Holding on to Summer

New Skills

Saturday was a big day for Nathan.  He woke up with a plan.  He told Dad they needed to take off his training wheels and go to the church to practice riding.  Nathan was convinced that it was his day to learn how to ride a "two wheeler."  After breakfast Curtis took off the training wheels and headed over to the church parking lot with the kidlets.  And what do you know, an hour later Nathan was balancing and pedaling like a pro. Mounting and dismounting are still a little rough but once Nathan gets going, he is golden!  I asked Curtis what he did to teach Nathan so quickly because it has only been the last few weeks that Nathan has been confident enough riding with the training wheels to venture away from our driveway.  Curtis said the secret was first teaching Nathan how to "fall" off the bike by putting his foot down and letting the bike drop before tumbling to the ground with the bike.  Once Nathan new how to escape when he felt unsteady, he didn't worry at all and focused purely on balancing.  Good move Dad!  

Nathan's First Day of Preschool

Our little Ne Ne is growing up so fast.

Another year of preschool is upon us.

This year Nathan is thrilled to be going to a "real school", which means he has a teacher other than plain ol' Mom.

Can't you tell he is totally excited about posing for these pictures?

All he wanted to do was get in the car and go to Preschool.  He woke up bright and early at 6 am, put his school clothes on that we set out the night before, snarfed his breakfast like a champ, finished his morning chores, and still had 2 hours to kill before Preschool started.

They may have been the longest 2 hours of his short little life.

Nathan had informed me that I only needed to drop him off because he could walk to the door by himself.  But as I pulled up to Miss Mindy's house he hesitated, and sweetly asked if I would walk with him.  I was glad to do it, and especially glad that he still needed Mom for some things.

This year holds the promise of fun and learning for Nathan which will help him along his journey of growing up.  The journey is bitter sweet for me, especially when I remember a more simple time not long ago when he was my only little baby.  But that is the adventure of life and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Mission Call

While we were in Idaho visiting my family my brother's mission call came in the mail!

We were so excited and blessed to share this special moment with him.  Kendal is the only boy in our family so this might be the only missions we get to experience.

Elder King has been called to serve in the

Yekaterinburg, Russia Mission!

He reports September 28th to the Provo MTC.

In 2 short months we will be saying farewell, but we know that his 2 year service to the Lord will be well worth the sacrifice.

Summer Visit to Idaho

One of the last things on our summer time list was make the 12 hour drive up to Idaho to visit my family.  Idaho is a great place to visit in the summer.  The days are nice and warm for all the summer activities, and the evenings cool down nicely making front porch sitting a nightly ritual.

There was a whole lot of scootin' going on.

Ripstick frisbee became a fast favorite.

You can't go wrong with a round (or 5) of Catch Phrase!

Creamies!!! Pure delight on a stick.

Snack time with Tio Kendal.

Living across the street from the town skate park, means lots of use for all things with wheels.

Gone Fishin'!

Riding in the back of Tio Kendal's truck.

 Brought back sweet memories from my childhood of summers spent down in Mexico at my Grandparent's and Uncle's orchards.

Summer wouldn't be complete without a slumber party on the trampoline.

Nathan loved snuggling with Tia Marci and Tia Aubrey, they're the blue blobs on the sides.

Helping Grandma clean out the cooler.

More Fishin'!

We never did catch anything, but Nathan still had a blast.

My new favorite thing Bracken says is "fishy poe".

One morning we woke up to dump trucks and excavators galore digging a hole in the middle of the road right in front of the house.

The boys enjoyed their breakfast sitting in the window sill all the while being captivated by the action out front.

Bracken fell in LOVE with Tia Aubrey's bean bag.

Thanks Grandma and Gradpa King for a wonderful trip!

Sticky

Bracky happened upon my stash of command strips the other day.

He thought it looked like a bandaid so he took the strips off and stuck it to his forehead!

YC Swim Lessons

Another year of swimming lessons has come to an end.

Summer is almost over.

Last year Nathan finished level 1 and made great personal improvement due to the fact that he was no longer afraid of getting his head wet.  This year we have been enjoying a lot of recreational swimming which allowed Nathan to feel really comfortable with the water prior to starting lessons.

They started Nathan off in level 1 again, but soon moved him up to level 2.  Nathan was thrilled to have one of his buddies from our ward be his instructor. 

Curtis took swimming lessons at Yavapai College when he was a boy and it's been fun to continue the tradition.  We love their small class size, it works well for Nathan.

Nathan has turned into a little fishy!  He LOVES to swim, and now with the skills he learned in level 2 he is swimming all by himself.  He doesn't have the stamina for anything deeper than 4 ft, because he has to stop and put his feet down quite often but he can swim for about 5-6 feet before needing to stop.

It will be exciting to see how much more he improves next year.

Level 2 watch out, we might have a level 3 boy on our hands next summer!