Swimming

There is a really nice neighborhood pool less than a mile from our house.  It is lovely!  Two complaints: they have swim lessons in the morning and late afternoon/early evening meaning the free swim time is in the afternoon - right during Lauren's nap.  If it was open in the mornings and evenings, I would have been there everyday this summer.  My second complaint is that is it only open during the week when Chandler Public Schools are on summer break, which is only six weeks (June to mid-July) and closes for the season (read: Saturdays) on Labor Day.  Yet, it's still 100 degrees and it's September and I want to swim!

That said, the pool does have a free family swim time on Saturdays and we went to just about every one.  Lauren looked adorable in her swim get-up.

We bought a little blow up pool for our back yard.  When it came, we got it blown up and the kids loved it even without water in it.

Swimming in the back yard!

All you have to do is mention swimming or the pool and Lauren's handing you her swim suit and putting on her floatie.

Wesley loves filling up the pool himself and takes his job very seriously.

Some day it will cool off...

 

Tonto

Last weekend we went to Walnut Canyon and paid the entrance fee.  We had a week to credit that fee to an annual pass and I decided we should get one.  I braved taking the kids by myself up to Tonto National Monument so we could get our pass.  It was a new place to explore too.

Like Walnut Canyon, it's a bit of a hike up to the cliff dwellings.  Wesley did the whole thing by himself and Lauren could have too if I hadn't been terrified of her falling off the cliff and deciding to carry her most of the way.

Stopping to get a view of Lake Roosevelt.

Unlike the other ruins we've visited, these you could get up close to.  Kids found this pretty cool and Wesley was full of questions about how people lived a long time ago.  He is bursting with questions and curiosity.  

Trying the grinding stone.  It was heavy!

Lauren deciding she was stronger than her brother.

Much more success when you work together.  I feel so blessed by how close my kids are to each other.  I hope they will always be close siblings.

Peaking around the desk at the ranger.

Armed with our annual pass, here's to a year of more adventuring!

Show and Tell

Wesley has been back in preschool now almost two months.  He loves it!  He now goes three days a week, still for two and a half hours each day, and his favorite day is show and tell.  His first day of school was his show and tell day and he took his garbage truck.

Lauren put on Gil's old pack, ready to go to preschool too.  Often, she'll walk right into the classroom like she's supposed to be there too.  She loves doing anything her brother does.

Wesley's friend at preschool on a day they were wearing matching shirts.

There was a special space day and Wesley wore his astronaut suit.  He can name all the planets, the four largest moons of Jupiter, and a whole handful of other random space facts.  Definitely on a space kick at the moment.

While Wesley's at preschool, Lauren and I grocery shop, run errands, read books, play with Wesley's toys (shh! don't tell him!) and I'll try and get in an organ practice now and again.  She loves sitting on the bench with me, or on my lap.

Yesterday, Wesley's class had a field trip to the Natural History Museum.  The highlight of the visit was panning for gold outside.

Lauren LOVED (!!) panning for gold and surprisingly got less wet than her brother.  She screamed like I'd never heard her scream before when I had to pull her away to move on.

Growing, growing, growing.  My kids are growing.

Walnut Canyon

I don't mind the heat.  Really, I don't.  I would much rather be hot than cold.  That said, I get tired of it, especially when it's over 110 in mid-September!  We headed this last weekend for Walnut Canyon National Monument just outside of Flagstaff.  What a fun place to explore!

We brought a picnic lunch, Wesley and I worked on our Junior Ranger books, we hiked the 273 (one way) stairs down to see the cliff dwellings, and hiked out.  It was a perfect day trip.

Snowflake and Show Low

We went exploring for Labor Day.  We've been north quite a bit but decided it was time to head east.  There is a temple in Snowflake and made that our destination.  The town was a lot smaller than both Gil and I had envisioned.  We walked the temple grounds and grabbed a quick snack before going to our next stop, Show Low, AZ.

In Show Low, we found a lovely park with paved and unpaved hiking trails, horses and cows.  Lauren LOVED the cows.  She was mooing at them and completely enthralled.

My hardy hikers.

It was a long day but a good one.