July 4th 2014

This year for the 4th we went to Rexburg to celebrate with the usual crew.  The crew typical consists of: my parents , the Archibald family, The Sean Pearce family, the Drew Pearce family, the David Pearce family, Grandma and Grandpa Pearce, Heather, and the Gonzales family.  It is a lot of people (33 to be exact) staying at my parents house for one weekend, but it is always a lot of fun.  The 4th of July extravaganza typically consists of way too much food, little kids running around everywhere, games, a parade, and of course an illegal and impressive fireworks display.  This year it was windy, which made the fireworks extra exciting, because you never knew for sure if one of the bottle rockets might get blown over and head straight for you.  Luckily we didn't have any life threatening moments like that this year, just a small fire in the neighboring field, which we extinguished promptly. This year we added a float down the Snake River.  It was a very wet float due to the water fights that went on as we were floating.  The little girls all ended up in one boat together. They had fun for the most part, although they took the brunt of the water during the water fights and got a little cold. It was a great weekend, spent with some of my favorite people.

Carson turns 9

Carson turned 9 in June.  He loves all things football and Harry Potter.  Since he had a football cake last year, and he had just finished reading the Harry Potter series before his birthday, he decided a Harry Potter themed cake would be best. Isn't that Harry cake so cute!  He tasted good too!  Carson had a good birthday.  It was very low key, just a small party with family.  Luckily Carson is easy to please and was just fine with that.  He got a lot of football related stuff this birthday.  He got a football book, 2 football t-shirts, football cards, a new binder for his football cards, and Tom Brady decals for his room.  So other than the cake it was another football birthday.  Carson is such a great kid!  As he gets older he likes to act a lot tougher, but underneath he still remains the same sweet boy that he has always been.  We love you Carson!  Happy Birthday!

swimming lessons 2014

Swimming lessons were our first activity of the summer.  The kids spent most of the month of June in swimming lessons.  The older kids did great as usual.  Carson's mastery of the different strokes improved greatly during this years lessons.  Lily was hesitant to start swimming lessons, as usual. At one point they switched her to a class with a male teacher and she completely refused to swim with him.  I keep thinking that she is over her fear of men she doesn't know until something like this happens.  Luckily the swim teachers were very accommodating and switched her back to a class with a much less scary female teacher.  After she got in her groove with swimming lessons the fish in Lily came out, and she swam like crazy. Lincoln did great, although he was a little hesitant in the water at the beginning of the summer, but by the end of lessons he was diving and making great improvement in his strokes. Grant was the my mild mannered little buddy during every lesson.  As long as he had plenty of food, and his pacifier he was happy most of the time to sit and chill.