Amy's Playground

Since we have already packed most of the girls toys, and because I still has some passes left to Amy's Playground we went there on Wednesday morning. They happen to have music time on Wednesday morning from 10:30 to 11:00, so we got to join in. The girls loved it. They really both like music. It is hard to tell who likes it more right now. Sometimes when we get in the car Eliza begs for me to turn on the music. She loves to move along to the music. We had a fun time at Amy's.

Dinner with the Cannon's and Crane's

We had dinner with some of our good friends the Cannon's and Crane's last night. All of the boys graduated from La Canada High School even if Tony and Brandon are a few years older than Eric. Carried and I went to nursing school at Rick's College together and to Jerusalem too. I met Shelley though Carrie because Brandon, Carrie's husband, was Tony's best friend in High School.

We enjoyed a fun night together in the Cannon's beautiful back yard. The kids also loved running around. Between the three couples we have 7 1/2 kids all 5 and under.
Thanks so much for a fun night!
Shelley, Gretche, Carrie holding Eliza

Ella trying out her life jacket

The kidos in the pool

Abby, Hailey and Gretta having a great time!

LegoLand with the Cousins

My cousin Amanda her husband, Jeff, and her girls, Maya and Marissa, are in town this week enjoying all that Southern California has to offer. We met up with them at Legoland today. I had never been to Legoland before, so we jumped at the chance to join them. It also helped that Gretta got a "buy an adult get a child in free" coupon in her summer reading packet. We were really lucky and didn't have much traffic driving to or from San Diego County. I have never driven so far south before.

We had a fun day with them. Gretta especially enjoyed Maya and Marissa. It was also good that I was with Amanda and Jeff because Eliza couldn't ride on any of the rides and Gretta needed an adult to go with her on most of them. Jeff put in his dues so all of the girls could ride Aquazone even if it meant getting wet feet. Thanks for taking one for the team!

Over all we had a really fun day and enjoyed our visit with the Rush's.

Starting our adventure in the morning

Gretta getting off her horse.

Marissa

driving their own car

Amanda hanging out with Eliza

Jeff and Marissa

It's hard to see, but the girls are helping spray water at the "burning building"

Jeff, Gretta and Maya

Amanda and Gretta

Gretta enjoying the water park

Gretta and Marissa

It was a great day!

Aren't these lego people amazing!

Saturday July 25, 2009

Morning Activity...

Eric went surfing this morning, so the girls and I decided to have some fun of our own. I took them to Jumping Jammin' at the Santa Anita Mall. They both really like the place. Eliza loves balls, so this place is right up her ally. She loves to go around and pick them up off of the floor and put them in a bag. Gretta just loves to run around, go down the big slide and jump in the bouncer. Plus we ran into one of her friends from preschool, Logan, and her dad. Logan wasn't in Gretta's class, but they loved to run around on the grass, play in the fountain and cause trouble after preschool together on the lawn. Gretta was happy to have someone to run around with today too.

It was a fun morning followed by lunch at Panda express in the mall. Gretta's favorite!

Playing in the baby area

This is what the three story play structure looks like. It is pretty amazing!

Gretta's preschool friend Logan who didn't really want Gretta to take her picture.

At home...

Gretta packed up all of her "kids" while Eliza was a sleep so that they could go with us on our next adventure. Gretta has lots of "kids". She is a good mom.

Showing off her stuff!

PM Pool Party at Papa Goodrich's....

We all went over to Papa's for a nice swim and a BBQ California style. Gretta enjoyed showing off her new swimming skills for everyone. She swam around the pool all by herself, and even went off the diving board and slide. It was a beautiful California evening.

Eliza and Daddy

Gretta and Rodrigo

Swimming Lessons

Gretta loves to "swim" in the pool. I bought her a suit with floaties built in 2 years ago. She loves her floaty swim suit. It enables her to "swim" independently all over the pool. The suit is now thread bare, so I decided that this summer was the summer to learn how to swim. After some recommendations I found Karalynne Call. She lives in AZ, but comes ever summer to teach swimming lessons at her mom's house in La Cresenta. She is a cousin of one of my old roommates at BYU. Her Swimming Success was highly recommended to me. Karalynne also guarenteed that after 8, 25 minutes one-on-one session Gretta would be able to swim accross the pool, dive off the diving board, and be water safe. This was a pretty big guarentee, so I figure her high prices were worth it.
Gretta started her session on July 15th. The first two days she cried and screamed the whole 25 mintues. I had to threaten her to go. It was pretty ugly and I was wondering if this was going to be worth it. She told the neighboor when we were getting in the car, "I am going to swim lessons because my mom paid a lot of money for them." That is what I had been telling her when she would tell me she didn't want to go.
On Monday July 20th all of a sudden she decided she could swim. She did great. Here are some pictures from her swim lessons. After her lessons she can swimming accross the pool by herself, she dove the pool head first, went off the diving board, down the slide and knows what to do if she falls in the pool. I would call it a huge success. Our problem is now going to be getting out of the pool.

July 22nd


July 24, 2009 The Last day of swimming lessons

practicing her floating
Going off the slide.
We now officially have a swimmer!!!