The 4th

This year we ended up with a double dose of the 4th. On the 3rd we had some friends over for what has become an annual firework explosion-a-thon on our street. Our neighbors and their sleeping babies are saints for putting up with all of our nonsense every July 4th and New Years. We did the home fireworks early so that we could actually go see the big ones this year. The last two years we have been here we have gone to Spencer's work which is a peninsula on the harbor where we can see about 4 shows, but they are pretty far off and we can't hear anything. It has worked out well though, because we don't have to deal with the crowds and can be home in 5 minutes. So this year we went to the show in North Chuck. It was really cool to be part of the atmosphere and hear the big bangs. We got to hang out with most of our ward, no one was shot, and it only took us 5 minutes to get out of the parking lot. We are definitely going again next year.

Swim Team

Sidney and her friends


After a home meet that they win...

everybody jumps in the pool.

So I have come to realize that I am not a stage mom, but a pool mom. This was Sidney's first year in swim team and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I guess she liked it also. The whole first part of our summer has been dedicated to daily practices and two 4 hour meets a week. Sidney's swimming has improved greatly and she has shown some skill at backstroke. I really want to get her breaststroke and butterfly polished up before next year though. I even have dreams of Julia being able to swim across the pool by next year so I can put her in also. I forgot to sign her up for lessons at the beginning of the summer so we are just staring them now. It isn't very intense, but I guess she has a few months before I push them into training camp.

Cammy the Hammy

Sidney asked me the other day of there was a picture of her hamster on the blog. Sadly I informed her that there was not. She grabbed the camera and her hamster so we could do an emergency photo shoot. So here is Cammy.

Bee City

Sidney and the baby goat. Everything is cuter when it is a baby.

Julia and the goat.
Sidney, Paige, and MaKenna being flamingos, which weren't even at the zoo.


This week we made the trek up to Bee City. We don't have a zoo nearby so we make do with local petting zoos. It was pretty cool they had a lot of different animals, and you could feed many of them. Shockingly the bee part of the zoo wasn't very cool. We went up with a bunch of friends so the kids all had fun hanging out together. At the end of the day we got these flavored honey straws which were really good. I really wanted to get some honey there, but considering I have pounds of it at home I had to pass.

Joy School

This semester I did Joy School with Julia. I had always wanted to do it with Sidney, but there were never enough kids her age in the ward. Another mom pressured me into it with Julia and we had so much fun. I am really glad I did it and Julia really learned a lot. These pictures are at her graduation.

The kids all made family flags that they were holding. Julia's flag has our family animals. Julia is the monkey. Sidney is the songbird. Spencer is the rhino. I am the cougar, though I am hoping that I am not really old enough to be a cougar.

Charleston Battery

Some friends of ours are quite the soccer junkies so we have gone to a couple of the games and they are really fun. There is a lot of stomping, screaming, fighting, and players being thrown off the field. The girls do really well at the games too. They mostly color and eat, but we all have a good time.

Sidney's Artwork

Sidney's school has put some of her pictures online. If you want to check them out here is the link
www.artsonia.com/sidney235