Style

As previously mentioned, the kids had a GREAT time jumping off the swim deck of the boat. They could do that for hours. It's really pretty amazing how much energy they have and how they can keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

One of the funniest things to us is that Liam would say to us, "Watch this! Watch my style!" We have no idea where he got that terminology, but it was pretty funny. Soon, different jumps got different names, hence the reason for the post. There were a number of different styles, but here are a few of the ones I got with my camera.

Silly pre-jump style:
Running Boy Style:
(with Dad's help) Eagle Style:
Cannon Ball Style:
(one of his favorites, again with Dad's help) Karate Style:
Trying to dive:
Another one of his favorites, and my least favorite because I could just picture a disaster, therefore he only got to do it a couple of times, Twisty Style:
Birdie Style:
The kids also liked to count to three and jump together:

They make pretty cute splashes don't they?
And we had to get a group jump shot:
Can you tell who each splash belongs to?
And, yes, Erica and I being the Mamarazzi that we are, actually took our nice cameras out into the paddle boat so we could get photos from the front of them jumping. ;) We really did look like mamarazzi out in a paddle boat with our cameras strapped to us. I think I have about a zillion more photos of them jumping and different styles, but these were my favorite.

Boat Fun

We had a lot of fun on "Mellow" (the ski boat) during our trip. It was so generous of Erica's parents to let us not only use their houseboat, but also their ski boat. Wes was especially excited because he's never attempted any water sports. I didn't get any photos of Erica whipping he and Jake around on the tube, but here are some of the other things we did:

This is Wes knee-boarding. I think we should have attempted knee boarding before water-skiing so his arms wouldn't have been so sore and he wouldn't have been worn out. :) But, after a couple of tries he did get up on the knee board alongside Erica.
I almost think the hardest part for Wes about water-skiing was getting the skis on. I know it's not funny to him, but it was pretty funny to watch him try to get the skis on. ;) They were a little narrow for his feet, so I think that made the process a little harder.
Ready to try:
And, unfortunately, this trip, this is how his attempts ended. However, he's ready to conquer skiing next summer. :)
Erica was very sweet and took Liam belly boarding a couple of times. He loved it! He had the biggest smile the whole time. Thanks, Erica!

This is what Liam thought of the ski boat and belly boarding:
The Finlay kiddos are quite the knee boarders and the Finlays are quite the skiers! Hopefully we'll be as cool and as good as them at water sports one day. ;)

Lake Oroville

This will be the first post of a couple about our long weekend trip with our lovely friends, The Finlays, to Lake Oroville where we stayed on their parents' houseboat and had a BLAST hanging at the lake and playing. :)

We headed over the hill Friday night and got to the boat just before dark. The kids insisted that Liam be able to jump in with them off the boat. This became the reason for Liam's existence for the next three days. All the kid could think about was to jump off the boat, get back on, jump off, repeat 600x. There will be an entire post dedicated to Liam's jumping 'style.'

This first post is just a bunch of random pictures of our fun.

Alli and Ethan taught Liam how to play Uno. He thought it was the best thing ever!
One afternoon, the guys were very sweet and served us lunch while we lounged in the water.
My guys on the ski boat:
I think this is from the first night we got there. I love this picture. He was just so thrilled to be able to be jumping and swimming with the big kids. (He was shivering like no other, but when asked if he was cold, "NNNNNOOO!") :)

Cute swimmers. :)
Love this picture of Liam in the ski boat. He looks like a lake bum doesn't he?
Helping Alli man the flag:
Miss Adelyn got in on the fun. This was me at about 26 or 27 weeks.
Bliss:

Again, more posts to come with our adventures of Wes attempting to water ski and knee board, Liam belly boarding and the crew jumping off the boat.

Fawcett Farms

Liam and I headed out to my parents' house on a spontaneous trip one evening and he was lucky enough to check out their growing garden. Last year they had zucchini coming out their ears and this year is not much different, although they've only planted 3 zucchini plants this year. Their garden looks fantastic this year and I'm impressed with how well everything is growing as it was all started from seeds. Liam had a blast looking for the veggies and he really thought he need to go out at least three times a day to see if the watermelon were ready to pick yet.

This is just a small section of the garden, but I think it looks pretty impressive! I'm excited to see the pumpkins and watermelons this year!




Finding and cutting squash with Papa:


Got one! Apparently I needed to be quicker with the camera with how fast this kid moves these days!

The funny thing about this photo is that they had just picked the previous morning and she already had her arms full again!

Liam thought baby Chester needed some zucchini. Here she is at 25 weeks:
Fawcett Farmers:

My Four Year Old

On Liam's actual Birthday I decided to let him make all the decisions on the type of day he wanted. He first chose his outfit, which happens to be a size 10 train shirt that my parents brought him from Durango with his conductor hat, of course!

He then wanted to play with the 3-D sidewalk chalk and paint that Belle gave him for his birthday. We had a lot of fun until we had to go inside because his mom was about to melt!

However, the highlight of his day was Chuck E. Cheese. We've never been there so he had no idea what to expect, but with a bunch of birthday coupons, we were able to get quite a few tokens for game playing. He had a BLAST! We had our friends, the Finlays along, and we had a lovely time. I think the dads had fun, too:

Is he his father's child or what?

He would not stop for one second. He enjoyed the pizza, but really enjoyed the games the most, I think.

At four years old Liam is quite the ball of energy! Now that we have his allergies under control, he's really showing his inquisitive personality. I hear the question "Why?" at least 100x a day. He loves to learn about anything and everything around him. He also loves to read. He's at the point now where he can pick up pretty much anything and read it himself, only needing help for a few words that he isn't able to sound out on his own. He loves to jump, run, ride his bike and play! He especially loves to swim. He loves primary and his primary teacher Sister Romney. He's a very, very special little boy with such a sweet, kind spirit. He loves to please others and make people smile. His primary chorister wrote this about him on my facebook wall (I wanted to remember it, so I'm posting it here):

"I'm sure you know, but I'm gonna tell you how cute Liam is anyway. He's the most confident, reverent, well mannered little boy in our WHOLE primary. He speaks well, he understands and listens well. You have a special little spirit and you have done well guiding him here on earth. Thank you for sharing him."

Happy Birthday to my big boy!

Cook Reunion 2010

We headed to Manteca for the Cook Family Reunion in the middle of July. We had a great time despite the temperature being about 105*. Yipes! You can sort of see how roasting everyone is by this photo of Wes's Uncle Chris cooking. I don't know how he wasn't dying of heat at the BBQ in the middle of such a hot summer day!
Some of the girls hanging out:

Our solution to the heat? The pool, of course! I think we spent more time in the pool than socializing because of the heat. But, hey, we socialized with people in the pool. :) We could hardly tear Liam away...

One of Liam's favorite things was to climb onto these and have Wes flip him off. :)

My cute little swimmer boy:

Belle and Becky:

Liam then discovered the diving board. That then became all he could think about! He had no fear, that's for sure!

Wes decided that since Liam liked being flipped off the floating coach so much, that so would I. He was wrong.

We had a great time and hopefully will be able to make it to the next one in Washington next summer!

Fun with Family

We had a great time while Grandma and Grandpa and Belle were here! The kids spent a lot of time swimming, playing trains, reading books and having fun. They also tried out Liam's gift from Grandma and Grandpa: a play-doh ice cream maker! What fun!

Mom and Grandma got to have some fun, too! We tried out my 'new to me' sewing machine and made some boppy slip covers. We made 2 of them. The first one that we made was flannel. The first two photos are of the front and back of the flannel. And the second two photos are of the front and back of the cotton one. Soo cute! Thanks, grandma!

We also were able to have some fun at playful potter! Liam made a plate and Belle made a doggy. Their creations turned out great!

Grandma also made them each a pair of monkey PJs. THey called each other Monkey all week, so they were very fitting. :) Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa for a fun week!