Water Works

Besides travel and holidays, we've been savoring summer! It's hard to believe it's half over already. It has been a hot one since the end of June, so we've been around a lot of water, starting with swim lessons. The kids were in the same class this year, so I think that motivated Owen to step up and graduate to the next level, which he did. And Hadley fed off of him and improved a ton, too. Here they are doing their front crawls:

I hope they'll continue to enjoy swimming throughout their lives!

For water fun outside the backyard, there's the splash pad and carousel in Rexburg.

And there's also Rexburg Rapids, which has a lazy river and play area. Unfortunately, because of my having to be in the water there too, I did not get any water shots. But here's an 'after' of my little stud!

We even hiked to some water at Mesa Falls. (We seem to go there on a 3-year cycle.) It was still beautiful, although I can't figure out how to get a good picture of people AND the waterfall because the boardwalks block the water. But the boardwalks do provide a safe way to get right next to the water.

There are actually two waterfalls, so we did the short hike to the lower falls, too. These two sure know how to pose for the camera together.

Once we got there, we could see the lower falls, but had also read about hiking down to be right next to them. I guess we were feeling adventurous, so we decided to try it. The camera doesn't do justice to the steepness, but the kids did most of the hike down holding our hands or scooting on their bums.

It was a little sketchy to get to, but worth it! Wild Idaho at its best! No railing here. We could easily have stepped out into the falls and the thundering power of water was truly amazing (and deafening) up close.

I wish I had a machete for this shrub that is ruining my epic picture!

Here's the panoramic to give a better view of the lower Mesa Falls.

Not to be forgotten, we have been beholden to coach-pitch baseball again this summer. Our friends coach, and they are fantastic with the kids and skills practice. Owen has made some good catches and is hitting better this year, although he still thinks he's faster running to get an out instead of throwing it. With his aim, that's probably true!

And we still do playdates. Sometimes they even have a higher purpose, like this one where we packaged items for troops serving abroad with Operation Shoebox.