Happy 4th of July!!

Who needs fireworks, when you have a brand new semi-public swimming pool facility!

Lillie was LOVING the water and trying out all the new skills she just learned.
Good 'ole floatie gave Lillie the confidence she needed to venture on her own.
She's a floating pro!

Swimming with Daddy

Even though swimming skills is important and fun, the REAL excitement was the kid-size pool! See the frog slide in the background, and yes, those are fake palm trees scattered throughout.

There was a short walking ramp with varying spouting fountains.

There was a GREAT water feature with 5 buckets of falling water. Lillie loved it!

Then there was the BIG snake! Don't be fooled! It took Lillie a little while to get into this position!

Hanging out with her dad.

Fun, fun, fun!!

The past two weekends, we have been on mini "vacations". Well, sort of. The youth in our stake have had their girl's camp one week and the boys had scout camp the next week. Keola spoke at both camps on the last day, so we tagged along. Since the camps are relatively far (2 & 4 hours away), we stayed at hotels. That was Lillie's favorite part. We couldn't help but take pictures of the beautiful moutains outside our hotel room.

Can you tell Lillie and I spent some time out on our balcony? We even saw the sunset!

The next morning we headed to the restaurant down the hill for a surprisingly YUMMY breakfast! Here's Lillie and her Daddy!

Here's my little artist.

As you can see, she's REALLY into her mermaids!

Mommy and Me!

Day 4 - Last Day

Lillie was pretty sad that this would be her last swimming lesson for the summer, but she got over it pretty quickly!

Lots more jumping and bit more floating, this time with moments of free floating!
Doesn't Lillie look so grown up!! Hanging out with the girls!

Here's Lillie "directing" the game...our little Boss Lady!

Being careful not to get water in the eyes, why? Not sure, since a second before she was dunking her head in the water retrieving pool toys!

There was some kicking on the kickboard, to get her ready for this...

dog paddling without any noodles and without a kickboard. Apprehensive wasn't even CLOSE to describing poor Lillie. Unfortunately, it ended in some tears, but Lillie was brave to get back in the water and play one last game before her lesson was over.

Our Little Swimmer left asking when she could take more lessons! A little drama, but in the end I know Lillie LOVED getting more acquainted with the skills of swimming!

Day 3

Today started with me having a little pep talk with Lillie telling her that if she didn't try new things, she would never know if she liked it or not, could do it or not.

Then it was off to swimming lessons. "All Aboard!!" Lillie played middle cabin on the swimming train. "Whoo Whoo! Chugga, chugga. Chugga, chugga. Whoo, Whoo!"

Lillie's trying to get the hang of being on the noodle "by herself"...sort of.
Then there was a little kicking while on her back.

"Look Mommy! I'm doing it!" was heard MANY times today!

And then the BIG surprise...Lillie swam SOLO!! Yippee!!

Good form, Rocket!

Then the races began!

A few more jumps in the pool...with head completely submerged.

Back to practicing on the noodle.

"Uhhh, I think drank a little water?!?!"

A little swallowed water never hurt anyone, right?!?! ha ha Tomorrow's the last day (remember I mentioned, this was a CRASH course), so stay tuned!

Day 2

I apologize for the terrible pictures. I forgot my camera on Day 2, so I had to resort to taking pictures with my phone. Oh well, you'll get the idea.

So Day 2 we had more clinging going on, but Lillie was sure having fun.

The girls had Lillie jump in the pool, which she was a little hesistant about...well, she was pretty hesistant about everything at first.
Then the challenge was jumping in and letting her head go underwater

Yesiree, that's the top of Lillie's head IN the water! Yea!

She practiced floating again, but this time she was told to put her hands above her head like a rocket and push off the wall and glide.

My little Lillie Fish is having a BLAST!!

June 18-19th was our stake conference. It was a "grueling" weekend as we prepared our home, the stake center, talks, and ourselves for two general authorities. Not sure why we only took pictures with one, but this is Elder and Sister Packer (President Packer's son) and the other visiting authority was Elder Bluth. With so many visitors, they actually opted to stay at the nearby hotel near our home, instead of with us. However, we were able to sit and talk with all of them as they came over for brunch before the Saturday meetings. The conference was wonderful, but between webcasting to most of the buildings in our stake for the first time AND having general authorities visiting, you'll have to ask Keola if he's recovered!

This isn't a great picture (taken with my ipod touch!), but it was so cute, I had to include it. After Sunday's meetings, and a long weekend for us, Lillie was SUCH a good girl and quite entertained by the William's boys (Keola's 1st counselor's sons). They were making a homemade battleship game - quite creative huh??!?!

Let's Take a Dip!

Lillie has REALLY enjoyed her bath time! So, when teenage sisters advertised that they were giving swimming lessons this summer, Lillie let us know that she was interested.

Day 1...can you tell?!?!

It took a little time, but Lillie finally trusted the girls to take her to the "deeper" end.
After those few minutes, she was ready to go! Kicking with her noodle.

This took a little time too, but she tried it...floating!

Notice the death grip on the girls neck. Ha ha!

Then she REALLY got the hang of it - kicking her legs and "scooping ice cream" with her arms.

So much fun!! Stay tune for Day 2!