Beach Day

I honestly deleted soooo many pictures of this beautiful water. Sterling had two weeks off. One of which he spent driving us to Utah, the first of which he spent trying to do all the things he hasn't done in years, like a doctors appointment, oil changes, etc. He also had to spend one day at the hospital for pre-residency stuff and one day in Miami. He did make it to some swimming lessons to cheer on the kids, he took Russ to his 2 yr old check up one morning while I did swimming lessons, we did the carousel and park, and we fit in one beach day! And it was GORGEOUS! 

Russ, during Sterling's two weeks off when he was home for most dinners and breakfasts and a few extra activities, became even MORE of a daddy's boy, and it is the cutest thing in the world. It's a little tricky, considering I'm usually home and Sterling is not, but also, it is just the SWEETEST. So the beach was nice because I strapped on the babe and she slept the entire time and Russ stayed with Sterling and the older kids just played and played and played and played and played---as you will see in the pictures. The waves were really low-key, so there was a lot of jumping and diving and sea shell finding. I love the beach.

Carousels and Swimming Lessons

Grace was a champ and got a nice tan (don't worry she had on tons of sun screen!) during the two weeks she was held all morning at swimming.

Swimming lessons was awesome this year-Will had a fantastic teacher and he was learning to breath while doing strokes and dive into the pool and all sorts of technical things. Ruthie was perfecting her stamina with a whole lotta dolphin kick and only leg/arms down the lane. Molly was working hard at trying to increase how long she can tread water and how far she could swim unassisted. They really did work so so hard and it was a great two weeks. It was also insanely humid and unbearably hot and stifling and I am really, really glad those two weeks are over.

Riding the carousel was on our kids' summer bucket list. We tried a while ago but right as they sat down on the horses, they told us to get off because of a thunder storm. So we came back!

We went to a magic show at the library and Will was picked to put on the anti-gravity helmet so he said "Blast-off" and defying gravity tricks would happen!

I took a lot of video the last day and I have yet to figure out putting video on blogger. But Ruthie got to race on this paddle board and it was awesome. They also all got to jump off the high dive and have some fun on the last day!

Russ turns TWO

This boy. Oh my heart. I love him so much. EVERYONE loves him so much. His brothers and sisters. His nursery leaders. All the parents at school drop-off and pick-up. The people he waves to from the shopping cart. The librarian who finds him toys and blocks. The bishop's wife who has babysat for us frequently recently. All of our kids' friends. He is HAPPY and he is happy to see EVERYONE. 

He is a constant joy and a constant laugh and constantly into everything. He's broken more kitchen items than my other kids combined. He's put utensils and chopped potato pieces into the toaster. He's the first to require oven and dishwasher locks. He ALSO still takes a nap AND stays in his crib (cross your fingers that continues to last!). He LOVES bubbles, balls, scooters, and bikes. He loves to help me cook and be in the kitchen (it is ridiculous how many times he has pulled out the rice cooker and slow cooker and hauled them to our front hallway and plugged them in). He is learning actions to a few precious songs. He says a few words (mam-oh, referring to me, is my personal favorite. Also me, more, uh-oh, no, baby, ball, and a few others) but his favorite words by FAR is daddy. He is ALL daddy's boy and daddy definitely needs to be around more to fill that need!! Mostly he just gets the kids to eventually determine what he wants by a lot of grunting and pointing. He loves to rough house and he laughs. OH this kid laughs! And it brings down the house every time-at the dinner table, and in the van. Just on Friday I rolled down the van window to get a bug out and he was laughing so hard at the wind in his face that everyone else was instantly laughing. He brings so much joy into our family. We love him so very much. 

Doing the actions to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

He had a baseball cake with an added sparkler and he LOVED it!

He was absolutely ecstatic about his scooter--it was the sweetest thing!

He also got a bubble gun which was another hit.

He came down to Trix for his birthday breakfast!