We had a great weekend!  Saturday we spent the afternoon at the Waterpark and it was a lot of fun.  We met up with a few other kiddos so Austin was very excited to play with everyone.  Austin swam like a fish for almost three hours.  He showed off his back floating skills as well!  Those swim lessons are definitely paying off.  Colton stood on his tip toes and walked all around in the pool.  He loved splashing us and himself!  Charlee and Colton walked around together splashing eachother and trying to hold hands.  The hand holding didn't work so well since they were just barely keeping their heads above water!  It was cute though. . . again, Colton and Charlee just followed eachother around for almost an hour in the water.  Both boys loved the waterpark and we will definitely be spending a lot of time there this summer!

Sunday we went boating with Jana, Corey, Macy and Tate.  The kids are all close in age and had fun building sand castles and "driving" the boat around!  Austin had no fear of the water and continually told me how much fun he was having!  Colton had a big life jacket on and he could lay his head back on the life jacket without getting his head wet.  He held on to my fingers and laid his head back over and over again.  Each time he laid his head back he would kick his legs, making big splashes and giggles!  He is definitely a water lover! 

After building sandcastles and swimming we had lunch on the boat.  All the kids were looking a little tired but we went swimming again after lunch too.  Austin started a shell collection, which he unfortunately left on the beach.  We buried Colton's legs in the sand and would then ask him where his toes are, which he giggled about every time his toes popped up. 

 Colton only wore his hat for a short time but he did wear these pink sunglasses for quite a while.  They were Macy's so please don't worry that I bought Colton pink shades!  Both boys loved jumping off of the boat into the water . . . over and over again.  They also loved standing up front, no matter how fast we were going.  As you can see in this picture from their hair that they were not afraid of the wind blowing in their faces!!  Colton's hair is getting long and was pretty hilarious to see blowing in the wind!

Austin got to drive the boat for a little bit and he was a very fast driver!  When he sat down with Corey to drive he announced:  "All aboard the SS Austin!  I'm the captain now!"  Not sure where he picked up this phrase but he used it perfectly!!

A fun picture of Austin and I from Memorial Day weekend.  A friend just sent this to me and Austin has a nice smile.  He is always making funny faces lately so I thought I would post this one!!  He was "helping" us make napkins into bowties!! 

From Swim Lessons to Super Heroes!

So, yesterday Austin had swim lessons and Colton went too.  They both did a great job!  When we got there I told Austin to take off his shoes and shirt so Colton also leaned over and unvelcroed his sandals and tried to get his shirt off too!  Colton watched patiently from the sidelines for half of the lesson and then he sat on my lap for a bit.  He also made a new friend, Berkley, and played with her for the last part of the lesson.  Austin is getting really comfortable with the back float, of course the teacher is right there with him but he is looking much more relaxed than he did the first couple of days.  He is still very excited to get there and get started, which is great.  His favorite part about the lesson was "Jumping In!"  At the end of the lesson she lets each kid jump in twice!  Austin is the only kid that gets really into it; he steps back a couple steps to get a running start and he tucks his knees!  He's a little fish when it comes to the water.

And later on last night . . .
Austin:  "Mommy, me and Colton are going to be Super Heroes when we get bigger."
Mommy:  "Sounds great . . . what kind of super powers will you have?"
Austin:  "Moooommy. (He says mommy as if I am asking a question I should already know the answer too!)   First me and Colton need to eat Super Hero food so we can get bigger and stronger and get our Super Hero super powers."
Mommy:  "What is Super Hero food?"
Austin:  "Moooommy.  Super Hero food is like carrots, cooocumbers, hot dogs and milk."
Mommy:  "Well those are your favorite foods this week so you should be a Super Hero in no time!"
Austin:  "Yeah.  Then me and Colton will be able to fly and rescue people."  - This last part was said with a little gleam in his eye as he's looking at Colton.  Those two are in for some great adventures!!

Swing batter, swing!

   Colton and I went on a walk while Austin and Daddy went to swim lessons last night.  After our walk with Jamie and Baby Keller we had some hitting practice.  Colton knows right what to do with the bat and even grunted when he swung and made contact with the ball!  So cute!  He made a big swing and the below picture shows how far the ball went.  He really loves anything that has to do with a ball lately!! 

I'm a Big Boy Now!

 Austin has been working really hard on potty training.  Well, we all have!  We have tried almost everything to get him to use the potty and we think this time it is going to stick.  He has only had 2 accidents in the last two weeks!!  We are very proud of him and part of his motivation was a trip to Chuckee Cheese's if he didn't have an accident for 7 days in a row.  Well, he made it and we went to Chuckee Cheese's the very next evening.  He wanted pepperoni pizza, lemonade and to play all the games!  Here are a few shots of the boys enjoying a couple hours of game playing.

 Austin also loves climbing in the tunnels and the slide that they have.  There weren't very many kids there while we were there so Austin had the climbing thing all to himself.  In the below picture, Colton looked everywhere but at me!  He was too busy enjoying the ride.  :)  He rode in the two cars they had there about 5 times each.  He loves the cars!! 

Swim Lessons

 Last night was Austin's first swim lessons class!  He was very excited and he did very well.  He loves the water so we weren't worried about him being nervous.  He had to sit on the blue kickboard while the other kids had their turn and sitting still on the kickboard proved to be the biggest challenge for Austin as he wanted to be playing in the water the entire time.  His teachers name is Kelsey and she is great with him.  He used his kickboard to swim out in the water, he put his face in the water and practiced blowing bubbles, he dunked underneath the water to pick up the blue eggs that were at the bottom of the pool (2'6") and he attempted the back float.  Every time he did something new he would turn around and tell Brian and I what he had just done.  He was very excited and we were all very proud of him.

 This is Austin diving for eggs.  He was just about to go under to get an egg in this one.  There was a little toy turtle in one of the eggs . . . went over great with Austin and the other little boy in his class.

 Austin just got done blowing bubbles!  He had to put the front of his face on the water and blow bubbles, which was no problem for him. 

 Colton came along to watch which proved to be pretty entertaining as well.  Colton was very unhappy that he could not get in the water with his brother.  He was pretty upset the first part of the class and then he camled down and stood by the railing the rest of the class.  He was very interested in what Austin was doing and was trying his best to be as sad as possible (so Brian and I would feel bad for him, we think!)

 Colton is leaning over to see what is in the eggs that Austin is opening. 

 In this one Colton was swinging his leg back and forth and just looking sad and cute at the same time.  (Notice Brian in the background of this one watching over both boys.)

In this one I thought he was going to try to climb under the railing but he didn't.  He just sat down and watched the last couple minutes like this.  Brian and I decided we won't put Colton through this again so only one of us will go with Austin and the other one will stay home with Colton.  That way Colton doesn't have to be sad about this every time there is a swim lesson that he can't participate in.  He just wants to do everything his brother is doing, they are a great pair!

What a great weekend we had!!  Friday evening we went to the park and ran off some energy for a couple hours before heading home to have dinner.  The boys had the park to themselves which was nice.  They had their pick of whatever they wanted to do . . . and of course they did it all!!  They also managed to find the only mud puddle within a five mile radius of the park.  So, we headed home for dinner and bubble baths!  Friday night Austin's "Blessings":  "Chicken and BBQ Sauce and Milk and I guess spargagus (asparagus) too . . . even though I don't like it and I hid it all under my plate."  We actually thought he ate it until he let the cat out of the bag!  Never a dull moment

Saturday we did a couple of things around the house and went to the library.  Austin ran over to the puppet show booth and put on a puppet show.  He made me sit in a little chair and enjoy the show.  It was quite good.  He told me a story about a chipmunk.  He was very cute!  There is a lot of imagination in him and we definitely enjoy this all day long!  Austin and Colton met one of our neighbors a couple weeks ago.  His name is Harrison and he is two and a half.  Harrison and his mom came over Saturday evening and played toys at our hosue. . . Austin also gave a tour of the entire house so they would both know where everything is.  After Colton went to sleep Saturday night we watched a Little Einstein movie.  (Since Austin is doing such a good job potty training, he got to pick the movie out.)  We made popcorn and watched his movie.  It was a very exciting reward for him doing such a great job on the potty. 

Sunday we went to church and then came home and went on a walk.  We walked over to the UNI campus and walked through tunnels and got to go on the roof of the Union.  Austin thought both of these things were great. . . Colton just chilled in the stroller and wanted to nap!  We stopped to throw pinecones and rocks into the creek and then went home to have popsicles.  We got a lot done around the house and last night we had Jake, Sarah, Zoey and Charlee over for dinner.  The kiddos sat outside on the deck together and had dinner.  We played in the yard after dinner.  They all do a good job of playing together and each of them definitely knows how to hold their own when they want too!  We had to have a couple of "sharing" conversations with them before the night was over but they do enjoy running around together! 

Austin starts swim lessons tonight so we are all looking forward to a fun week!