ISR . . . WEEK TWO

Week 2 of swimming lessons was just as rough as week 1 if not worse for Rilyn. She went from swimming to learning the back float which she is not much at all a fan of!! She went from screaming "noooooo noooooo" to " I want out" hahaaaaa!! It was funny because her teacher thought she was screaming "oouuhh" so she said to me "I promise I'm not hurting her" ... hahaaaa ... I told her oh no she is yelling I want out!!! Aside from all the screaming, Rilyn is doing an awesome job and picking it all up rather quickly!! By the end of week 2 she can swim to the bar and get herself into the back float without any help!!

Here she is in the beginning of the week learning the concept of the back float!!

Swimming to the bar!!

The back float with no assistance!!! Cant you just see how much she loves it!!

On this particular day I had to bribe her with the fact that daddy was going to come watch, otherwise it would have been a knock out drag out wrestling match to even get her swim suit on and get her in the truck!! Every time I told her it was time to go get ready for swim she would simply say "no" and book it the oppositte direction until finally I told her daddy was coming to watch and couldn't wait to see how good she could swim ... after that I still got some serious hesitation but was finally able to get her dressed and in the truck!!!

YUMA and the RIVER . . .

Last weekend we made a trip down to Yuma to stay with the Haines Family and spend a day at the river, my most favorite vacation place EVER, in fact Clay & I hope to one day have some kind of place on the river. Luckily we were able to get out of town at a pretty decent time on Friday so when we arrived in Yuma we had time to stop by the Brandenberger's house and see my Aunt Donna & Uncle Steve and to our surprise, Jake even got home before we left so we got to visit with him as well! They fed us sonoran tacos and beer and we had a really really great visit!! Aunt Donna busted out Jared, Jake & Jason's huge box of lego's from when they were kids and Trey & Rhett were in hog heaven!! Rilyn had so much fun throwing the ball for the dog ... huge surprise because she normally doesn't particularly like dog's!!

Donna, Me & Jamie!! This was an extra special trip for me because the 3 of us have been friends since kindergarten and have always kept in really good touch but this was the very 1st time we have all 3 gotten together with all of our kids!! Pretty cool stuff!!

Rhett & Taylor were total buds the entire weekend ... I'm thinkin Taylor might have a little bit of an eye for Rhett!! Haahaaa!!

Clayton helping Trey reel in his carp!! The boys each caught two fish, all of them pretty good size!! I have a feeling that mom is in for a lot of fishing in the future as the boys have caught the fishing bug as bad as daddy!! The good news is that they are at a point where they can cast & reel all by themselves!! In fact they both reeled in a bass all on their own last weekend!!

Trey's carp!!

Rhett's catfish!!

The whole clan: (mine) Rilyn, Rhett, Trey (Donna's) Teagan, Koen (Jamie's) Jack, Taylor

Jesse (our captain) took us into this little cove thru the tully's and everyone got out and hiked up to this old Miner's house, where someone used to live and mine!! Rilyn was sleepin on the boat so I didn't go but the boys loved it and I sent daddy with the camera!! From the pic's it looked pretty interesting! When they got back Trey told me "momma they even cooked with a stick and I bet there's no way they could have had pizza"!!!

Once we were back at the dock's Jamie gave all the kids some left over bread & chips and they got to feed the ducks ... Rilyn absolutely loved it ... she was so excited I thought she was going to go right over the edge of the boat!!

Rhett, Taylor & Koen after bath time ... 2 monsters and a lion!!!

There are tons and tons more pictures I could share of our weekend, we had such a great time!! Thank you Haines Family for letting us crash your pad and for taking us to the river ... we will be back sooner than later!!!

A JUNE BUG BIRTHDAY . . .

Last Saturday for Cody's birthday we went fishing on the back side of Lake Pleasant and then headed over to Lay & Cody's house to bbq and jam out to some live music!! All the kids and Daddy were very excited to go fishing and this was Rilyn's very 1st time fishing so on the way out there we stopped by WalMart where she picked out her very own Dora fishing pole and Trey, Rhett & Charlotte each got to pick out a new lure for their poles!! Then it was time for the infamous hike out to the water, my least favorite part!!

Clay & I, Cody & Lay, Brad & Noel ...

Rilyn & Aunt Lacey chillin in the water!!

Trey fishin!!

Rhett Fishin!!

Rilyn did so awesome for her first time and picked up the whole concept very quickly, in fact after a few cast's with Aunt Lacey's help, she began refusing any help and kept pushing Aunt Lacey's hands off the pole so she could do it all herself!!!

Fishing with daddy!!

Fishin with Aunt Lacey!!

Sooooo on to this picture ... hahahaaaaa ... did I mention the hike earlier ... ok well it sucks ... and then when you blow out a flip flop ... it REALLY SUCKS!!! So on our way back as I was crossing the water I completely blew out a flip flop that was in no way fixable (not even for my husband who can almost always come up with some way to fix everything) this left me with a long walk thru rocky terrain with one shoe ... after about 100 feet or so I knew I had to come up with something because my tender foot wasn't gonna make it all the way back on one shoe!! Then it occured to me that Rilyn's flip flops were in the 50 pound bag (hahaa) that Clay was carrying ... so I got her flip flop out, forced it onto my foot and hobbled my way back!! Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that a. Rilyn's flip flop would even go on my foot and b. that it would save the day!!!

After our adventurous fishing trip we got to enjoy some live music, dancing, good food & tons of fun at Aunt Lacey's house!! Happy Birthday Cody, ya ol' June Bug!!!

PICTURE PERFECT!!

Last Christmas, my cousin Ashley (or as Trey & Rhett say Ash-a-ley) made each of the boy's these really cool personalized sketch book's that they absolutely love! They decided all by themselves that they were going to use these only for when they want to make or draw "special" pictures.



So the other day Rhett decided he was going to get out his "special" book and draw a picture of our camping trip to the river bottom a few weeks ago!! He took his time and was very serious about making it perfect! You can see that he included the ranger, tent, campfire and my favorite part the creek running along the bottom which he was set on doing green opposed to blue since he says the water out there is not blue!!! I was so impressed that I had to share it!!!

Thank you A for these awesome sketch books, you are the best, and I look forward to seeing the many pictures they create in them ... it will be a perfect way to keep some of their work in one place to treasure for years and years!!!

ISR . . . Day 1

Yesterday, Rilyn had her very 1st swim lesson in the ISR program and although at the end of the lesson she said "yes" she wanted to come back tomorrow I'm certainly not holding my breath!! The whole time she was in the pool she just kept yelling "nooooooo" "noooooooo" ... hahahaaaaaa ... and she kept pointing to her brothers, like please save me bro's!! Mrs. Brooke said that she did AWESOME though and that she is going to pick it up very quickly! Clay & I are very excited to have her water safe!! We'll see how it goes getting her back in the pool on day 2 (I'm almost positive its going to be a kicking, screaming battle)!!!



Mrs. Brooke's backyard is like heaven for kids with everything from a swing set to a teeter totter to a putting green and so on ... so the boys were pretty stoked they got to play while Rilyn had her lesson!!

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

We started the weekend off with a visit to Grammy's house for a bbq and an evening dip in the pool ..... brrrrrr ..... I am shocked at how long the kids actually lasted in the pool considering how cold it was, but the boys were troopers and tuffed it out for quite a while!! The kids had a blast beating up Uncle Darin as always and little missy even joined in ... teasing Uncle Darin saying "nah nah nah nah nah" while swinging her arms around and then running away laughing! It was the cutest thing ever and of course as soon as I pulled the video camera out to get it on camera she refused to do it!!!



Saturday we got to spend a whole day at home and mommy & daddy were able to get a few much needed projects done around the house as well as spend some time with the kiddos at home. The boys wanted to ride so daddy fired up all the quads and they hit the track!!

Sunday morning we loaded up and headed out to the Hasayumpa river bottom to meet the Skaggs for an overnight campout ... which has come to be one of my favorite places to hang out and ride!! It was definitely another Skaintz adventure to put on the books with lots of memories, laughs and fun!!

TREY'S 6 YEAR OLD SHOOT

I have always made sure I get posed pictures of the kids atleast once a year which I usually try to do right around the time of their birthdays!! I used to take them to Kiddie Kandids but here in the last few years I've just taken them myself!! Here are Trey's for this year

. . . now the trick is figuring out which one is my favorite to put in his frame (I'm open for any votes or opinions, so please share your thoughts!)!! What a handsome little dude he is growing up to be!!!