Ellie's Horseback Riding Camp 2014

For her birthday, Grangran and Papa gave Ellie a week of horseback riding camp in June.  She had the best time (despite the weather fluctuating between 90+ degree temps and tornado warnings :-/)

She just loved her horse, Piglet, even though poor old Piglet has seen better days.  He was 25 years old and looked like he'd rather be doing just about anything else besides hauling another kid around on his back all summer long.  No where was this more evident than at the 'Rodeo'.

On the last day of camp, family and friends were invited to see the kids and horses put on a rodeo.  Piglet's top speed was about .5 miles/hour and his general demeanor indicated he'd rather be sent to the glue factory than trot!  

Thankfully, Ellie didn't really notice that she had the laziest horse in the whole stable, so she had great fun.  She can't wait to go back next year!

 Is it just me, or does she look super grown up in this picture?!

 Poor old, tired Piglet.

 Luke thought the Rodeo was great fun!

 Not a bad view!

You can relive all the exciting action via this video!!

A Visit to Gramps and Mimi's

We love to visit California in the wintertime!  It's always sunny, warm, green, and such a nice break from the winter in Denver (which is sometimes sunny, but not warm or green!)

My old, beloved haunt :)

 Enjoying a warm day at the beach flying kites!

 The girls decided to bury Gramps in the sand, but gave up before they got to his knees :)

 Zzzzzzzzzz.....

 Swinging with Cousin Reagan

 Cousin time!!

Bye bye Gramps, Mimi, and Sunny California!

Here's a sweet video of Luke playing ball in the front yard :)

Luke Learns to Swim (well, to float at least)

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an irrational fear of one of my children drowning.  It just seems like everywhere we turn in the summer time (and sometimes in other seasons too), there is a pool, pond, lake, etc. and I can't focus on anything else except guarding the edges like a hawk.

Ellie and Campbell can both swim now and I can trust them to stay away from the edges unless I'm with them (not that I just completely ignore them around water, but I can at least breathe a tiny sigh of relief).  Luke, on the other hand, is a complete crazy man.  He has absolutely no fear of the water, no awareness of the edge, and even tries to wriggle out of my arms if we're in the pool together.  After this summer, I decided that for his safety, my own peace of mind, and in an effort to get him pool-safe within a couple years, that I would try putting him in swimming lessons.

I had heard about Infant Swimming Resource and read all kinds of testimonials and data about how not only can babies learn to safe themselves in an accidental fall situation, but also learn to swim safely at a much younger age than other children their age who didn't have early exposure to water safety.

So, we decided to give it a try.  Not only was it pretty pricey (although, I don't think it exceeded the amount I've spent over the years for Ellie and Campbell to take lessons at the rec center -- lessons that never really amounted to proficient swimming), the lessons were every day for 5 weeks!  Each lesson is only 10-15 minutes long, but still!  Every day?!  That was a commitment in and of itself!  I figured I'd try it for the first week and see how things went.

Well, after the first week, he could already hold his breath, and float independently!  By the end of Week 2, he was turning on his own in the water and coming into a float with no assistance.  At the end of Week 4, he was being dropped into the pool every which way and maintaining a floating position until the instructor 'rescued' him.  The last week was spent on learning edge-awareness (even after all the time spent in the water, you would think he understood that you can't crawl on top of it.. but no... the crazy little man, crawled right into the deep end going after a ball he saw floating on the water!), and floating fully clothed with shoes, socks, etc.

He finished in October and we've been going back to the pool about once a week since then, and he still knows exactly what to do.  Amazing.

I won't lie to you:  It's very hard to watch someone toss your baby into the water and just let them struggle until they 'get it'... I was in tears standing on the side a lot of days.  However, I'm so glad we did it, because he seems to have respect for the water-- especially the steps/edge, and I'm confident that he'll be swimming like a big boy in just a couple years.

Here's a little video I took during Week 5:

Here's another a little closer up:

Luke Turns One!

We decided on a farm theme for Luke's first birthday party since he loves to watch the chickens in the backyard and one of his favorite toys is a miniature tractor :)

His cake had a bunch of farm animals and a tractor pulling "hay" (shredded wheat)

Blowing out the candle!

I loved this little farmer because he looked just like Luke and his bald head!

Smashing his cake!

Opening presents! 

Here's a video I made of his first year:

My Baby is One!

This is cute.

No real milestone, or specific reason to post this video.  Just found it in my photo library and thought it was funny.

We were in a toy store where the girls were picking out Luke's birthday presents and he was entertaining himself in the back with the displays.

And He's Off!

Luke (finally!) learned to walk during Thanksgiving weekend last year.  He was about 14 months old and had been so close for SO long.

It never gets old watching a baby take their first steps!!

Campbell learns to ride a bike!

Well, a bike without training wheels, that is!

Campbell amazes me sometimes, because although she's 2 years younger than Ellie, she winds up pushing herself to achieve many milestones right about the same time.  Our sweet (very cautious) Ellie had only just ditched the training wheels about 2 weeks prior and that little Campbell practiced day (and sometimes night) until she could ride a two-wheeler just like big sissy.

Here she is on the day she finally 'got' it:

And, as promised, the next day she got to go the bike shop and pick out a 'real' bike (aka, not the very cheapest one that Target sells) with a basket, a kickstand,  and NO TRAINING WHEELS!

Way to go, Baby C!

We Are the Fox Family

A couple of weeks ago it was our turn for Family Presentation at CC.  We decided to write a song about our family and here's how it turned out:

We Are the Fox Family

It was pretty fun and I'm glad I thought to ask someone to video it!

Giggle Box

This video was taken about a month ago.... baby giggles are the sweetest!!

Summer ReCap

I have been so behind on blogging lately, so I decided to do a quick photo re-cap of summer (mostly for me since the blog fills in the holes on the family scrapbook :)) We had tons of fun, sun, and playtime with friends. I was actually sad to see the summer go this year (in spite of the blistering temps). Now that Fall is fully here and there's a chill in the air and beautiful leaves falling all around us, it's kind of fun to look back at all these photos of us enjoying the long, hot days!

Every week, we met our friends the Soyars and Moss' at the pool for a day of pool play. What fun those days were! I'd like to report that both girls are swimming laps unassisted, but alas, not yet. I do look forward to the day that I'm not either a) a nervous wreck when they're around water, or b) being climbed on like a jungle gym because we're in the 'big pool'.

The Splash Yard was one of Campbell's favorite places to be!

And, because Fur-Faced-Maniacs aren't allowed at the pool (the nerve), we squeezed in plenty of lake time so that Rosie could cool off to.

Of course, no outing would be complete for Rosie if it didn't involve ball-chasing.

In July, we took a trip to CA to visit my parents and managed to fit in TONS of fun, photo-worthy outings.

A day at Newport Beach

Gramps burying Ellie in the sand (she thought that was really hilarious and begged for him to do it again all afternoon!)

Gramps and Ellie collecting shells and sand crabs

Campbell actually crawled up into the lawn chair at one point and asked us to cover her up. When I asked her if she was cold, she said, "No, I going to take a nap"... and she did - for over an hour! (we did make a canopy to shield her from the sun :))

Gramps and Campbell flying a kite

Another big event at Gramps and Mimi's house was Riding Bikes! I'm ashamed to report that the girls have no bikes at our house. How un-American, I know. Seriously though; We have no sidewalks in our neighborhood, no garage or shed in which to store bikes, and our driveway is so steep, it's better suited for sledding than bike-riding. Anyway, all of that adds up to a no-go on the bikes here at home. Gramps decided it was time for the girls to have/learn to ride bikes, so he planned a special outing for the girls one evening when he got home from work. They had no idea what they were going to be doing, but all day they talked and talked about how excited they were for their 'special date' with Gramps.

When he got home, he loaded them in the car and took them to Target where they picked out their very first bikes! I'm not sure if I've ever seen them more excited/hyper/thrilled/ecstatic about something! Here's a little video I took after they got home from the store:

... and some photos of the girls enjoying their new wheels:

Ellie is Miss Cautious (as expected) and takes care to never even think of climbing on without her helmet. She just slowly pedals at a steady pace and sticks to her safe little route that she's used to, takes big wide turns and doesn't care to go faster or ride anywhere other than her little planned-out route. So funny.

Campbell is still trying to get the hang of the whole 'pedaling' thing. For now, she gets a little push to help her get started and we're lucky if those little legs make a complete revolution before she needs another push :)

Our trip overlapped a couple days with my grandparents' visit to CA, so we got to hang out with them before they headed back to Florida.

Here's Ellie 'doctoring up' Grammy and Grandaddy!

Perhaps the biggest milestone while out west: Ellie lost her first tooth! She got 4 quarters from the Tooth Fairy and already has another one loose! Sheesh. Where does the time go?

Now that both girls are old enough to actually sit (relatively) still and smile at the camera, I decided it was time to invest in some nice photos (read: ones not taken by me at Duke Gardens!) We went to Irvine Park one afternoon and had their pictures taken by a really talented photographer! I was so happy with the way they turned out and ordered way too many reprints for the house and scrapbook :)

Toward the end of our trip to CA, my mom, the girls, and I went to see the Mary Poppins broadway musical. You may remember, the girls are huge fans of Mary Poppins, so this was really a dream come true for them. We made a whole day out of it and they were so keyed up by showtime, I thought they would both have trouble sitting still. However, once the orchestra started and we got our first glimpse of Mary flying in with her umbrella, they were still as statues and completely rapt the entire time!

They got their nails painted...

... and haircuts, plus a 'fancy' style for the evening :)

They got new dresses and even purses to match! They were so cute, because they wanted to carry some things in their purses, of course, so they each had some Chapstick, a mint, Kleenex, and a couple of baby wipes -- only the essentials can fit in an evening bag! ha!

The next day, we passed by the theatre where the show had been and they wanted to have their photo taken in front of the promotional poster.

After I took their picture, they went dashing for the door, trying to convince me to let them see the show again!

Finally, we ended our trip with a visit to the Newport Dunes and I was so proud of how brave the girls were! If you've been around them for much time (especially Ellie!), you may know that bravery and willingness to try new activities is not exactly their strong suit. Particularly where it concerns water. Anyway, we spent the whole day at the Dunes and, since it's just a little inlet, the waves are teeny tiny and a lot less intimidating than the beach.

I can remember going to the Dunes as a kid and feeling so excited the summer that I learned to swim all the way to the big whale out in the middle. Even more exciting was the summer I was finally able to actually climb up on the whale. It was like a rite of passage-- only the biggest kids could get up on the whale!

Well, after I told Ellie about how cool the whale was, she insisted on swimming out there with me (with her PuddleJumper, of course.. she would never attempt it without a proper floatation device!) I figured she would chicken out once we got started, but she hung in there all the way to the whale!

She wanted me to climb up on it and help her climb on too, so I embarrassingly attempted it several times, but had no luck. About the time I was getting up the courage/strength to try again, a bunch of teenagers came swimming up from the other side and basically climbed right on with no problem. What a loser. And right there for my daughter to watch!

Definitely the most embarrassing part, though: Two of the girls had their Robert Pattinson/Edward Cullen action dolls with them in the water! Ugh. Not only am I no longer cool enough to hang with the big kids on the whale, I actually like the same books/movies they do - despite our 20 year age difference!

All in all, a great summer! Hope everyone else's was as wonderful :)