Smith Family Reunion

We went to Lake Powell for Ryan's family reunion this year.  We headed down to St. George Sunday night and spent the night at his Uncle Randy's house with his sister Deb and her family.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in Randy's huge backyard and swimming super late.  Austin swam until 10:30!  He was so happy about that.

The next day we headed to Lone Rock campground at Lake Powell.  Most of Ryan's family camped right on the beach but we chose to rent a house in Page with his sister so the little ones could get a good night's sleep.

We still spent plenty of time on the beach.  The kids got to take turns riding on Uncle Rich's boat, wave runners with Dad, and cliff jumping!  I wish I had pictures of all the amazing things my kids did in those couple of days. 

I was so glad I at least walked over to watch the kids cliff jumping.  Cameron was fearless and jumped right off the highest point.  There's some debate over exactly how high it was but the standing number for now is 35 feet.

Kale

Kolby

Dallin

Cameron

Me

(well, I couldn't let my kids show me up, could I?)

Ryan and I took a turn on Rich's boat and I actually got up on skis on my second try.  I can't remember the last time I waterskiid but it's definitely been at least 5 years.  Ryan of course got up several times.  But the one I was most impressed with was Eden.  She got up on the knee board in a matter of seconds and rode until they told her she had to stop so someone else could try it.  I tried that knee board thing and went right over the top!  But it was perfect for her and so cute to see her waving as they rode by.

Austin conquered a few fears and jumped off the boat into the lake.  All it took was one try and he was hooked.  It was hard to keep him on the boat after that.  And I guess Eden even managed some cliff jumping but I wasn't able to see her do it.  It was a little tricky being on a beach all day with a very hot and tired baby that wouldn't nap.  

Everyone had so much fun spending time with their cousins, playing endlessly in the water, and eating great food!

I Am A Beautiful Butterfly

Before Dallin mowed the lawn one day in July he found this...

he and Austin came running in the house to tell me about it.  I've never seen a caterpillar like this before.  It was huge! (That's Austin's hand by the way to give it some perspective). I did notice some pretty spectacular and particularly large butterflies this year.  Maybe that's where this guy was headed.  He totally reminded me of that character from A Bug's Life.

County Swim Finals

For the final swim meet of the season the kids qualify for one of three meets, bronze, silver or gold.  All 6 and under swimmers swim at the bronze meet no matter their times, I guess because there aren't very many of them.  So the bronze meet, for Eden, was scheduled for July 27th.  As you can tell from the picture below the weather did not cooperate with us.  She swam a 4x100 relay (and won!) and that was it.  We sat there for three hours waiting for the lightning to stop but it got worse before it got better so we finally went home.  They rescheduled Eden's meet for the next day.

When we got to Eden's meet the next day the coaches begged me to be a timer.  They told me that they couldn't start the meet until they had all the timers.  I was there with Five Kids!  But because I'm a sucker and Dallin and Cameron rock, I agreed.  Dallin watched the baby (until Ryan came and took over) and Cameron made sure Eden got to all her races on time.  I'm not sure what Austin did (I think he spent three hours playing on the ipad) but I'm so proud of those kids for being so helpful!

You are never going to believe how well Eden did... she took 2nd, in the county, for her 25 freestyle!  She was so fast.  I was timing the girl in my lane and didn't get to see Eden's finish but she was neck and neck with the girl that took first.  It was amazing!  I was so proud of her.  And guess what else?  She took 1st for her breastroke (because she was the only one who didn't get disqualified)!  At their end of the year party she got a plaque mentioning both races and her stellar accomplishment.  I'm bummed I didn't get any pictures because I was timing.

Cameron qualified for the Gold meet this year.  She worked so hard getting up so early every day.  I could tell she was nervous and I was nervous for her.  We all went to her meet Saturday morning and then Ryan took the other kids to help my sister move into her new house.  

This is Cameron doing her 50 freestyle.  She got a really late start and got one of her worst times of the season.  It was so sad but the meet was crazy.  They had the kids doing flyovers so they could make the meet go as fast as possible. Cameron said she got confused and flustered and so she started late.  We'll have to remember how crazy it is next year.

I thought for sure things would go better for Cameron for her butterfly.  She looked like she was going to take 2nd but when she walked up to me after the race she was crying.  They disqualified her because they said she didn't touch the wall with two hands which is totally strange because she knew to touch with two hands and I saw her touch the wall and it looked like she touched with two hands to me.  I was so sad for her.

There's a lot of free time between races.  Fortunately even Evelyn likes to play with the ipad.

Cameron's breastroke went really well, finally.  It was a good way to end the day.  Ryan and the kids had made it back in time to watch this race which was nice too.  We all went out for smoothies before we went home.  My heart still aches a little for Cameron's disappointing day but she had a really good attitude about it and is just as committed as ever to keep trying and swim again next year.  I love that girl.

Speedy Spaniard

We decided it was Ryan's turn to get cheered on for a race so on July 25th he ran the Speedy Spaniard, our annual city 10k.  His goal was to run it under 50 min. and he finished in 49:04!  He did great!

My sister in law Joy also ran the race along with several friends of mine.  I was a little jealous but it was nice to be able to cheer Ryan on with all the kids.  Both Dallin and Cameron said they want to try to run it next year.

Adam's been doing a whole bunch of races.  His goal is to do the Alcatraz triathlon next year so this race was just training for him.  He did great and has really improved this year.  He's been a great motivator for me too.

Austin's Birthday

We celebrated Austin's birthday on Sunday July 24th since there was a big swim meet on the 27th.  Austin really wanted a Tron birthday cake and unfortunately for me Tron party decorations, particularly cake toppers, are no longer available.  If it were Cars 2 it would have been easy.  So this is my effort at making a Tron cake for Austin's birthday using frosting (because I have no idea how to work with fondant), a little fruit roll up, and one of Austin's Tron motorcycles.

I overheard Austin telling his buddy the other day that he had the best birthday cake ever.  He told his friend that I made him a Tron cake and that I'm an artist and it was Awesome!  That made me so happy.

Austin had a lot of fun with his cousin Alex at the reunion and wanted to invite him to his party since it was his year to have a family party.  We invited my mom and my sister Jacque and her family over for dinner and a little party.

Evelyn's started doing this really cheesy smile where she closes her eyes and breathes really fast through her nose.  It's so cute but hard to get a picture of.

Austin has always been a man of many facial expressions.

Evelyn learned to wave "hi" during Austin's party!

She also got to play with her cousin Ian.  Ian is about 9 months older.  They had a lot of fun putting a ball in this red cup.

City Swim Meet

This was our only outdoor swim meet this year.  I love outdoor meets!  You get much better pictures.

Eden got to be on the team with her best friend Sareya.  They had so much fun together!

This is Eden and Sareya getting ready for backstroke.  Since it's only 25 meters I waited at the start to help the girls get ready and Kelly waited at the finish, with the camera.

Eden and Sareya are neck and neck.

Sometimes it's so hard to get a good swim picture.  This is Cameron doing butterfly for the 100 IM.

GREAT Camp

The week of July 18th Dallin attended a GREAT Camp at the U of U.  GREAT stands for Graphics and Robotics Exploration with Amazing Technology.  I called it a Nerd camp.  :)

Every day for that week Ryan drove him up to the U and then I drove up in the afternoon to pick him up but it was totally worth the sacrifice because he loved it.  For the first half of the week they worked on Alice, a graphics and animation program.  They designed a small cartoon and a brief video game.  Then the last half of the week they got to work with Lego Mindstorm robots.  These pictures are from the last day.  They had a competition to see who designed the most destructive robot.  Dallin's robot had a good concept but didn't quite perform as he had hoped.  It was pretty cool to watch, though.

Just a side note.  We were a little nervous about dropping Dallin off in Salt Lake all by himself so the Saturday before the camp we bought him a cell phone.  We had been discussing it all summer.  I wanted him to have one for Jr. High.  Ryan was on the fence until he thought about dropping Dallin off at this camp in Salt Lake and not having any other way to get a hold of him.  I must say it was a huge relief for me.  I got some pretty cute texts from him during the week.  My favorite was when he told me he won a small competition and got a treat.  I like having a way to chat with him during the day.  He may be growing up but he's my first and I'm a wimp.

Clones

When I held Evelyn in my arms for the first time I thought, "oh yeah, she's one of mine."  I guess after a while they all start to look the same.  But when I came across this picture of Dallin and Eden in a little baby book I was really surprised.  Eden and Evelyn really all could be clones.  So I took another picture of Dallin and Evelyn just so we could compare.

My mom swears they look nothing alike.  What do you think?

Are You Sleeping

Evelyn was a great sleeper.  For the first six months of life she slept through the night and only woke up around 5 am to nurse and then went right back to sleep.  Then something happened in July and all of the sudden she's waking up at 1 am and 4 am and 6 am and all sorts of crazy am's.  It's been a disaster since we've also been taking Cameron to swim team at 6 am and with all the summer fun we've been going to bed later and later.

I'm sure part of Evelyn's sleep problems are due to the fact that she has no schedule.  She naps in the car or the stroller or occasionally in bed if we happen to be home.  But those naps are usually cut short because we've arrived at our destination, I've come home from jogging, or the kids are a little too loud.  It's so unfair to this poor little girl and her tired parents.  Maybe when school starts things will get better.

Summer Swim Team

Every summer my kids participate on the city swim team.  This was Dallin's first summer not doing swim team because he would have missed 4 weeks out of the 8 due to vacation, 2 scout camps, and a camp at the U.

Cameron was a diehard though and got up 4 mornings a week at 5:30 am to swim from 6-7:30!  I am so proud of her for her committment.  One night just after Ryan and I went to bed but were still awake talking Cameron came in dressed in her swimsuit and sweats, all ready for me to braid her hair and put her cap on!  I told her it was only 10:30 pm and she had only been in bed for an hour and she needed to go back to bed.  She looked at me with so much confusion and slowly made her way back to bed.

This was Eden's first year to participate on the swim team.  She really did great.  I have to hand it to Juleen Whitney, though, because she does a great job teaching kids how to swim.  She got Eden ready for the swim team in just two months.  Eden swam in the 6 and under category, which is a pretty small group of kids, but from the start she won just about every race she swam.  I was so impressed and had no idea she was so athletic.

This is Cameron diving in for her relay.  These pictures were taken at the Provo swim meet.  Provo has an indoor pool so it's really hard to get a good picture.  I should have taken more pictures throughout the summer but I was too busy watching the girls' exciting races.

The kids have to get up pretty early to be at the Saturday swim meets so I think they all enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on July 9th.

Summer Fun

Usually I spend a lot of summer afternoons at one city pool or another but this year has been a bit more challenging with the baby so I picked up this fun little pool for the kids to at least cool off in during the hot afternoons.

In order to appreciate this picture you have to understand how much our cat avoids Austin.  Usually when he sees Austin coming he heads in the opposite direction.  Probably because he knows that if he's caught he will be dragged around and forced to succumb to Austin's will.  So when I saw Austin sitting next to the cat and gently petting him one morning (and the cat not running away) I just had to get a picture.

Eden hasn't had as much time to play with her friends this summer as she normally does.  Everyone's been so busy (including us) that it's hard to find a day when friends are home and we are home.  This was a very rare day.  She had all her favorite friends over at the same time and it wasn't even planned.  Her cousin Katy (also considered a best friend) and her best friend Haydn, and her best friend Sareya.