First Day of Dance Class

Wait, hold on a minute, we had another fun first today.  As if starting preschool wasn't enough for one day, this afternoon Lily started dance class.  It is the Creative 3's class at the Canyon Dance Academy and she has been so excited for this day to come, she has been talking about it for months!

 See this face, just eager to get out of the door and go to dance class.  I had to hide her dancing costume, as she calls it, after we bought it because she would beg and beg to wear it and if she found it she would slip it on, so it has been hidden for the last few weeks.  I pulled it out this afternoon and she was so excited!

 One of her little friends from playgroup is on her class with her and they were just ecstatic when they saw each other at the studio.  The other girls were shy and with their moms and our two girls were running around, jumping, and dancing in the hallway.

I'm pretty sure that Lily is going to just love this as well.  She struggled a bit with paying attention and following directions, mostly because she was so excited by the room and the whole experience, but I'm sure that she will settle into it soon.  

Lily's First Day of Preschool

Last week I received a phone call and the opportunity landed in our lap to enroll Lily in Preschool.  I hadn't planned on it, mostly because of the cost, but everything has worked itself out we enrolled Lily in Spelling Bees Preschool.

Today was Lily's first day and she was so excited.  When we drove up she ran right up to the door and then right into her classroom.  She didn't even look back.  This girl has grown up so much and I love seeing her develop and learn new things.  When we were driving home she asked if she could go back to preschool again so I think that she enjoyed it.

Meet Franky

This week we added to our family.  We've been talking about getting Oscar a little friend for a while, but we just hadn't found the right dog.  We didn't want another large dog because our house just isn't that big, but we didn't want an ankle biter either.  I went to the animal shelter with my mom on Thursday, just to look around and that is where I found Franky.  While all of the other dogs were standing at the front of their kennels barking, Frankly here was just laying on his blanket looking at whoever walked by.  I took him out, introduced hi to the girls, and called Tyson.  We decided to go for it and Friday night we brought Franky home with us.

 He's kinda little, even for a Dachsund.  We almost lost him in the tall grass.

 He and Oscar are getting along very well.  They aren't playing much yet, but they don't mind each other either.  It is funny to watch Franky walk right underneath Oscar.  I think that they will end up being good little friends.

 The girls love him!  He's very calm and docile and tolerates them really well.

Cousins are fun!

Summertime fun with most of the cousins.

Charlotte liked to take care of Grace.  Here she's pushing the dinosaur to give Grace a ride.

Then it was off to the splash pad to play together some more.

Caleb and Lily also played together in the water.

Grace is getting big!

Carolyn and Lily liked the little ring.

And dancing, always dancing.

Junior got in on the fun as well.

We made them all matching BSU shirts for the first game, but getting a picture of them all together didn't go well.

Teamwork!

I've got a couple of pretty bright girls.  Lily has struggled with the tricycle, she knows to to pedal, but with our bumpy driveway it can be a little hard for her.  The figured out a way where, if they work together, they both get a ride.  Lily does her best to pedal from the seat and Charlotte sits on the little stand on the back and pushes.

It actually works pretty well.

Lucky Peak

For Christmas my parents gave us some credits from their account at a place where they rent out recreational toys.  We decided to use our points to rent a jet ski a couple of times this summer and a couple of weeks ago we went up to Lucky Peak with our friends, the Jenkins, and spent the day on the lake.  We were worried at first because it was so smoky during our drive up, but it cleared up soon enough and we ended up having a great day!

There is a small beach area where the kids played, and boy did they play!  A couple of shovels and buckets and they are happy for hours.

 Tyson likes to fish, just a little bit, so here he is pouring over his guide to double check the rules for this body of water.  He's kinda paranoid, but I love him.  He doesn't love this picture, but it made me laugh so I had to share.

 I really love this though, it is so precious to see these two spending time together.  Tyson carried her out with him and placed her on the rock next to his.

 This went on for quite a while.  Some large wakes came in that broke over the top of their rocks so Tyson had to pick her up until they passed, then they went right on fishing.

 Charlotte is a little hesitant about lake water.  She happily sits in 1-3 inches of water and plays in the sand, but she doesn't like to go in much deeper.  I finally coaxed her in and after a few minutes she really started to enjoy it.

Gotta have some healthy snacks to get you through the day!

 We all had a great time riding the jetski.  Charlotte was all for it and was insistent on holding the handles and while we didn't go too fast (because she's still a baby) she loved it and even fell asleep on one ride.  It was a little difficult to dock the jetski with one hand while holding the sleeping baby up with the other.

Lily took a while to warm up to it.  When we had a jetski back in June she was not interested and refused to go near it.  She loved watching people ride it, but didn't want to get near it.  This time, she was still afraid, but we kinda made her take a ride.  Tyson placed her on with me and within 20 seconds she was happy and soon was asking to go "super fast" and she liked the bumps.  She was just plain fearless and it was hard to get her off.  In fact, she rode with me back to the launch and stayed on until we got it loaded up on the trailer.

Fishing with Daddy

While we were in Island Park Tyson wanted to do some fishing, and since Lily always talks about fishing with daddy (she did once before, several months ago) we bought a little pole for her.

 She is very proud of her princess fishing pole.

 She is quite the determined little fisher.

 I love this pair!

 When she wasn't tossing rocks into the river to scare all of the fish away, 

 this was how Charlotte spent her time.