Next we had Drew and Maile over to spend the night. The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven! We had fun playing xbox, playing with water in the yard and eating treats!
Then we started something not quite as fun for the kids: swim lessons- oh was that a battle. They had a fantabulous teacher who was so very patient with them. I shouldn't say them, Lydi only had one or two melt-downs... but Jack- every day he stood by the gate and screamed. One time he even took off and I couldn't find him! He ran out the gate and was hiding in a house that was two doors down's front porch! I had the whole swim group looking for him! I was tempted to pull him out but I decided he was just too old to not know how to swim so we were going to stick it out. I am glad we did. Our strategy was to go swim at Drew and Maile's right after so they could practice and just have fun with no pressure. I think that was the ticket! By the end of the summer Lydi is a total fish- very confident. She doesn't like to be touched really but she can swim on her own and even jump off the side by herself. Jack still hangs out on the step but he doesn't cry any more and he knows how to swim if he needs to. I have some pretty hilarious videos of the torture and he still asks me nearly every day if he has to go to swim lessons haha...
For Fathers Day this year Jarom had to stay over the weekend in Globe. I had planned all along to go up there and surprise him. I told him that I had ordered him a good dinner and it would be coming to his door in about 30 minutes when we were 30 minutes away. He was excited about the food but instead I had the 3 kids standing outside the door and I filmed him. He was really surprised and the kids LOVED surprising him! It was so fun! I had cooked lots of meals that day so we stayed in the hotel, played games and ate and just had a good relaxing time. Jarom is such a wonderful dad, we are so lucky! We could have never left him to celebrate Fathers Day all by his lonesome!
And then our annual dance camp... this is Lydi's favorite part of the dance year! She loves drill downs, crazy hair day and performing. We had fun and Lydi actually one first place in the jump contest! I promise I didn't vote!
The last day of dance camp was Jarom's birthday! We had spent part of the day earlier celebrating it with a little homemade surprise part, complete with a cake decorated by the kids. He had breakfast in bed and a little special treatment. After the performance night, we went home with some pizza and friends (Breanne and Paul) and hung out. It was a fun time.
Of course we had Jackson's birthday next but I will be devoting a whole post to my buddy's 4 year old debut... so the next big event was the Fourth of July. It was the perfect fourth- really it was. Even the weather! I even got cute pictures of my little babies! We ate ribs, played a family baseball game, watched fireworks, danced it was just so fun. Jenni had come in town for the week and spent Jack's birthday with us. She stayed for the fourth so it was so fun to be with all our Taylor side cousins and just have fun. I got a little misty eyed during the fireworks this year- so grateful to be American! I hope my kids understand someday how lucky they are. The funniest story from that night was Jack. After everyone had done stuffed their face- Jackson decided he would go in and start on seconds. I found him in the kitchen by himself, standing on a chair dancing to no music and having his way with all the food. I have the funniest video of it. I love that chubbers.
Another little milestone event that actually probably happened before any of the aforementioned events was Taylor sleeping in a bed. She was crawling out of her crib anyway so we decided it would be less dangerous for her to just be in a bed officially and not have to risk a broken bone everytime she got restless. And boy is this girl a restless one! We actually had to start locking her in to get some sleep. She would stand by the door and yell "hey! Let me out!" One time she called Jarom by name, "hey Jarom! Let me out!" we can't believe how smart that little toot is! She sure does keep us on our toes and keeps us laughing!
At the beginning of the summer we made a little list of things we wanted to get done. So among the fun events I already talked about, we got through a good portion of our little list.
1. Build a fort
2. Make crazy cookies and deliver them
3. Have a breakfast picnic (Jarom and I did this with the kids just before we left to Scottsdale on our anniversary- it was soooo fun)
We also swam a ton and played a lot with cousins and family. School crept up on us before we could finish our list so we will know just what to do at the start of next summer!
Now its school days!!!
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