Time to Ketchup!

So picking up from last Friday night's sleepovers (and don't forget Joe and I's date night), the next day we went to Upland so a) I could get my hair done and b) so we could have dinner with the family to celebrate Joe's mom, Grandma Anne's birthday. Jadyn made her a card but when we went to pull up a photo of Grandma Anne so Jadyn could get the hair "just right", we had to go all the way back to Easter 2005!!!!

So my mission that day was to get a picture of Grandma Anne with her four grandkids - Jake, Jadyn and cousins Aidan and Lilly, taken right before we sang happy birthday.

The last two weeks have been filled with morning swim lessons, afternoon play dates and evening baseball practices, usually followed by family movie time. We have already gone to see Madagascar 3 after having some friends over for lunch, met up for a play date at McDonald's (one of very few local indoor options), been to the splash park the past two Fridays and went as a family for frozen yogurt.

Both the kids had a great swim session and the big news is that Jadyn graduated from Stingrays to Dolphins, the same level Jake is currently working on. Jadyn worked really hard on her forward and backward crawl in order to pass and I am very proud of her. We will be doing one more session of swim lessons later this summer and it will be interesting to have both the kids in the same class together.

For the library's summer reading program, we have been bringing a picnic lunch to enjoy beforehand and with the community park being one of the few in town with mature trees and grass, it has been a treat to relax in the shade:

And although I would say both kids actually enjoy reading now, the incentives for the program make both of them more eager to spend time reading. These pictures will always be among my favorite:

Last week the program presented a puppet show with a story that included audience participation. It was really cute and the kids truly enjoyed it. Our local theater is putting on a kid-friendly production this summer called "Suessical the musical" and I forgot to include it on our summer bucket list but I definitely plan on taking the kids.

This past Friday, which is Jake's only night off from baseball practice, we decided to meet up with the Miller family to do the High View nature trail in the Black Rock Canyon area of the National Park. The kids sailed up and down the trail, which is approximately 1.3 miles. I really felt it going up but it was worth the view:

So I am feeling pretty confident that we are getting the most out of our summer so far. I can't believe next week is already our beach vacation. I can't wait to get a break from the desert heat and hear those crashing waves.