we love the water!!!

We spend a lot of time in the pool here at the hotel and also at the natatorium where the girls take swimming lessons. We've always joked that Ava may really be a mermaid because she loves the water so much, and now she's taken it to a whole new level. After just 2 swimming lessons, she is not only jumping in the water with no hesitation, but she is swimming! She can doggy paddle across the length of the pool! These videos are from a couple weeks ago, now she's doing these jumps without her floaties on and also doing a great back float and getting pretty good with a back stroke too! Her new favorite thing to practice is trying for a handstand. One day at the pool when we were here for a visit in May, she was being a ballerina in the pool and I told her about synchronized swimming. A little confused, I looked it up on youtube so she could see what I was talking about. Ever since she saw it she is dead set that she is going to be a synchronized swimmer and talks about it often. BTW, if you're ever interested in seeing a really cool synchro swim video to the song Stairway to Heaven, check this out: here. I think the comment posted on the video says it all..."The only way this could possibly be cooler is if one of them was playing guitar while riding a dolphin." LOL! :)

Anyway, I have lots of short videos to share. Some of Zoe too. She love-love-LOVES the water too. She can twirl around and around (with floaties on) but wouldn't do it when I had the camera with! I'll have to get that one another time.

The jump

Timber!

The running leap

The doggy paddle





Zoe swims





The launch





Zoe flies





And finally, with daddy...The cannon ball!

big sky...big move

Okay...we moved out here a month ago, and I'm just now posting about it! I love not working this summer (my first summer off since I started working when I was 16)! One thing that I really love is taking a siesta with my girls, which is frequently, hence still not getting photos off my camera! It is my goal to take care of my photos this week! I've got some fun videos to share too :)

On June 7th, we packed up my car and Jamie's car and brought everything that would fit in them. I mean EVERYTHING that would fit. Those cars were so packed, we literally could not fit another thing. Just to fill everyone in...the search for a place to live in Great Falls was not easy. A little background...There really aren't many apartments here. The ones that they do have are small and don't have a sign outside with anything like...a phone number. Craigslist and the newspaper didn't have much. I literally drove up and down almost every street in town looking for a place. I was just about to give up when I saw a little red sign in a window of a small brick building. I quick pulled over and read it..for rent! Yay! We checked it out and it looked great. It was available April 1st though, a little sooner than we needed, so when the property manager suggested that we might be interested in the new building being built 2 blocks up the road which would be done in May/June, we thought it would work great! In late April, we found out that it wouldn't be done until August. Uhhh, that might be a problem. Back on the internet looking for more rentals. Jamie checked some out, nothing promising. We decided to stay at the hotel that we had stayed at during our visits in March and May for the summer and just wait it out for August. Don't feel too bad for us...housekeeping, a fitness center, breakfast every morning, appetizers 3 nights a week, a great patio on the river, and need I mention a POOL!?!

This is our place...kitchen & living room

bedroom

bathroom

...and the stuff!

the patio area

the full patio area

the water fall and fire pit.

Now for the update: I just talked to Gladys today (the property manager for the apartment we're waiting for). After driving by the apartment and peeking in the windows, it really doesn't look like it'll be done in a month, so I wanted to see what she had to say. She confirmed that it will not be done in August and suggested that maybe we might want to look somewhere else. She couldn't give an estimate of when it will be done either. Sooooo...now we're back to square one. I've been on the internet again and we'll see what we can do. I'd really like to have a place before the school year starts because we have to get all of our other stuff out of our house! My brother Justin is renting our house from us, so there is some flexibility, but I'm sure he wants to fully settle in and so do we! For now, we'll just keep enjoying the pool and housekeeping! I'll keep you updated...hopefully with good news :)

memorial weekend

For memorial weekend, my mom, the girls, and I drove down to Chicago to spend the weekend with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. We had beautiful weather for most of the weekend and spent a lot of time outside.

We walked to the farmers market in downtown Downer's Grove

We had a picnic outside

Emma got a hold of my camera and snapped quite a few silly pics :)

Like a puppy dog, Zoe found a favorite spot on the floor to curl up in the sun...

...a few times!

The one day that it rained, IT RAINED! We decided a trip to the zoo would not be a good idea and instead made rice krispie bars, which were way fun!

Especially the tasting part!

dance moves

I can't say that I like the seeds that fall from our elm trees. The are everywhere. Park in the driveway for an hour and they cover the car. They are all over the deck. All over the table. All over the chairs. Ava and Zoe have a different outlook though...

They also wanted to show off some dance moves. Zoe loves to hulahula (in character with her shirt). Ava showed off some of her moves from her recital routine.

bike polo, a big cherry, and mud puddles

Before Memorial weekend, we went to Minneapolis to watch my brother Jer's bike polo tournament. We got there right before lunch and since he said he wouldn't be playing for 30 minutes, we decided to pick up some lunch and bring it to the meet, while we were gone, he texted me that they'd be up sooner than he thought, in 15 minutes, and as it turned out they were up even sooner and we missed it! We got back just as they finished :( It was still cool to watch the other people play. If you've never seen or heard of bike polo (I hadn't until Jer started playing) its pretty cool! Its kinda like street hockey on bikes. Jer sent me a link to a video one of the other minneapolis players made if you want to check it out. http://www.vimeo.com/5765080

Being that the tournament was across the street from the sculpture garden, we just had to walk over. The highlight was a big mud puddle in front of the cherry. :) I think they ran back and forth at least 50 times. Everything else was cool, but when I asked Ava what her favorite part was "The mud puddle!" was the obvious response. Below are some pics and a video of the fun.

cousins at the park

We met Aunt Kristen and cousins Gavin and Jaxon (and uncle Nathan too) at the park when they were in town for a visit. Hope its not too long before we see you again!

who needs toys?!

On the day I took this photo, Zoe came up to me with my sunglasses case on a takeout container lid and asked me, "Mommy, you want some cake? It hot though. You better be careful." We'd had the majority of our toys packed up at home since mid-April. That didn't stop Ava and Zoe from having fun. I think in the entire 6-7 weeks that they were all packed, I only heard Ava ask once for her Barbies. They both have wonderful imaginations and happily made do with whatever they found...like take out lids and sunglasses cases :)