Summer Fun

The summer is quickly winding down and we are getting things ready for the move back to Hawaii.  We are all anxious to get there and get settled.

The summer has been packed with lots of fun activities.  Last week we finished the tball season and I was kind of sad to see it come to an end.  With the limited understanding of the game of baseball among 4 & 5 year olds and the even shorter attention span, the coach had asked any parents who wanted to help to get involved.  So, along the way I had kind of become the official first-base dad which involved alot of making sure kids knew when they should run toward the next base.  It was tons of fun though and after the last game I was actually kind of sad the season was over.

I think Juneau had more fun than she did with soccer (maybe because it was warmer during tball season) but she still wasn't into the whole organized sport thing that much.

In general, when she was running to first base you could usually tell it was because she "had to" and not because she really "WANTED TO".

Nova on the other hand...

This video pretty much sums up her level motivation anytime she was at bat:

In the field she loved gobbling up balls and running as fast as she could toward first base until she thought she was close enough that her throw would make it to the first baseman.

The end of the summer has also meant getting physicals for school...

...and SHOTS.  Nova went first on the shots and barely flinched (we may have underestimated her toughness).  Juneau watched the whole thing and by the time it was her turn, she was so psyched out she was in full on scream - probably made worse by the fact that earlier that morning she had been at the dentist getting her cavity filled:

So, she screamed her head off and the poor guy giving the shots and I had to overpower a 4 year old to get the job done.  We thought her reaction was bad until we had to stop back there yesterday to get our immunization records to send to the school and the little girl waiting to get her shots was screaming like crazy and actually jumped off the table and ran down the hall with her poor mom chasing her.

While I was working in the garage, Juneau and Nova were playing in the water and decided they needed to "ice" their ankle like they saw their basketball superstar cousin doing a couple weeks ago while visiting Ohio:

We had pretty much decided to sell this hand-me-down motorized jeep until the girls decided they loved it and have been driving it around the yard while I'm getting things ready to move in the garage.

"Juneau is the daddy so she drives and I'm the mommy so I talk on the phone while she's driving"

We had neglected to include one of the cutest pictures from our Bug Day adventures in the previous blog.  Since I had to ride with Nova and Timmy on the rocket ride, I got this picture from inside the cockpit of Nova keeping Timmy safe and Timmy gladly accepting the mothering :)

The other highlight of the summer has been the girls love of the pool that was completely cemented after 2 weeks of swimming lessons.  Nova had gotten totally comfortable in the water and holding her breath and was even starting to be able to swim as lessons were ending.  Then, when we went to the pool yesterday, it all just kind of clicked and away she went...we now have 2 swimmers:

All summer Juneau had been saying the next time we went to the big pool she was going off the diving board.  She didn't back down...The funniest part is, if you listen closely, you can hear the girl lifeguard say "She CAN swim right?"...Uh, no, I'm just going to stand on the side of the pool and watch my 4 year old who can't swim jump into the deep end...

This was about the 6th time she had gone off the board for the day.  She had been out of the water for about 30 minutes because she was cold so she is a little hesitant of getting cold again.  The first 5 times, she ran off the end of the board without hesitating, swim as fast as she could to the side and hurry back to the end of the line to go again.  It was awesome.  After about the 5th time off the low dive she actually SAID she wanted to try the high dive but we decided to let that wait for another day.

Finally, in typical fashion, the girls find plenty of ways to make us laugh.  Last week we got a cool package of clothes from favorite Hawaii cousin - Melody.  Included was this really cool cow mask:

 The girls figured out and thought is was more fun to turn it over so it looked like a ZOMBIE!

In a couple short weeks the girls and I will be headed back to Hawaii and Emilie will be a few weeks behind (God willing).  All of our stuff is being shipped the end of Aug and hopefully will be there not too long after Jude is scheduled to arrive.  Then, maybe, after 2 years, things will start to resemble a normal life...

Maybe...