Pool Time!!!

Colin, Caleb, and Owen- getting ready for the pool.

 

On Wednesday we went to a fun lunch/pool party with lots of friends. This was the first time I have had Owen in a real pool since last year at this time when he was 4 months old. He loves to play in the blow up pool outside and the bathtub, but I was not sure how he would react to a deep pool.

I SHOULD have taken way more photos, but John was not with me so I was unable to- but let me tell you- this boy is such a fish!

Owen just loved swimming. At first I had him this one piece swimming suit that has a life-vest sort of thing built in. It made him float really well, but he was very wobbly in the water if that makes sense at all. I think I will go get him some arm swimmies for the next time we go out. But the one piece suit helped him get used to being in the water where his feet do not touch. I was playing with him pretending he was a boat, spinning around in circles in the water. He had such a good time.

He started blowing bubbles in the water on his own which he loved!

Then I decided to take off his floaty suit and see if he would go under the water. I started by dunking myself and he thought it was so cool. I very slowly started putting him under water little bits at a time, and then I finally dunked him the whole way under. I sort of expected him to swallow some water, freak out, and never want to touch water again.

Boy was I wrong! He LOVED IT! We went under water together several times and he came up laughing each time. He somehow held his breath and did not take any water in his nose at all! I was so proud of him.

When I was in the 3rd grade I actually almost drowned at my teachers end of the year pool party. I somehow made it to the deep end of the pool and I could not get myself out. Finally I made it over to the ladder- but that was by far the scariest moment of my life. After that happened my grandmother put me in swimming lessons and I went on to be a lifeguard and teach lessons for the Red Cross. It is really important to John and I that Owen is comfortable in the water and has the proper training.

In July he is going to start 2 weeks of swimming lessons through the Lee County Parks and Recreations Department. I know he is going to LOVE it!

PS. When did Owen get to be such a big boy? The picture above makes my heart so happy to see him so mature and sitting with his buddies! I think he looks so much like his Uncle Nate right now!

A new friend

 

Owen loves to play outside early in the morning, right before breakfast, because the 100 degree weather during the later part of the day is just no fun. Yesterday we sat on the driveway and watched some construction workers who were a couple of houses down. All of the sudden a tiny little lizard walked by us, so I picked him up and put him in a container so Owen could observe.

Check him out! He was really tiny! No more than 2 inches big and very very skinny!

 

At first Owen was a little unsure, he didn't know if he wanted to sit with the lizard, but then he decided it would be fun to give the lizard some mulch.

 

Then Owen really enjoyed sitting with his new friend!

 

Although, Mommy ruined the fun by picking up the lizard by his tail (on accident, he was quite squirmy), and causing him to break off in 2 pieces. OOOPS. So we let him go! Then it was time to go inside, it was already 90 degrees at 8am!

And this is Owen’s new cheesy smile. He makes us laugh!

Today we are supposed to get record heat. YIKES! I think we will try to stay inside as much as we can!

Happy Father’s Day

 

Each year I plan to fill up John’s DAD frame with photos of Owen holding the D-A-D letters. Last year we did it for the first time for John’s birthday, but now I think it would be more appropriate to do for Father’s Day!

This is from John’s birthday last August. Owen was 6 months old and he is now almost 16 months old! Look how much Owen has grown! WOW!
Happy Fathers Day to all of our Fathers, Grandfathers, and Fathers with buns in the oven!

Goodbye cold Alaska… Hello HOT North Carolina!

We are back from our trip (we have actually been back for almost a week, I just have been unmotivated to post!) to Alaska. We had a WONDERFUL TIME! We will be updating the blog with photos in the near future. After we had taken probably 1000 photos of Juneau and Skagway Alaska, complete with whales, bears and mountain goats, our memory card broke. We sent it off this week to a data recovery place so keep your fingers crossed we get them back. We had some amazing shots and I will just be broken hearted if we do lose them for good. I told John he will have to take us to Alaska again next year if we do not get them back :) We do have some photos I need to upload from the 2nd half of our trip, but I will most likely do it when we find out about the other card.

We had an AMAZING time on the cruise. The food was great, the entertainment was so fun, being waited on hand and foot was wonderfully spoiling, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, it was great getting dressed up, staying up late, sleeping in, not wearing my hair in a pony tail every day, and reconnecting with John. I missed Owen a ton but he had a great time at Camp Grand Meadow’s (John’s Parents street name is Meadow- catchy huh?).

I absolutely want to go back there on a cruise and I finally agreed to John that we could consider moving there one day. And when we got back to North Carolina, and the 98 degree temperature that greeted us, I could not help but wonder if we could just move there now!

We also had a great time while in Pennsylvania spending time with family and friends. We got to meet our beautiful niece Evalyse which was just amazing. She is so adorable and actually resembles Owen a little when he was that age. Owen absolutely loved her and wanted to keep giving her hugs and kisses. I could not believe how tiny she was and I really do not remember our guy ever being that little. It is weird how you forget.  He also loved playing with his older cousins Jordan and Bayleigh. It was a great trip for us all!

Here is the one photo we purchased from the ship. This was our second formal night… The night that John finally got to say he wanted both the prime rib AND the lobster tail. It was a good night! Oh and behind us was really a waterfall, that is not a background. The ship was so pretty and full of great picture taking spots!

 

We hope everyone is doing great!