::scenes from laaaaaava pt 2::

I'm just completely ignoring the fact that this was all a month ago. At least I'm posting!
Anyway. We stayed at this funny little bed and breakfast kind of place in Lava Hot Springs when we were there. They had about 5 or 6 hot springs pools around the building. The kids were in heaven. The day we left I guess they were refilling the main pool in front, and so the water level was a little lower than normal. This meant that the big boys didn't need their floaties and they could go crazy.
Speaking of the boys, they all woke up SO excited.  They just wanted to get into the pools right away.  They really had a blast.

Here's the funny mountain hill thing that looked like popped up right behind the pool.

and the pool:

Like usual, the pool looked really gross because of all the minerals in the springs, but luckily, _unlike_ other pools like this we've been in, it was nice and clean. And it was truly heaven for the boys. They could've just swam for an entire week straight--well swam and just come out once in a while for red vines and chips of course.
Grandpa Ken always coaches little boys in weird kinds of jumps.

I just asked Max what kind of jump this was and he said "the belly-flop." I guess I wasn't there when we was taught that one.
Parker was a great jumper too.

Max says the next one is called the "daddy jump."

There were some really beautiful flowers around the hotel and pools, we enjoyed those for sure.



After the swam we packed up our stuff and headed back in the mini vans for home. Now that's a whole nother story...

oh, but not before a little big boy fun:

::speaking of::

Speaking of swimming--when we were out in UT Max and I got to go with my mom to visit Bryce and Nancy and Derek in their new place. (well it's new to me anyway.) It was really fun. I love visiting Bryce and Nan, they're just a ton of fun, and Nancy's decorating is so great--especially her rainbow towels.
Anyway, the highlight of the visit (for Max of course) was that he got to go swimming in their condo complex pool. With Bryce and Derek.

Big D and Max haven't quite realized that they're going to be good friends in a few years. But no worries, I'm sure it's going to happen.

The only problem was, we came just before Derek's nap I think, and he was getting pretty sad at the pool.


Ah, such is the life of a 2 (he's two, right guys? maybe three) year old.

It was here that I really realized how much the water wings are a necessity. I brought them but accidentally left them up in the condo. So we thought he could probably just play in the pool without them. First thing though Max just jumped straight in. And this is the kind of pool that's got steps, but the shallow end really isn't that shallow. So we found out that all the YMCA swimming lessons he did for a year taught him was to tread water--desperately. Luckily Bryce fished him out. After he repeated the episode again I went and got his wings. And all was happy splashes from there on.


I like how Bryce is looking down here, wondering if Max is ever coming up I guess?
The really scary thing is that after Max was fished out from his useless dog paddling water treading he wasn't even phased. Not scared at all. He thought he was fine. Yikes.
So that's why I keep water wings and a close eye on the man in the pool. I like him too much.

Thanks for letting us come over guys, can we come again?? The dudes need to hang out more. Right big D?

::bravery::

About a week or so ago Max and I got to go swim with some friends from church. Thanks to the Doutres for making it happen, by the way!

We got there and the pool was huge with two big old diving boards and two huge slides.
The first thing Max did was hurry over and jump off a big diving board straight into the cold water. Brrrr. In some things he's seriously fearless. Water seems to be one of them. He's so confident it's scary. He really thinks he can swim, though without the water wings he really can't. All he can do is barely tread water. So I have to keep a tight eye on him and make sure he doesn't overstretch himself. At least he likes his water wings. That's a good thing.

Anyway, he did lots of jumping off the boards, but there was this monster slide down at the deep end that Max had his eye on. It was really really tall and steep. Tall and steep enough that I definitely didn't want to go on it.
But Max did. So he went for it.

He climbed up to the top then froze. For like 5 minutes with this scared look on his face. I started to get worried about him, but he snapped out of it, got up to the top and went for it. He looked really scared all the way down. Then when he came back up out of the water he was like, "That was AWESOME!!".

He went down a million more times--making me nervous every time.
He loved it.


Sometimes it's really fun to have a fearless kid--in situations like this where there are fun challenging things to do. Not so fun when he likes to run away from us in any situation though, and he's not scared he'll ever get lost or get in trouble. Argh.
But he's such an adventurous swimmer and we're super proud of him. Go Max!

::day off::

What does the best dad ever do right after he wakes up on his day off?
He makes pancakes for his little goofball boy, that's what.

Max's eyes lit up when he realized pancakes were cooking in the kitchen.  He was way excited.

I didn't mind the pancakes either.
The rest of our day off included driving an hour to Costco only to find it was closed, as well as hanging out together, eating and having fun. Nothing too productive. Just nice mostly.

::::

Go BYU!  Beat Oklahoma!  Or else, just don't get slaughtered, ok?

We have friends coming over to enjoy the game.  We're glad to have cable this year (unlike last year) so we can actually enjoy games that are broadcast nationally--although of course the nationally broadcast ones are the dangerous ones.  I mean, Oklahoma?  Yikes.

Go cougs.

This really isn't a great photo of anybody but Max, but that's not the point, right?

other attempts:

really cute:

just kind of weird:

::first day::

The first day of kindergarten is a pretty big deal--especially for those of us parents that never attended kindergarten ourselves (that would be me). I don't really know what to expect.
But Max doesn't care if I know what to expect. He was plenty excited about school.

It's close enough that we can walk there--it's a long walk, but totally doable.
His teachers seem nice, though at the end of the first day I'm still at a loss as to their names.
Kris got to come home for lunch today--probably the 3rd time since we moved to RI. It was great timing because he was able to come with us to drop Max off at school. Mr Max looked very cute lining up with the other kids and heading in.

Afterwards Max said he had a good time and was looking forward to going back. Phew. One day down, a bunch more to go! Yay for brave Max. We're very proud of him, he's so big and strong and smart. How did he get so big? It might sound trite, but it seems like not that long ago he was learning to crawl.....

::family portrait::

This was drawn sometime in July. It's a portrait of Bad Max's family.
Man, don't they look so bad? And sad? And doesn't the little brother look bad too? Yikes.

::lunch::

It was so cute the way he had peanut butter and jelly smeared across his face in a big line. The sad news is that as soon as I brought out the camera he started wiping his face (on his shirt of course). I guess it means he's growing up--that sense of self and self consciousness just isn't there when they're littler. Kind of sad. Kind of fun though too I guess.

This last one was posed by the man himself.

::::

Some things I like tonight:

the beach (I didn't get any photos today, we were having too much fun)
sweet husbands who mow the lawn
bubble mowers


dogs that aren't as stinky as usual
fuzzy little friends that request group photos

evenings that actually get a little cooler, yay!