Kylah can swim!!

After being highly recommended by the Stuck's, we enrolled Kylah in survival swim lessons. Ms Rita runs the 1 week program at her home pool with the help of her 3 children, and has earned the nickname "the Swim Nazi". Thankfully I had Melody's support through this - she warned me ahead of time that Kylah would cry during the first few days of the class, and that she'd probably throw a tantrum before even getting in the car to drive there. She was right! In fact, had Melody not been there with me, I probably would've cried right along with her! On day 1 Ms. Rita worked with Kylah in the shallow end - dunking her (and every kid) in the water repeatedly until she stopped crying. Then she worked with her on keeping her head down in the water, eyes open looking at the pool floor, and kicking her legs.

By day 2, this is what she was doing already!! (See video. For some of these kids, it's their 2nd or 3rd session, and some are also a little older than Kylah. For being 2, we were SO excited for her!)

Days 3 and 4 went really well too. Kylah cried as we put on her swim suit in each morning, saying "I don't want to go yet Mommy!!" She would calm down on the car ride there, and then do really well during the session. By day 4 she was jumping in the pool by herself and swimming to the stairs over and over again. She was so proud of herself for jumping in all by herself - she told everyone! (See video, Kylah is in the blue suit with white polka dots)

On Friday, day 5, Kylah was tossed in the pool and swam across all by herself! She could use a little work on technique yet - but keep in mind she's only 2 years old and this was the first swim class she's ever had - let alone it only being the 5th day of it! We've since practiced in our neighbors pool and will continue to do so the rest of the summer. We're so proud of her - she worked hard and is so proud of herself too now! (See video below)

If anyone reading this is interested in sending your young children there, please let me know! I highly recommend Ms. Rita's class now, just as Melody does. And I will definitely be sending Kylah back for a refresher course with her next summer too!

FINALLY...

Here's the post I've been meaning to get to all month, finally :)

In January we took a family vacation with Grandma & Grandpa T and Uncle Mark up to Boyne. Although I had a terrible cold, we still had a lot of fun together. On Saturday, the sun was shining, it wasn't very cold out, and the guys decided to take Kylah skiing for the first time. She was excited to put on her snow gear, but definitely wasn't happy about the ski boots. I can't say I blame her, they aren't the most comfortable things to wear! Once we got outside, she perked up right away - until we clipped her into the skis. Again, awkward for a 2 year old to be trapped on something like that...



However - once daddy got her comfortably situated on the "magic carpet" and they got to the top of the hill, she stopped crying and actually had fun going down!
She made it down the hill twice, and had enough. She was all smiles when we told her she could take the skis off :)Since watching skiing on the Olympics, she's let both of us know that she wants to ski again herself. We'll have to get her back on the hill before winter ends to see how she does the second time around!

On Sunday the boys skiied again, while Grandma and I took Kylah to Avalanche Bay, the indoor waterpark. Kylah absolutely loved every minute of being there. Her favorite was the lazy river, trying to avoid the waterfalls while watching Grandma get soaked! Unfortunately our pictures from this didn't turn out so well, but we did get a few to remember the experience by.

A little nervous at first, but she quickly got over that once we got in the water! We stayed for 4 hours, until her little fingers and toes looked like raisins :)

Overall, it was a great little vacation for us all, and Kylah still talks about it all the time. She's so excited for the summer now when she can swim some more, and I know we are too!

A very busy weekend

Wow - between Thursday and Sunday this past weekend we were extremely busy! All fun things going on though...our Aunt Tami and Uncle Randy from Texas were in town so we spent a lot of time with family.

It all started on Thursday with a bath for Kylah, one which Riley tried to join:

Then the whole family (all 16 people!) came over for dinner, and Kylah got to play with her cousin Caleb:

Friday night we went to a Whitecaps game together:

Saturday Craig and I went to our friends wedding while Grandma and Grandpa Winkler watched Kylah. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was so much fun!

Congratulations Jeff & Ashley

On Sunday we took our whole family out to the marina for the day. The weather was absolutely perfect for boating and swimming - we swam in both the pool and Spring Lake!

Last night we all went to Blue Water Grill for dinner out on the back porch overlooking the water. Great food and great company, as always. The fun isn't ending yet though - tonight we're going to Bonefish Grill for Ashley's 21st Birthday :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!!

A day at the beach

On Sunday we took Riley and Kylah to the beach, instead of on the boat for a change. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and perfect for swimming all afternoon. We love going to this particular beach in Muskegon because dogs are allowed, and you can't see it from the road so not many people know about it. We definitely enjoyed the family time together, and were exhausted afterwards!