Sadly Temporary: Welcome Summer

We've been really busy the last 5 weeks (especially j), so everything's a blur. Hopefully, things will slow down by the end of July. We have a vacation coming where we're going to travel to 3 different cities from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico, so I don't know how relaxing it will be, but it should be fun. So here are some of the things we've been up to so far this summer:

1. Swimming and Diving: cmb loves the water. We took him to a UL Swimming and Diving meet this past season, and he just couldn't get enough of the diving (splashing and jumping are 2 of his favorites, and this combines both). His favorite TV shows were the Splash celebrity diving competition show and the Wipe Out show. So when this summer started with our new membership to a swim club, we used diving as incentive to improve his swimming. He's been close, he just hasn't put it all together yet (I guess he's only 3 and a half). Well here is his first jump off the diving board at Lakeside:

He was definitely a little hesitant at first (I cut out the first attempt where he walk back to land after standing on the edge of the board for a minute). But by his second jump, he did a half a twist and now he's doing rolls (front flips that he doesn't quite finish) into the water. His swimming has improved greatly, but still makes me a little nervous. mab enjoys the water as well:

Get lots of compliments on the sun hat.

New camera takes underwater photos, so we've been testing it out.

2. Playing: Definitely plenty of fun outdoors, picnics, and at cookouts with friends.

cmb on a Ferris Wheel at a local Catholic Picnic.

mab in a playground tube.

cmb with Papaw on a Merry-Go-Round at Louisville Bats game.

mab trying hats at a friend's party.

She's learned to smile when the camera is out.

3. Visiting Siblings: A few weeks ago we made our first trip to Chicago of the year to visit my brother.

Pre-Shedd Aquarium visit face painting

Nephew z at Shedd

Fish.

Turtle.

cmb next to his cousin n for a lizard demonstration.

Then on the weekend after the Fourth we went to j's sister house for their annual cookout for some delicious food and fun.

mab with Mommy and an inadvertent selfie.

cmb's now annual jam session.

mab wants to say hello.

4. Cirque du Soleil: My friend cc came in town to visit with us and catch her old teammate's performance in the traveling Cirque du Soleil show 'Quidam.' It was my first Cirque with some really amazing acrobatics and we were able to take cmb to the show. He lasted until the last half hour before he crashed.

j and cc at preshow meal at Harvest (yum).

After the show cc's friend was able to take us backstage to see the costumes, backstage practice area, and meet some of the performers. There were flags hanging from each country that a performer was from (I failed to get a picture but there was something like 15-20). Everyone was very nice and fit, they were working out after the show, many on different apparati than they performed in the show.

cc's teammate (who's very tall for a gymnast) did a very impressive act on silks. We got to hang out with her some while she was in town and she seemed to have fun even though I was lugging the little ones around with us.

One of the performers and his German Wheel. I had never seen a German Wheel before but his act was awesome and looked like it was a lot of fun.

5. Fun at LBL: We went down to the Land Between the Lakes for the second straight year for a family reunion. the turnout was a little lighter than last year, but it's always fun to get on the water. I didn't get any photos of it this year, but Calvin spent almost every minute he was awake and on dry land throwing rocks into the lake. It must have been over 12 hours worth all told.