Swim"soup" Visit

the week of july 8-12th we had swim lessons.  the wright cousins came to join us and we had a blast!  it was chaos and fun all in one...8 little people all in one house!  ben was out swathing in arena valley most of the week, so it worked out great to have someone here to keep us company.  it was burning hot almost everyday.  we would load up in shifts and go to the dorsey's for lessons.  blaiz and bentley really progressed this year.  bentley can now swim up and down the deep end, both ways across the pool, tread water, jump off the diving board and swim out, and also got to practice diving.  the other kids did well.  bridon made some good strides too.  he worked really hard and wasn't afraid of the water at all.  he can swim across the pool and likes to jump in the deep end, but still needs a little push to get him going once he pops back up.  emerson had a few mishaps, but ended up enjoying her lessons with her babysitter, natalie.

 she calls her swimsuit, a 'swimsoup'.  she has lots of funny words, like 'bwig' for big.  she was so excited for anni to come for a visit. those girls are emotional :).  lots of playing and no naps = slight breakdowns for 3 year old girls.  i took the kids one day to see despicable me 2 and those two were crazy tossing popcorn, rolling around on the ground, going potty, drinking a lot of water, but finally settling down so we could end the show.  it was cute and the others really had fun watching it.  we came home and picked the exact hottest nite they were here to go up and have a hot dog roast and smores with some super smokey wood and sweat, with shera (lisa's girls think she's scary... if they only knew:)  she just wanted a hot dog and a swim in the canal and then she's content to chill.

one nite we let bentley and blaiz stay up later than the others and help me give shera a bath.  she was so stinky.  i found a recipe and made up some dog shampoo and we lathered her down.  she looks and smells so much better!  the boys also would fill up bentley's water jug and head out to the combine while it was going.  uncle brad requires they bring their own water, so they don't drink all his :).  bridon went too and met up with other cousin luke.  the combine is always exciting!

 ivy and ellee got toted around everywhere we went.  poor ellee had an ear infection and then bentley got one as soon as everyone left.  emerson started it out at the beginning of the week with one.  the babies did great though, especially after ellee started some antibiotics.  she started really crawling the day after everyone left. must have taken tips from ivy.  we hit the park for lunch a few days, went crazy at rs enrichment nite that i was supposed to help out with (whole other story!), and got out the slip and slide and badmitton during the afternoons.  we cooked and cleaned up a lot of meals and enjoyed first cucumbers in the garden.  i even snuck some squash in the lasagna skillet and ended up with rave reviews even though my takers were skeptical :)....  what fun we had.  and it's always fun to stay up late and talk, just sisters waiting for ben.  let's do this every summer!