evening at the pool....#1

The kids started evening lessons last night, after the pool closes, at the Winona aquatic center. They are M-Th this week and next, Fridays are set aside for make-ups if needed. I told the kids we'd go a few days each week early and swim first. We didn't get a pool pass this year, but I may change my mind for next summer. They really do enjoy it! I think this year is more fun since Emily can pretty much go and do whatever she wants and now that I realize Luke can wear a life jacket (I thought they had a rule where kids could not wear any floatation devices, but if it's 'certified', they can), we'll probably be pool bums next summer!

Emily and her group, they were way over on the other side of the pool. They have pretty large classes, but 3 instructors per, so it works out pretty well.

Luke and his group of 3-4 year olds, he's on the far left.

Today we're off to meet Katie and the girls for Toddler Tuesday at the MAMM and a park for a picnic, hopefully it won't be as hot as yesterday!? We're gearing up for a visit from Grandpa Ron this weekend! And when I say 'gearing up', I mean cleaning. I think we're going to take him to Lark Toys for some mini golfing, hopefully the weather will be nice to us.

the calm before the storm...

We made our last summer camping trip over to Pioneer Campsite http://www.pioneercampsite.com/ in Wabasha this weekend. I'm disappointed I don't have very many pictures though, half way through Saturday, both my camera cards were full! Lesson learned...empty them more often. I remember checking the weather and seeing there was a chance of thunderstorms, but really, what's new with this rainy camping summer! I think we've had at least some rain during every trip. We got there Friday night, set up, spent lots of time Saturday in the pool and hanging out. Saturday night around 2am we woke up to thunder and lightning in the distance and by 3am, Emily screamed that she saw the screen tent fly away! The rain came down in sheets and the wind was pretty frightening. Dave pulled the van up to the tent and we hurled the kids and Stella in to take cover. Around 5:00am, the rain subsided some, enough for Dave to go searching for the screen tent, find it, and come back to get me to come drag it back with him. The kids finally fell asleep in the back of the van around 5:30am for a little while. The regular tent collapsed on one corner some and water got into one room, not too bad as far as the regular tent goes otherwise. Nothing we wanted to stay in it and find out though! Needless to say, everything was soaked. She said "I really want one of those campers or houses that you camp in." Us too kiddo! We drove into Wabasha Sunday around noon and noticed lots of trees and branches down. Other than the storm, Pioneer was really fun! A good mix of the redneck feel of camping and the city slickers coming down to good ol' Wabasha for some Mississippi river valley camping. Lots and lots of seasonal campers, awesome new playsets and some neat old stuff too, mini golf, a pool (which they are replacing this fall), tractor rides, lots of kids on bikes and people driving fun golf carts around, and of course, lots of dogs. It was like everybody had one!

We got rained on a little bit Saturday morning too, but dried out pretty fast.

Made something different this time, grilled salmon! It was good, Stella thought so too.

The kids had alot of fun at the pool, Luke loves swimming around in his life jacket. He thinks the deep part is the best, how would he even know the difference?!

Emily attempting to jump into her tube, she made it a few times!

Dave's fire masterpiece.....we found some little firestarters at the nature center at Whitewater, .25 a piece, so I got a dozen of them. According to Dave, they are the best thing ever. No more lighter fluid needed! Especially when places use cut up pallets for firewood. Good system I guess.

Some people down the road were letting off a few really loud fireworks, the kids sat in the ditch and watched.

We met a really nice couple, probably in their 50s, who just bought a seasonal site at Pioneer this summer. They had 2 cute dogs, Griffin and Jules. Griffin was a ham and letting Emily tell him commands and tricks for treats. Randy was working on a deck for their site, Luke spotted his drill and deck screws, so you know what his intentions were! Randy was happy to let him 'help.' They just have 4 grandaughters, so a little boy around was cute for them. It seems like a seasonal would be pretty fun to have there, and only 30 min. from home. We could spend whole summers here! Just a pipe dream for now though. Instead, we went around and took some pictures of a few we thought were pretty neat!

They have 2 brand new large Rainbow playsets as of this year, along with the new pool coming.

They have a cute mini golf course and some neat old play equipment, including 4 or 5 big rope swings.

half-time

Luke is

3 1/2

today!

sweaty kids

Yesterday, Katie, I and the kids went over to Rushford in the afternoon to play at their neat park. Who would have thought it would have been so hot!? They played for a little while and then we went over to The Creamery for ice cream instead. We'll have to hit that park in the fall again, it's too fun not to be able to spend lots of time there!

Library pool night

The library sponsored a free evening of swimming at the aquatic center last night after the pool closed @ 7pm. It was an "end of the summer reading program" type of party. We haven't even been to the Winona pool this summer, so it was quite the treat for the kids! Although next week, they start evening swim lessons there for 8 days, so we'll probably go early a few times and swim first.

Luke was getting braver and going out about neck deep, up to the first rope. Maybe those swim lessons are paying off?!

We gave Carol a break and took Rylie with, the girls had fun going down the big water slide lots and jumping off the diving board. It's fun to watch Emily do so many things in the pool! Emily has her last week of Park & Rec camp this week and the kids have their last swim lesson at the Y tonight, hopefully we'll get an email from WSU soon about when fall lessons will start. This weekend will be our last summer camping trip, we're just heading up the road to Wabasha. Lukes favorite town to say :) And I finally made reservations for the Dells at the end of the month, school will start before we know it!