rescue.
Marcus and to prop himself in front of Fenn to keep him from falling down the mountain.


One of the highlights of the trip was not captured on film but will a story brought up often.
Hazel and her all nighter.
We have no idea why but Hazel was NOT tired on Saturday night.
And by not tired I mean she was up until 1:30 AM.
She wasn't crying she was simply chatting up a storm.
After several failed attempts to get her to sleep Melissa took her downstairs.
Now our cabin is SMALL so going downstairs did nothing to alleviate the noise.
I knew Mel needed to be "tapped out" when I heard Hazel say "ear" and Mel say, "Don't put the Q-tips in your ears Hazel."  (and by Q-tips I'm talking about used ones from the trash).
By the end of the night Me, Mel, and Rachel had laughed so hard our sides hurt.
I have no idea how the rest of the kids slept through it.
I think it was DIVINE INTERVENTION.