THE BASTINGS BUZZ: August 2014

We started out our summer with doing a session of swimming lessons at Phillips. The kids both had friends in their class and they improved on their swimming skills.

Several times over the summer we also took advantage of the free swim hours at Phillips. This worked out well for days that it was colder, or raining, or when we wanted to swim without the sun.

The kids really enjoy jumping off the diving board. This summer Kayla got brave enough to jump off and swim to the side all by herself. I love that they are independent so I can stand off at the side and watch them.

One Two Three....JUMP!!!

Haha....we practiced this several times.

And the proof and both me and Andrea did get in the water too.

Swimming with Jackson at my mom's house when they had just started to fill up their pool.

We also went to Frontier pool several times

Kayla and Kambria having oh so much fun

Mikayla, Jackson, Austin and Evan

We took a Friday in July and traveled up to Schlitterbaun in Kansas City for the day. Brooklyn stayed with my mom so it was nice that me and Craig were able to both do everything together with the kids. We had a fun time....the kids loved the raging river wave pool.

As we were ending our day, we stopped at the zipline.

Austin our "nervous that it might be scary" child was reluctant to do it--even though we bribed him with a new toy. But when I told Kayla she could go with Klayton if he wasn't going to, he decided to man up and do it. I think he had a good time.

Kayla our "thrill seeking" child didn't hesitate once about going with her Aunt Kristi.

Jeff and Andrea went also.

We love having a pool in our neighborhood. So easy and convenient.

I don't have many pictures of Brooklyn in the water because I was the one holding her. But she did a great job this summer adjusting to our schedule so we could swim and she actually enjoyed swimming in the water also.

We also took an afternoon and went up to the waterpark in Independence Kansas with some of the kids' cousins who were in town.

Having fun at the splash pad.

These girls are so silly together sometimes.

I love that they are such good friends.

Swimming in Sooner Pool

It was a great summer!!

Kayla and her cousin Kambria met up at the Kiddie Park a few times this summer.

Hard to believe she is big enough to not need me on the roller-coaster anymore.

Even Brooklyn got to try out the swings.

She rode the cars a couple times this summer. The first time Craig put her on the ride I was nervous she was going to be that crying child that other people would look at and say "I can't believe her parents put her on this ride so young." But she surprised me and was happy & smiled the whole time.

Mikayla and Kambria were good sports to ride along with her.

One night we met up with Kambria, and Emmarie

Having so much fun.

Train Ride

Kayla also enjoyed going with her cousin Rachel when they were visiting.

(I only got this picture on my phone before the battery died)

Austin came out to the kiddie park once but he has gotten to old and big to be able to ride anything. The roller coaster, spinning barrels, and train are about all that he can do. Looks like his Kiddie Park days are coming to and end.

One day we had a large snapping turtle in our front yard. It may not look that big from the picture but it was pretty large. It stayed there all day until Craig, Todd, and a police-man used a shovel to put it into the garbage can and wheel it out to the field to get rid of it.