Overcoming Fear

My two little girls are so different! Mia was out of beginning swim lessons in a week. With one class a week that means she needed only one lesson. She's a fish and has little fear.

What do you need to graduate from beginning lessons? You need to not cry when the teacher puts your head under water. That's it. Seems like a little thing for most of us. But for the fearful sweet little child that is quite a thing to overcome!

So after five months of swimming lessons, Anna has graduated. She is no longer afraid to get dunked!

Now for those of you who think we started her too early, she begged to take lessons with Mia. And she went willingly every time. She just doesn't like to get her hair and face wet! And I'm not sure that would have been any different had we taken her at five or six years old. She still cries every time we wash her hair!

Congrats Anna! You're on you way!

Wedding #2 Part 2

After the wedding we took a family picture before heading to the reception. It was definitely not our best! Let's hope we can get a better one at wedding #3 in August.

The cocktail hour was outside on the deck. What a beautiful night! This could never have happened in Denver in January!

The wedding party came in and right away husband and wife had their first dance.

And for the first time that day they got to sit down and relax!

There were some great toasts.

But everyone's favorite was the "cellphone toast"!



Let's just say a little libation can make the shyest, quietest person quite the star.

The father daughter and mother son dances were wonderful

The cake was the best wedding cake I have ever tasted!

Becky's high school friends were all together again.

The littles got to stay up late. They had so much fun!

The dance floor was full all night. It was a great wedding!

Her Favorite Game

"Mom, will you play a game with me?"

"Sure, go get one."

And off she goes.

"What did you get, Candyland?"

"No."

"Chutes and Ladders?"

"No."

"Don't Spill the Beans?"

"No."

"Then what did you get?"

"That one I always get."

She doesn't know the name of it even though I tell her every time. She always picks it to play these days. She knows how every piece moves, though she tries to get away with other moves! Bobby Fisher move over!

Wedding #Two Part 1

For some reason I missed the text with the link to the wedding pictures and I didn't know we had them already!

So here they are. Starting with the ceremony.

Mother and father of the groom. We just love them.

Joey and myself. My dress fit when I bought it. I guess I should have tried it one before the wedding! LOL. Not.

Here come not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but 5 flower girls!

Little Avery wouldn't walk down with the others so her Mama carried her.

The Matron of Honor looked great.

Here comes the bride! and the baby... Not planned that way but he needed his Mama!

As the groom waits.

The attendants filled two rows entirely!

I do.

The final blessing.

Husband and wife!!

Later...the reception!

End of Trip

Ohhh...boo hoo...vacation is over! We are home, safe and sound. On Thursday we had plannned to take the aerial tramway up the mountain and eat dinner, but the kids were just too darned tired we stayed at the condo. I rented my own car on Friday to visit my mother. She is tired but doing great and since her tumors have shrunk she is ready for sugary on the 26th! Dan took the girls with him to visit his mom and then we met up in San Diego and flew home today.

We'll be back in Palm Springs for Thanksgiving later this year!

Lego Movie

Yesterday we decided to have an easy day. We watched T.V. and played on the iPad in the morning. After that, we spent about an hour at the park.

It was beautiful and warm outside.

We went to see The Lego movie next. Here are our reviews:

Dan: Get me out of here, this is ludicrous. He slept through about half of it.

Me: The first half was boring. The second half was pretty funny and entertaining.

Anna: Is it over yet?

Mia: That was great!

I guess we are not in sync with the majority of people, some who say it's the best movie ever made. I can see it becoming a cult movie because there are so many unique one-liners, and plenty of dress-up opportunities.

After the movie we went to P.F. Chang's for lunch and then, you guessed, swimming!

Dinner was frozen pizza. If you have never had Amy's frozen pizza I would recommend it. It's actually very good.

Living Desert

Today we went to the Living Desert. It was so much fun!

We stayed for four and a half hours! They were exhausted but had such a great time and learned so much.

We enjoyed the large train town.

Ding-dong. The train is coming!

Mia was very excited about going on a camel ride. Anna was too. But we didn't believe her. We even asked if we could have a refund if she didn't want to get on it. We were wrong! She hopped right on the big guy!

After that Anna fed the giraffe. But...there was a bit of a problem when Mia started shaking the acacia leaves that the giraffe was supposed to eat from her hands.

He either got mad or just was tired of eating from little kid's hands. So he turned around and walked away to sulk. Seriously.

The line of about 100 people waiting to feed the giraffe (they only do it once a day) waited on pins and needles. Luckily, the volunteer was able to lure him back.

And he eventually took the leaves from Mia. Of course she held them very still this time.

Next we went to an animal show and petting zoo.

After a picnic lunch we headed to the animal hospital. We saw the exam rooms through the windows and got to watch some of them on a video. They were actually riveted to the videos and loved seeing that animal doctor visits are just like people visits except that they usually have to put the animals to sleep first.

After going on the carousel and seeing lots more animals, we headed home for another swim.

And then our nice Dani, who lives nearby, joined us for dinner.

Needless to say, the girls were asleep in five minutes at bedtime!