Summer Vacation 2010

We kicked off summer vacation June 3rd with Dave having the week off.  He took us up to Mt. Baldy in the FJ Cruiser for our first family off-roading tour.

My favorite moment was after I hopped back in the car after helping Dave navigate a very tight passage and Rachel said, "I know something that starts with S, Mom"  What's that Rach?  "S is for SCARY."

Apparently, she doesn't have an adrenaline addiction developed yet.

Rachel's dance recital was June 5th and she did marvelously.  My daily calendar's quote that day was, "When in doubt, twirl."  How fitting.  Especially if you saw the dance.  After the dress rehearsal she told me she almost cried when she got on the stage and I was surprised but tried to comfort her.  She said "No, Mom.  I wasn't sad.  I wanted to cry because I was so happy."

Here are some photos of our little ballerina.  Just this week she was moved to a longer ballet class with older kids.  It makes my life considerably more complicated having dance after the boys get home from school (since it's soccer season) but she seems to love it.  She's not a baby anymore!

And swim team began even before school let out.  It was the defining activity of our summer since it took up every weekday morning from 7-9:30am.  Rachel followed with swim lessons every day until 10:45am.  That's a lot of pool time!  It's a good thing most of our friends were at the pool too every morning.  Baby Dane was the source of much joy and love this summer.  He probably will not remember the summer but we will never forget it...

Jake is on the back row and Ben is nearly dead-center looking like he's ready to jump out of the picture.

The boys did a great job on the team and the coaches were tremendous.  They both improved in form and speed considerably.  Jake has even said he will go out for the high school team since he knows the coach now.  Great news!