Oregon Trip

Here are some pictures from our trip to Oregon. It was Grandpa and Grandpa, my girls and I, and Lea and her two girls until we met up with Will and Marissa and Wyatt in Roseburg then headed to the beach.

Watching TV at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 Feeding chickens and riding horses at Aunt Gabbie and Uncle Mark's house.

 Lol...Gabbie had to show the rest of the kids where to put their hands, and that you had to turn to make it go. Marta got on, grabbed the handle bars, and started twisting, trying to make it run. That child.

 Marta trying to make a break for it, going down the lawn at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 After a few days we went to Newport beach.

 Such a Grandpa's girl. Almost every second she was asking for Grandpa.

 Marta was constantly running. As soon as we set her down, she just took off.

 This was at the Newport Aquarium, and this was the only picture that I got of the two of them together.

 Yaquina Head lighthouse.

 The rest of these pictures I stole from Marissa or Lea.

 So cute. Little girls saying prayers eating bacon.

 I love this picture! Marissa took this one. It's cute baby "Why" as Marta says. (Wyatt)

 Also awesome. I think this one is Lea's. The wind was so crazy.

 Marissa's pretty scenic picture.

 Marta getting as deep as possible.

 It took a lot of convincing to get Emmaline to touch the stuff, but she finally did.

 It was July, and we had no warm clothes, so Emmaline wore a lot of Grandma's stuff. :)

 Marta LOVED the kitties. Everywhere we went she chased down the cats, and then asked for them almost every day at the rental house on the beach.

 Emmaline did a great job taking care of all of the younger cousins.

Little Fish!

So here's post number two that I've been working on. (Which I started working on forever ago, and then lost my SD card, but finally found it behind the couch!) We decided that since we're in this Texas heat, and there are two free swimming pools within a couple of miles of us, that this would be a good summer to work on teaching Emmaline to swim, and she has done really well! When we first started she would barely put just the front of her face in the water, and now she's a little too comfortable with the water! I really had no idea where to start in teaching her how to swim, so I started looking for guides on-line, and ended up finding a web-site that I really, really liked. We followed the steps, and swam pretty frequently over the summer, and now she'll dive to the bottom to retrieve toys(shallow end obviously), she can float on her front and back, she can doggy paddle under water, she can swim on her back, she can do the beginner freestyle, and she can jump in the pool. (Quite proudly:)) I'm not saying I would be comfortable throwing her in the deep end, but she's progressed really well. (That will be our next goal is learning how to tread water. They don't have that on the web-site, so I just kind of tried to teach her while we were at the Running Y and my Dad had Marta, and that wasn't as successful. :))

I've been wanting to get some video/pictures of Emmaline swimming, but we always go when Royce is at work and it's too much to try and manage both girls in the pool, so when we went to Oregon, my Dad watched Marta in the kiddie pool, and my mom got some video of Emmaline swimming. The only problem is that the pool sloped pretty steeply to where Emmaline couldn't touch, and I became the "rope" so I'm in all the videos. (The only thing worse than pictures in a swimsuit is video in a swimsuit. Oh well, just look at the kid. :)) So this first video is a beginning swimming on your back stroke called "pat the dog."

They also had lots of safety skill practices on the on-line training.

So proud jumping in the pool.

This one I just thought that Marta was funny.

Here's a picture that I stole from our friend's blog. We've been swimming with some friends at one of the neighborhood pool, and have had a lot of fun this summer. There are some really great families around student housing, and Emmaline has made some really great friends. I was sick on the last day that we were planning on meeting our friends at the pool, and Emmaline almost started crying, and said, "but it's the last day swimming with Ben!" But I assured her that we would have all year to play with Ben still. :)

This is the web-site that I used to help teach Emmaline how to swim. I really liked it, and it was super helpful!

http://www.uswim.com/

"Is anyone here a doctor?" "I'm a doctor."

Presenting Dr. Kimmons! I have a few posts to catch up on, but figured this one deserves to be first. On Monday, July 16th Royce defended his dissertation. Nana came out and watched the girls for us so I could go, and I'm really glad I got to. He's worked so hard these last four years (school full time and working 30hrs a week) and we're so proud of him! (Plus bonus points if you know where the title of this post comes from. Probably Uncle Will will be the only one. Too bad he doesn't read my blog.)

 You're supposed to bring food for your committee to eat (since often it's scheduled during their lunch) and sadly this is after they ate. We had a lot of food to bring home.