Swim Lessons

At the end of June, we enrolled Beckett into swim lessons again. Unfortunately, he remembered enough from last year that he dreaded going back this year (mainly, the diving board). At his 3 year old well check, I discussed swim lessons with his doctor. I told him that I signed him up, but that he was really dreading going and he responded with, "most kids don't want to go to swim lessons." For some reason, this was all of the justification that I needed to send him. He did so well this year. Last year, he cried for almost the entire first week, and I had to spend the week watching through a window until he stopped crying. This year he had the sweetest teacher name Katie and I felt like he learned so much from her. 

Counting down the days. He got to cut
 a ring off of his chain after every lesson. 

Picking out the train we were going to buy at the end of swim lessons.
 He picked the train that he wanted from the very beginning and after
 much research and many trips to the store, he never changed his mind. 

He finally got brave enough to jump off the diving board by himself.

On the last day, his teacher took him off of the high dive.
I'm not exactly sure how tall the high dive is, but most of
the teachers didn't like going off of it. I know I wouldn't! 

Summer Activities

What have we been up to this summer?

Feeding the ducks at the park

Playing at the splash pad with friends

Relaxing on a rainy day

Feeding the turtles at the park with some new friends

Touring the local fire station

Most kids were afraid when
the firefighter completely geared up.
 However, it was a great teaching moment. 

Exercising on the bridge

Free summer movie, hoping to break
 your fear of movie theaters
 (I took him to see The Lorax last
 year and am paying the price for that one)

When your son asks you
to dance, you never ever say no

A few days before the 4th of July, we went to watch a big fireworks celebration at a local church. We got there a little bit early and had some time to kick the soccer ball and throw the football around for a little while.

Daddy and B watching the fireworks

Playing with Kate

Dinosaur Day

We visited the zoo with our friend, Krystle, for her company picnic. We had so much fun and even got to see the temporary dinosaur exhibit. I wasn't sure how Beckett would respond to the moving and roaring dinos and my predictions were correct. I tried to talk them up all week and reassure him that they were just pretend. But...the zoo did such a wonderful job making them look realistic that there was no way that I could convince him otherwise. Needless to say, even with his love of dinosaurs, he was pretty fearful of "the real" dinosaurs. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get close enough to the dinosaurs for pictures. 

Looking for bones

Eggs and babies

Huge T-Rex

The T-Rex was pretty loud and active. His arms, head,
 tail, mouth and eyeballs moved. It was pretty realistic! 

I love B's face. You can tell he wasn't thrilled
to be that close to the T-Rex. 

  

They also had one T-Rex that didn't move or make noise.
Beckett loved this one and didn't want to leave it. 

Of course, he was drawn to the lizards and snakes. 

We took a few rides on the train. Happy boy!

Father's Day 2014

Since neither one of our fathers live in town, we were able to take Blake's grandfather out for Father's Day. We enjoy every minute that we get to spend with him and love listening to his stories! This particular day he was telling us how he used to give Blake's grandmother $5 a week for groceries. She secretly stashed part of that every week and saved it for a rainy day. Can you imagine spending less than $5 on groceries? Wow, how times have changed. We cherish every sweet story that he tells about Blake's late grandmother :) 

He was making B laugh. Such a fun and genuine picture :) 

I just found these pictures from Father's Day

 two years ago. I miss this baby! 

First Shave

He's three now. It's time to start shaving those whiskers! Beckett got a (pretend) shaving kit for his birthday, so we tried it out. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, just because it was so much fun. He absolutely loved it and thought that it was so cool to be able to "shave like Daddy"!

Thomas the Train Party, Part III

Thomas the Train Party, Part II

Aunt Nicky and Uncle Andrew bought Beckett this cool Ziggle