Gymnastics!

 We took a few pictures on our last night of gymnastics for the summer.  Bobby had a great time jumping in the sponge pit. 

 Sometimes the only way to get Bobby to sit still for a minute so his teacher can give the class directions is to physically restrain him.  I was definitely exhausted by the end of each class.  Emmy is a good listener and so she just sits by us to keep the naughty Bobby company.

Most of the time Bobby is running full speed while at class.  He usually is running away from his class and away from me. I had to threaten several times with time outs.  He loves to run over to the water drinking fountain where he drinks so much water so fast that last week at class he threw up water.  He just really love the drinking fountain!

 Here I am physically restraining my Bobby again so he will listen to his teacher.  I do like to hold him and as his "partner" it is my job to make sure he doesn't get kicked out of class.

 He is very strong and can hold himself up on the rings where he practices his positions and does very well remembering each one.

 Here is our Emmy girl in the sponge pit!

 Emmy's teacher asked her to demonstrate the 'flamingo' on the bars for the class.  She jumped right up and did it perfectly.  I was proud!  She has really learned a lot.

Bobby is so brave and he loves to flip over around the bar.  When he gets hurt he always jumps back up and tries it again.  He is one tough little dude!

My little pop stars

Emmy and Bobby often take popular songs on the radio and they change their lyrics to funny things.  Here they are trying to out do each other!

Our trip to Aberdeen

My mom and I took the kids to Aberdeen this past weekend.  It was primarily a work trip for me to visit sites but we made sure to keep the kids entertained so they thought it was all about them!

 We went to storybook land where we saw lots of huge exhibits modeled after nursery rhymes and stories.  The kids also rode on the train, the carousel and just ran around and had a great time.  We met my friend Kristen Hawkins there and she brought her little baby Jocelyn with her.  I got so busy talking with her that I forgot to take pictures of all of us.  Towards the end of our time there poor Emmy came running up to me from the playground to tell me that she had peed her pants.  I surveyed the situation and had no choice but to tie up her jacket and use it as a skirt.  We headed to the gift shop with the hope that I could buy her some shorts.  There were no shorts but each kid picked out their own item that I promised to buy.  Emmy picked a kaleidoscope and Bobby found a choo choo train that he loved and played with the rest of the trip.

We then met up with Kristen and Jocelyn later on at Max and Erma's which is a restaurant she and her husband have invested in.  The kids were mostly well behaved but had some trouble sitting still for over an hour.  Without naps and a regular schedule it was getting tough.  They both enjoyed ice cream at a station where you could choose your own toppings.  Having my mom there was very helpful and I was able to catch up with my friend since it had been a while.

The hotel we stayed at had a great kids pool that the kids swam in for hours.  They loved their time there but my mom and I had a tough time getting the chorine out of their skin and hair.  THe hotel bath was broken and we had to call several times before it finally was fixed. The kids had a hard time settling down and sleeping in the same room as us and I am a light sleeper so I could not sleep at all the two nights we were there.  The saturday that we left I was signed up to run the half marathon in Aberdeen.  The night before the race at 10:45 (an hour after we had all gotten to sleep) the fire alarm went off and we evacuated the building.  Poor Bobby was shaking like a leaf and crying as I carried him.  Emmy had been hot and in her sleep had taken her pj top off and my mom couldn't find it so she was carried out half naked.  It was a mess and it took quite some time to get the kids settled down once we were allowed into the building again.  I did manage to get 2nd place amongst all the women running and ran in the top 10 for all the runners of the half.  It wasn't my best time at 1 hour 35 minutes but the course was terrible and my garmin told me I actually ran more distance for that time than an actual half distance.  I decided that I would take 2nd vs killing myself for first this time around and try to enjoy running the race.  We came home and went straight to Robb's softball game.  He played great and made the all tournament team.  His team got 2nd place and played all day and into the night.  He didn't get home until after 7 and I was pretty glad to get some relief from single parenting. 

Our crazy boy!

Bobby seems to be able to find a way to make anything dangerous.  We went to the park the other day (the kids, me, grandma Pearl) and he decided the slide was much more fun if you flew off the end and landed on your butt.

Our little fish!

Swimming lessons

I stopped in to watch my Emerson swim.  She was so excited to see me and was excitingly telling her friend Mimi that her mommy was there!  We couldn't hear each other through the glass so she was winking, waving, giving me thumbs up and fist pumps to communicate that she was pretty happy swimming!

A great day at the pool

Although I only got a couple of quick shots of the kids stopping to eat snacks, most of this beautiful day was spent swimming and jumping into the Apple Creek country club pool.  Bobby and Emmy had the most fun squirting grandma with water guns.  Bobby laughed and yelled out,"I squirting you now Grandma!"

My braiding and hair styling skills have gotten better

I usually have to deal with squirming and time constraints but my skills are improving!

The cutest kids on the planet!

Emmy and Bobby really do love each other most of the time.  Here they are cuddling after bath time!

I took some shots of the kids sleeping because they are so adorable and I never want to forget how cute they are!

Bobby's favorite book

Bobby now reads to us before nap and bedtime.  He has a favorite book which he has memorized front to back that he can read to us.  This is a video of him reading that book.  There are many other books that he makes up the words/story to based on the pictures which is also pretty entertaining.  He also sings his own songs to me now instead of me singing to him.  He has started to want to sit next ot me instead of on my lap which is hard for me.....my baby is growing up!

A little fun in the sun

Today we had some fun in the sun!  We all went to the Elks pool.  Emmy had fun going down the slide and swimming her heart out in the deep end.  Emmy showed me her front and back floats that she has been learning in swimming lessons.  Bobby swam in the shallow end but also had fun in the fountains where he would run in face first!

Emmy also had a fun play date with her best friend Olivia Charles.  Olivia's parents and older brother came to get Emmy in the morning and took her with them to the park, zoo and then Rock'n 50s cafe where she told me she had hot dogs and rode on the merry go round ride.  Emmy told us many stories of the fun time she had on her FIRST OFFICIAL play date with another friend.

Another day, another trip out

Grandma Launa and I took the kids to the Heritage Center which was still under construction (much to our surprise).  So plan B was to visit the water fall fountain outside the Heritage center and some exhibits in the basement.  We then went for ice cream which the kids probably preferred above all else anyhow!

Little mermaid

 I took Emmy to the Little Mermaid with Stacey and Mason.  She sang along, waved to the cast and was just mesmerized by the show.  She was so happy and cute to watch.  The show was a late one and she was up until 11 but she was in good spirits and not tired at all. 

At intermission she spotted one of the cast and couldn't take her eyes off of her.  The cast member (who was dressed as an evil eel) saw Emmy staring and offered to take a picture with her.  In this picture Emmy is looking at the camera but in most pictures she is glancing side ways at the eel and just can't take her eyes off of her!  It was so cute and funny.  Then for the second half of the show Emmy kept telling me that this eel was her friend now and would be letting the rest of the cast know that Emmy was sitting in the audience and that she was a nice girl and her good friend.  Emmy told me, "Oh she was looking right at me mommy.......Oh, she told the sea with that there in the crowd is her friend Emmy!"  At the end of the show Emmy clapped so hard and of course spent some time waving to her 'new cast member friends.'

Summer fun

Yesterday we went to the park.  This park has equipment that look like fire trucks and fire equipment and so Emmy wore her fire hat.  The kids play so well together and always seem to make new friends.  They listen so well to me and this makes our trips this summer really fun.  I'm really proud of how well behaved they are when we are out in public.  My kids are the BEST :)

I love you sister/brother!

4th of July fun!

The family went to the parade on July 4th.  We got a great spot and the kids brought their buckets to collect candy.  They made sure to share and offer candy to other kids who may not have been so lucky getting candy during the parade.  The parade got off to a late start (an hour behind) and the kids were very patient.  They loved the parade and were so much fun to watch.

Later that day the Lovdal family had a 4th of July bash.  The kids swam, played with friends and ate great food.  Emmy wanted to play inside for a while with Andrew's toys while Bobby dragged poor Grandpa Bob around all day wanting him to go with in the golf cart so Bobby could drive.  Robb now bribes Bobby with riding in the lawn mower to get him to behave since he LOVES driving!  The kids were looking pretty cool on the ride over to the Lovdal party.

Gotta love this girl!

I let Emmy stay up extra late with me and watch the fireworks with us.  She loved it and made up her own dance to the music which Robb taped.

Bear party family fun!

We all had a fantastic time at the Bear party this past weekend.  They had bouncy houses, water toys, pools and great food!  The kids had such fun there and so did the adults.  Bobby was a wild man!!  He would take a long run and spring into the pool head first or jump right on his rear end.  The water was ice cold and so he was ice cold after almost 2 straight hours of doing this! 

More fun for the Eckerts

 The kids love swimming in their pool

 Bobby really enjoys driving anything with a steering wheel.  He doesn't like for Robb to touch the wheel at all when they are mowing together.  Here he is having a great time mowing the grass with daddy....he did this until the job was finished and was proud to tell me all about it later.