Lake Powell

We LOVE going to Lake Powell...even with a nine month old that I'm constantly chasing and trying to keep from crawling out the houseboat doors, trying to keep him from over heating as the water was too cold for him to swim in most of the time, getting no sleep as he just could not get comfortable...it's still a great family vacation!

Austin just kickin' it eating lunch. Austin loves being with his cousins. He is to the age where he is constantly wanting friends/cousins to play with- so to him he was in heaven having everyone around all day long!

Makay's favorite part of the trip was definitely the candy bowl. I have sons that take after their mother with their sweet tooth!

Best Buds

I didn't get pictures of all of the boys- but here is Drew- they are all getting so old! It was so much fun to be around them- Austin LOVES his older cousins!

Jer is such a great dad- he would spend all day everyday playing with his boys if he could.

It's Potty Time!!!

At about 18 months Austin started telling me when he needed to go to the bathroom. He loved sitting on the potty and was so proud of himself when he went. I thought I was the luckiest mom around and that I was going to have a child that potty trained himself and was done with diapers by 19 months. I wasn't going to push it though as I didn't want him to rebel. Well, one year later, and lots and lots of diapers later, I'm realizing that children usually don't potty train themselves, and I will have to intervene as those stinky diapers are getting stinkier and stinkier and Austin is liking to sit on the potty less and less. My cute sister in law, Sommer, found the greatest toilet seats ever! How could a football obsessed little boy resist sitting on this!?!

Swimming Lessons

Austin just finished swimming lessons, and he LOVED every minute of them! The lessons are a pretty neat structure, they are survival swimming lessons. The lessons are 10 minute, private, lesson every day for three weeks. The first set of lessons mainly teach the kids how to turn to their backs and float from when they are under water so that if they were to fall in the water they would be able to find the surface and float until someone found them. Austin was a great floater! His teacher, Kaylynn, told us that he had done a great job, that he had tons confidence, which was good, it was probably a little above his actual skill level- so we needed a little more work on that. I was thrilled just to have the two evened out just a little as when we started he was all confidence and no skill! He now thinks that he can swim without a life jacket (he can't), so I'm sure we're going to be fighting that battle all summer!

getting ready for lessons!

His sweet teacher, Kaylynn. She was always surprised with how wiggly he was. He didn't stop wiggling from the time he got into the water until he got out. Sometimes it was probably a little distracting during the lessons, but she handled him well!

Floating on his back

Here is my fearless boy jumping off the diving board! When we walked into the pool house for the first lesson that was the first thing he saw and asked the teacher right away if he could jump off. She was a little surprised, and told him not today, but maybe in a few days.