Swim Lessons with Myrna

Rayna has been taking swim lessons the last few weeks. Her teachers name is Myrna and she is an amazing woman who has been teaching kids to swim for 56 years! She is great! Rayna has had a blast and is learning so much. The first few days she was a bit timid and we even had some tears, but by day 4, she was a little fish! Myrna focuses a lot on survival so the kids learn to jump in the water and roll over on their backs and float. Rayna has done awesome with that! They even got to do it off the diving board! We are now in the second session for advanced beginners and it is even better. Yesterday, Rayna dove off the diving board through a hula hoop and rolled over on her back all by herself. It was exciting. She loves it and is so proud of herself. The scariest part is that she has no fear when it comes to jumping or diving into the water. She just wants to do it over and over and over again! I am glad she is enjoying it so much and learning so much. Brady has been tagging along and watching. He was very content the first week, but now he wants out and wants in the water too!

Survival Day

This was definitely the most difficult day of swim lessons for Rayna. The kids had to dress in heavy clothes (sweats, sweatshirts, shoes and socks) and jump in the water, roll over, and float on their backs so they could save themselves if they fell in a pool. Rayna had no problem doing that part, it was wearing the wet clothes after that she had a problem with. Rayna hates having wet clothes on! I mean hates it. If she spills even the smallest amount of water or something on her clothes, she wants to change immediately. But we had to wait and do it again with life jackets going off the diving board. Needless to say, she was very happy when we got to take the clothes off!

Last Day

Here are some pictures of Rayna on the last day of her first sessions of swim lessons.

Myrna's Stars

Here are the kids on their final day of swim lessons. Myrna gives them all a star and the bigger kids were so proud! Rayna was so excited to get her star and keeps wearing it all around the house. Her good friend, Danny, was also in her class so there are some cute pictures of the two of them.

A Trip To Portland

We headed up to Portland last weekend for a visit. We had a couple of birthday parties to and were able to spend lots of time with family. It was a great weekend. The kids had fun at Grandpa Larry and Grandma Becky's house. Rayna got to make cookies with Grandma, which she always loves! Brady had fun playing with the kitty toys! Thanks for letting us come visit!

Great Grandma Alexander's Birthday Party

On Saturday, we got to go celebrate Great Grandma Alexander's 85th birthday! It was a wonderful day. Rayna and Brady had fun seeing everyone. They got to play with their cousins, Megan and Xander, which was lots of fun.

Grandpa Larry & Auntie Patti's Birthday Party

Our second party of the day was for Grandpa Larry and Auntie Patti. Rayna and Brady loved all the attention they got! They both had fun playing outside. Rayna kept playing school over by the tv trays. Brady was just being goofy and of course kept trying to climb on everything. Rayna spent lots of time with Uncle Scott. She loves listening to his stories! It was a wonderful party and were so glad we got to be there to celebrate with everyone!

Wildlife Safari

On our way up to Portland last weekend, we stopped off at Wildlife Safari. Bryan and I went several years ago and thought it would be fun to take the kids. We had a wonderful time and saw so many great animals! The lions were sleeping which was a bummer, but the bears were very active and were running around the cars. We also got up very close to some rheas, elk, bison, and yaks, as well as many other animals. Rayna thought it was great and Brady got so excited everytime he saw an animal!

More Animals

The Village

We had a great time walking around the village at Wildlife Safari. The kids loved the fact that they had wagons and cars for them to ride in. We had to switch halfway through so they could do both.

Watching the Gibbons

Rayna got a kick out of watching the gibbons. We heard them when we were eating lunch and she thought it sounded like a siren. We watched them play for quite awhile. They kept swinging all over. It was great.