Blog Slacking!!

So, I thought I would have all kinds of time to blog, once school was out. What was I thinking??? It's the same thing every year, I look forward to the end of the school year, because I'm going to have all kinds of time. Every year I suddenly find the summer going way too fast and being way too busy. So, I have about an hour until we leave for swimming lessons, so here's a few updates.

Our biggest update would be the yard renovation we're doing. 

Here's a before picture...

Here's a week ago....

We've done more, the deck is now gone and there's been some cement poured and the fence is going in next week! Needless to say, we literally tore everything out and we're starting from scratch again. But, this time we have a plan!!

So, of course school got out and Malia graduated from Kindergarten! Big step, she is now a reader and a writer and a full time first grader! Instead of a part time kindergartener!

Miniature golfing! Travis is trying to pass on his skills to Malia and so far it seems to be working. She is quite the little miniature golfer, she was really getting the hang of getting the ball where she wanted it to go. We had to work on keeping the club down on the ground though, it kept coming up and almost hitting people in the face! Nate and his two kids came with us and we all had a really good time. Except about halfway through Sarah decided that she longer liked this game and flung her club, that kind of got her in trouble! So, she hid in the bushes and cried, it was too cute!

Malia is learning to like the water, which is a big relief to me because she has never liked it before. I kept putting off  swimming lessons thinking she'd outgrow it but it looks like swimming lessons was the key to conquering the fear. She's got these two wonderful excited teachers who get these kids to do amazing things through games and fun tricks. It's amazing and

 wonderful! This picture is from her first day they are playing a game called "animal in the basket" they sing this little rhyme and then they have to go under water to get out of the basket. The kids are eager to play and don't even realize they are practicing going underwater! Malia is almost facing the camera in the back of the circle, can you see her?

With Travis having grown up around horses, I thought it was high time Malia learned how to ride. So, I called up the equestrian center that is literally right behind our neighborhood and set up some lessons! Malia loves it, although she can't quite pick which one she likes more, swimming or horseback riding! Plus, she seems to be a bit of a natural, everyone at the stables thought she had ridden before and were surprised to find out she'd only had two lessons!

Malia is riding "Man" and yup the horse is a "he"!

This is Malia

 riding bareback!

Anybody that's ever heard of "it" will appreciate this one. We went to Ogden last Sunday to see my Aunt Marla. Who for those of you that don't know spent the last 10 or so years of her life taking care of her ailing parents. So, she's by herself now and sorely needs company. So we spent about half the day talking and goofing around. It was a lot of fun. We got the camera out and kept trying to take pictures, but she does not like having her picture taken. So this is the best picture we got!

Last but not least, I was excited to go through my wedding album pictures and have digital copies made. We are celebrating 10 years in November, so I figured it was time to do something about them. They came out a little blurry but I'm still excited to have digital images.