Fun with friends

We've had a lot of fun things planned the past few weeks.

Olivia had her birthday party at a great gymnastics place.  

One of my best friends growing up stopped through on their way to Branson.  Erin and her husband Matt live in Minnesota now, so we don't get to see each other near enough.

Erin and I

The kids - they had so much fun playing together (Eli was napping)

Maggie saved up her coins on her Vivofit watch to get a mani/pedi.

She is definitely my girly-girl.  She loves it!

She thought the sugar scrub on her legs tickled!

We use our neighbors trampoline pretty much every night.

The kids have a blast just running and jumping around.

Selfies with Mom!

Maggie thought she was hilarious putting on her 'lipstick' while she was eating her frozen yogurt.

The kids are LOVING swim team.

Maggie is continuing to improve each week and Colin has qualified for Conference in almost every event!

Swimming is such a great activity for the kids this summer!

Dance recitals, conferences, and random summer happenings

Maggie had her dance recital the first weekend in June.

She LOVES doing dance and I can see her sticking with it for some time.

We were at her dance rehearsal  - she's in the middle of the 2nd row

During the last week of May, I snuck away to Denver for our annual ACSM conference.

So much fun.

Learned a lot, had fun with my friends from undergrad and graduate school.

I got to see Michael Phelps speak at the conference.  

He's a great role model for kids!

Sent this picture to the kids back home - they thought he looked like "an old dad".  

HA!

I presented some research at the conference. 

Had quite a few people stop and ask questions, that was nice!

There was a 5k Fun Run at the conference, it was a beautiful morning in Denver!

I got this cute collage of pictures from our daycare provider.

Eli always has so much fun at daycare!

I made it back from Denver in time for Maggie's dance recital.

She did fantastic and loved it!

Maggie and her dance buddies from school

They came back out and danced to "hard knock life" from Annie at the end.

Maggie is in the 2nd row up there - middle of the bunch

.

Tiff and Chad came up to watch Maggie dance

Arleigh enjoyed some time with Colin

We hit the pool up for a bit 

I think Arleigh is adorable with her thumb in her mouth

We made it out for some ice cream at a local yogurt shop

The kids chose not to sit with us - probably won't be the last time for that :)

Eli found a frog to sit on!

Eli is loving life with all the swimming pool time

Colin and cousin Olivia had ball games at the same fields the other week.

I thought this was a pretty cute picture of the 2 of them!

Maggie is teaching Eli the art of 'selfies'

Love those two!

Eli wants to do EVERYTHING Colin and Maggie do.

This includes wearing goggles and playing with light sabers!

He is such a ham!

Summer is off to a great start!

Memorial Day weekend 2017

Summer is off to a great start!

Colin started swim team last week (well, he only made one practice because of baseball games and such), but it as nice seeing him in the pool again!

 Colin is in that line of kids behind the first starting block from the right.

He's got on a red, navy, and royal blue rash guard shirt by the girl in the pink cap.

 Smiling so big during the whole practice.

He moved up to 8&under this year.  It's going to be a big step up for him - I'm sure he'll be tired by the end of practice!

Found this random picture of Maggie on my phone.

Such a silly girl

 We all went to the pool every day this weekend.

Saturday, we had to dodge thunderstorms and rain, but it was still fun!

Eli is such a water baby already.

He's blowing bubbles, going all the way under, jumping from the side (with help), it's so fun!

 And of course Colin and Maggie are happy to show him the ropes in the pool

 Another attempt at the pool (between rain)

We practically had the pool to ourselves on Saturday, but then on Sunday and Monday it seemed like the entire neighborhood was there!

 Blowing bubbles with Daddy

Eli sat on the pool steps and said "Hi, Cole" over and over to the lifeguard that was working at the time.  Luckily, Cole helped coach Colin the past couple years on swim team, so he knows our family well!

 We hit up Caleb's graduation party on Saturday, too.

Gotta love spending time with GGRita!

Here's Eli with cousin Lucy (Scott & Suzanne's little girl)

 The kids were so excited to see Claire again!

 And the man of the hour, Caleb!

 I snapped this picture as we were leaving the graduation party.

Daniel just loves Colin and Maggie!

And here's all the grandkids with Grammie and Granddad on Monday afternoon.

There were games of kickball, sword fighting, lots of wonderful food (nothing beats Grammie's brisket) and great conversation.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!