Little Fishies

The upside of being behind on the blog is that I can now do themed posts with similar pictures from the last few months. With that said, here are some Henry & Owen swimming lesson pictures!

OWEN
Back in April, the underwater photographer made an appearance in Owen's class. (See Henry's underwater picture from a year ago here). I feel like I've posted this picture already, but I couldn't find it anywhere so I decided to post it again. Which means I either completely missed it, or I thought about posting it so many times that it actually feels like I did. Either way, here it is (possibly again):



Unfortunately, something came up with the photographer and he didn't make it back to the pool to photograph Henry. Which is what I was waiting for to post this picture and might be the reason it hasn't been posted (I think).

Owen just finished his 2nd session of swim lessons (and will be starting his next session soon). Fortunately for the 2nd session (and hopefully all future sessions), we were able to get the boys lessons at the same time. Unfortunately, that session happens to fall on a weekday evening, which can be hit or miss for the boys. Owen is definitely a water baby, but he would prefer to be let free to explore the water. Since the pool is 4 feet deep, he doesn't get much independence. Which means his favorite part of lessons is when they bring out the mat or jungle gym for him to crawl/walk on. But despite a few cranky moments for Owen, I think he is doing really well with his lessons!

Session 1 - Spring









The final class of every session is Boat Safety Week. Otherwise known as putting them in life vests and snapping lots of cute pictures of babies in boats.





As adorable as I think a bunch of babies in a life raft is, the babies often don't agree!





Session 2 - Summer



And another Boat Safety Week! I realize it looks pretty much the same every time, but I just can't help but take pictures.







Owen's favorite part of swimming, like I said earlier, is mat time. And his newest game is running towards Daddy on the mat (like he's supposed to), but instead of jumping in, he stops, laughs and turns the other direction causing all sorts of chaos for the parents and teacher, but thoroughly enjoying himself. Silly boy! :)





And the obligatory babies in a boat picture . . .





HENRY
Session 1 - Spring
I've already posted most of the Session 1 pictures, so I just have a few Boat Safety Week pictures:





Session 2 - Summer
Spring session was the last of the parent/toddler classes for Henry and then he was on his own for summer session. Well, technically he's in a class with 3 other kids and an instructor, but it is still a huge change. He's had some reservations about swimming by himself and usually insists that he doesn't want to go swimming without Mommy (Ah! You know that warms my heart and makes me want to jump in and swim with him, even if I tell him how much more fun it is to swim like a big kid on his own), but always does wonderfully at swimming. I'm so impressed with how well Henry (and the other kids in the class) listen to the instructor. He patiently waits while the others get their turn and then listens well to the instructions when it's his turn. He's a bit nervous to swim on his own to the teacher, but I feel like he made huge improvements throughout the session.







And some videos of his swimming . . .


Jumping In!


Diving for toys


Swimming around

Boat Safety Week for Henry was quite fascinating to watch. In addition to the adorable photo ops (seriously, how cute is a line of kids in life vests??), they also learned a lot about boat safety. They learned what to do if they fell out of a life raft (hold on to the rope and float) vs. what to do if they fell out of a motor boat (float in your life vest by your friends and wait for help). I guess I just don't give Henry enough credit to understand these things, but he really seemed to get it. I quizzed him later on these things and he was able to repeat all the safety tips back to me. Not sure when we'll actually be out on a boat, but so glad he knows some safety if we ever do!

























And since Henry has needed a little encouragement to make it to swim lessons, we've incorporated a whole swimming night tradition. After swimming, we head to Burgerville for dinner. And don't try and mix it up with a different place, because Henry knows what he likes and what he likes is consistency. Which means Burgerville. Every. Week.







And something Henry would love to add into our swimming night routine is a walk to the water fountains (near swimming lessons). We're usually in a hurry to get dinner and head home to bed, but every once in awhile he gets to check out the fountains.



And with that, keep your fingers crossed that I can keep pushing through more of these pictures I've been wanting to share!

Busy Busy

We've been making the most of this sunny summer weather! And with summer activities come lots of pictures! So here we go . . .

Oregon Zoo
Last week, Henry, Owen and I met up with Jean and Avonlea at the zoo. We wandered around to see all the animals (of course), climbed on the lion statues, took a train ride around Washington Park and stopped for a picnic in the rose gardens.

Henry was not a fan of the goats. He went in the pen with Jean & Avonlea while Owen and I watched from outside the gate. He was a little reluctant to walk by the goats (reasonably so, if you ask me - they are bigger than him!) and decided he was not in the mood to pet one. And so we moved on to the next thing. :)



Posing for pictures on the lions (the statues, that is) . . .




Henry expressing his dislike of Owen's pinching hold.


And yes, Superman Owen was dressed by Daddy that morning. He was sure a hit at the zoo - everybody kept commenting on how cute his little cape was. I have to agree with them, even though it's not my top outfit choice. :)





And a fun train ride to the rose gardens. . .









I wasn't sure what the kiddos would think of leaving the zoo for a garden, but they loved it! Henry was so excited to see all the beautiful flowers and wanted to smell Every. Single. Rose.



It took a little convincing to get him to just smell a few and keep walking. But once we made it more than a few steps into the garden, we stopped for a picnic lunch, ran around the roses and played by the fountain.











Ok, I suppose Superman Owen and his cape is pretty gosh darn cute!





Cannon Beach
The Heaphy Family was in Oregon for a big family trip to the coast, so we headed out to Manzanita to meet up with them. They had found out the day before that Manzanita is apparently the windiest beach in Oregon, so we decided to head a bit North to Cannon Beach. The boys had so much fun playing with Liam & Emmett & their cousins Trenton & Mattea (who unfortunately didn't make it into any of my pictures because of her nap, but trust me, she's adorable too) along for the family trip.

We raced down the beach to see if we could catch the remainder of low tide and see a few tide pools, but we didn't make it in time. Despite missing the tide pools, we still had a blast running along the beach, splashing in the water and digging in the sand.












Liam, Henry & Trenton wading in the water













Water Park
After spending most of Saturday running errands and cleaning, we decided to head out to a local park after naps to cool off in the splash pad. Needless to say, Henry and Owen loved playing in the water!



Henry especially loved plugging up some of the holes for a bit to increase the water pressure and send the water high up into the air. I found it impressive to see the wheels turning in Henry's head as he figured the whole thing out. And I was shocked to realize Owen had been watching big brother very carefully and made his move to try it out when Henry moved on to another spot. Who knew he was picking these things up already?



Ladybug Run for CDH
And on Sunday, we were happy to head to Champoeg State Park to participate in the Ladybug Run (well, walk for us) for CDH (Congenital diaphragmatic hernia). We had never heard of CDH until Owen's friend Porter was born with this condition. Thankfully Porter seems to be doing very well and we were happy to support him and CDH.


Porter on the right and big sister Claire on the left.

We headed out with the double stroller for a 5K walk. Even though it started out early, it was getting pretty hot and both boys were getting antsy and cranky by the end. Unfortunately, Henry didn't understand that this was the park and there was no playground, so he kept hoping we would find it during the walk. Once we hit the turnaround point, he realized that wasn't happening and had much less patience for the long walk. I'm fairly certain everybody could hear the wails coming from the stroller from a mile away. But as soon as we were finished and the boys were let out of the stroller, all was forgotten.


Don't they look impressed with the stroller?

Henry even participated in the kids run and ran a 1/2 mile with Daddy! And while he wasn't sure about it and wanted to be carried at the midway point, he made it through the whole race on his own (with a lot of support from Daddy) and was rewarded with a nice cool Otter Pop and ribbon! Claire and Grady (another friend along to support Porter & CDH) also ran in the kids run.


And they're off!


Owen checking out the course and Henry (& Daddy) taking off


Claire & Grady finishing their run


Henry finishing his run - not really sure what the funny face is all about :)


After race treats!

And after Otter Pops, it was a picnic of bagels, ladybug cookies and chocolate milk! I was surprised when Henry said he didn't like this milk and wanted his normal milk. :) Guess I won't argue with that!



Such a fun and busy week! And while I'm starting to get excited for fall and pumpkins, I'm not quite ready for summer to end and look forward to many more summer activities in the coming weeks!