a little bit of this... a little bit of that = a long post

starting out the summer at the beach
We went to Venice beach for the day and had a great time. Jake loves to look for sharks teeth there. Ella played in the water and Abigail sat on the beach most of the time. Not in the sand, but on a towel. She is not too fond of having sand on her (or being in the grass). She got used to the water after a while, but I'd say that wasn't her idea for fun.


eating a snack out of her shovel. didn't even want to play in the sand.


my busy, active, always up for fun kinda girl.
girly-girl and tom boy all in one.


Abigail spent most of the day under the umbrella and on her perch out of the sand.

outside fun for you and me


my two sweetie pies. i could just eat them up. they both
love to play outside!


father's day with daddy-o!

4th of july!!!

We spent the day at my parents and hung out in the pool and had a BBQ. Lots of fun!

sporting their read, white and blue

such a little comedian!

playing out of the water and just as content as can be.

loving the water and splashing around. those swimmies

are soon to disappear-lessons are coming soon.

tickle time for the teeth-such big girls

Abigail likes it when I pretend that I'm brushing her teeth.

a fun day at the park

a little cautious but liking it.

is she having fun or what? Ella sure does play hard.
they both love the swings but I couldn't get that picture to load.

bummer! Abigail usually likes just a little push and I can't seem to push Ella high enough.

we've learned to swim

Ella is learning to float on her back and doing a great job.

Abigail is swimming under water. can you believe it! she's not even 18 mos. yet.

she'd have you think that she just doesn't like any of it.

she is learning so much and doing well as we near the end of our lessons.

eventhough she has cried at some point during every lesson, she is such a trooper and is actually having fun.

she's learning to reach for the wall under the water and pull herself up out of the water. It's amazing what these little ones can do. there's a 20 mos. old little boy who is a bit ahead of Abigail and can swim on his own for the most part but isn't quite strong enough to pull himself out of the water for a breath. it is so fun to watch them. the first class she choked on water a little bit but after that i haven't seen it again. she has learned that when we say 1...2...3 that she should put her face down and hold her breath. then she just heads for the wall or me. when i pick her up she has an annoyed look on her face but then she just smiles like look what i did. and she loves it when you say "what a big girl!" she just looks so proud of herself. I am so proud of her! (when i said she cries at every lesson it's not so much the swimming, but when the coach takes her to swim with her. she's a bit of a touch-me-not until she warms up to you, which takes longer than our month of swimming lessons. however, she will talk to anyone she sees in the store, just don't try to pick her up. go figure!)

now, as for Ella, she has turned out to be a fish in the water. I am amazed at her progress. not yet four and she is swimming and coming up for air, jumping in and swimming to the wall, learning to float and swim close to the bottom to grab the dive toys.

today, she surprised me. she was monkey walking along the wall to the deep end and i guess she wanted a toy that had floated to the center of the pool. so, she swam over to get it, took a breath, treadded water for a second and then swam back to the wall. i was impressed. we've been taking lessons for the month of july and loving it.

such a great coach in every sense of the word- we love her!!

in june i was looking for a reasonably priced place for Ella to take swimming lessons. hard to find. i was talking to friends at church about where their children go. and low and behold it ends up that the swim coach used to be my elem. p.e. coach (grades k-8, and softball coach). also, she gave me some refresher lessons when i was about 9 yrs. old. she was absolutely one of my favorite teachers. she'll make you work hard but also loves you at the same time. Ella had a great time with her even though she cried the first day because she didn't want to go under water. this wonderful woman has taught at the same school for 44+ years and just retired this past year. She is a little over 70 and acts the same as she did 20 years ago. AMAZING! i hope to be like that! we only have one more lesson. i told Ella that today and she said " but i will miss her too much!" too cute! until later!