Cousin swim at Grammy and Papa John's

We're back from our trip to Kentucky and it was a great time, as usual. We celebrated birthdays (Luke's, mine, and Kelly's), did some fireworks, watched late night movies, ate lots of good food and swam a LOT. The best part is lots of time with family, playing and chatting and catching up since we don't get to see them often. The kids are in heaven while we are there, and all the swimming wears them OUT. I always love how every year, that much time in the water means that every child reaches a new level of swimming independence:

-Katy swims all over the pool, shallow and deep end, without assistance or an adult needed in the water (we're still watching from the side, of course). She was doing this last year too, but it is just awesome when they get to this point. 

-David was the most significant: this is the first year that he never needed any kind of floatie...he swam around the shallow end of course, but also jumping/sliding into the deep end and swimming to the edge like a pro. He also picked things up off the bottom of the pool in water over his head. He'll be able to do the diving board the next time we go to the city pool. 

- The first day, Luke stayed on the steps and wouldn't do anything else. But eventually, he was wearing a floatie vest, moving all around the shallow end on his own, even without an adult next to him. 

- Anna became quite the daredevil! She jumped off the side into my arms, and eventually she was pointing to the slide, wanting to go down. Sure enough, Brian took her down on his lap, and she wanted to do it again and again! (Pictures below). 

My friend Beth gave us this Cars party pack that was entirely paper party supplies - the girls had a blast setting up a "Lightning McQueen party" for Luke.

Brian's gift to me: he got the first year of this blog printed and bound into a book! There's potential to finish the rest of the project, but it isn't cheap, so this was a very cool surprise.

At any given time, there's a handful of kids in the pool (and usually either Brian or I or both, too, since we have so many non-swimmers).

(Aunt Kelly was testing the sports mode on her new camera for some of these)

He really thought he was smiling.

Look at that face!

And she wanted to do it again and again!

Brian's such a good dad - he's completely under water, trying to keep her head up and pass her to me.

Carrie and Luke having a snack in the hammock.

We eat most meals outside in the gazebo.

Grammy making snow cones.

This is Luke's cautious face, he's nervous about the sparklers.

Watching fireworks

Cousins! L to R, Leah (11), Luke (4), Kim (14), Anna (1), David (6), Carolyn (10), Katy (8)