Thankful for Famly Time

This past week we were lucky enough to have Christopher's sister Amy and her little 11month old daughter Alma visit us here in Nashville. We loved having them here! Here are a few pics from their visit.

We went on Saturday to Centennial Park to feed the geese and ducks. Ristow and Jessica had a blast throwing crackers to the geese. Jess wanted to grab them. As we were feeding the geese in the pond, we look behind us and a giant army of geese are closing in from the rear. It was a crazy parade of them. Once they got right up to us we decided it was better to take the kids to the other side of the pond for a while :)

This is what Alma did while we fed the ducks...

Even though Jess and Alma whined and cried and tried to hit each other more than play together, we still loved having that time together. Ristow on the other hand LOVED playing with Alma and making her laugh and was absolutely great with her.

Thanks for making the trip Ames. We love you guys tons!

First Day of School & Jazz Hands

Thursday was the first day of 1st Grade for Ristow. He was super excited. He had his new light up shoes, his new Ironman belt, his new backpack, a cool shark fin haircut and he was reading to go!
I took some pictures of him before he headed to the bus stop and he said "wait mom, I've got to do one with Jazz Hands!"
Ristow has all of sudden been doing Jazz hands all the time. Not sure where he got it from or why he thinks it is so funny, no, ok, I get the funny part. But he even wanted to take a picture of Christopher and I but wouldn't take it unless we did Jazz Hands. That kid cracks me up.

So the first day of school went great for him, he loves his teacher and all looks to be headed in the right direction. As long as he doesn't make all the other kids do Jazz Hands ;)

Freedom in Swimming

For the past three weeks Ristow has been taking swim lessons. They are only 10 minutes long 5 days a week. Now you may wonder what anyone can learn in only 10 minutes and I thought the same thing at first. These swim lessons are basically survival swimming. Teaching babies and kids the basics of how to survive if they fall in a pool.
Ristow has always been afraid of getting his face wet and for years I have been trying to get him to just stick his face IN the water let alone under it. Now that he is 6 1/2 yrs old, we decided it was time. Christopher knew of a woman who did these survival swim lessons and we thought we would give it a try. She is amazing! Ristow went under the water the first day (to my amazement) and took off from there! He swims under water, floats on his back, does jumps off the side and is learning the specific strokes now. He has loved swim lessons but more importantly he has loved what learning to swim has given him... Independence!

This summer we swam at the camp pool when we were up visiting my brother in PA. There were lots of other bigger kids in the pool and Ristow didn't want to swim because he didn't want to have to wear his arm floaties. That is when I understood that he was finally ready to make a change.

Today I took Ristow and Jessica to the community rec center for a last day of summer vacation swim. It was awesome. Ristow was playing in the water and doing Cannonballs like he had been doing it his whole life. I actually was able to take Jessica to the kiddie pool and watch Ristow from there while he played we some other kids his age in the big pool. He LOVED it! He jumped and swam and played just like all the other kids.
Today, as we left the pool Ristow walked with his head a little higher and a big smile on his face. He said "Mom, that was a great time, wasn't it?!"

Dinosaur World!

For years we have seen this dinosaur as we drove up Interstate 65 on our way through Kentucky to Ohio and for years Ristow has begged to stop at Dinosaur World. Well this past Saturday we finally made the trip he has been waiting for!
It was pouring rain as we stopped and had breakfast on our way out of town with the kids. ( An amazing breakfast by the way at a new restaurant in Brentwood) We drove north through crazy downpours praying that it wasn't raining in Kentucky. When we cross the state line the clouds parted and it looked like we were going to finally see the Dinos.

It was a fun place. It has over 100 lifesize dinosaurs throughout the park, a museum with fossils, a playground and a fossil dig where you actually get to keep 3 of the fossils you find. Ristow dug and found 2 sharks teeth and a sea creature fossil. Christopher and Ristow had fun pretending to fight the dinosaurs.They had a mammoth area that Jessica loved because she got to touch the "elephant" and made tons of elephant noises.
It turned out to be a hot and sunny day with no rain. Definitely worth the trip.
After Dinosaur World we hit Onyx cave. Ristow had never been in a cave before and we thought it would be cool. It was a little intimidating for him but in the end he liked it.

Then we hit a local restaurant that unlike breakfast left much to be desired. We did get to meet the local funeral director who was sitting in the next booth initiating some interesting conversation :)

All in all it was a fun family day! Then Christopher and I actually got to go on a date that night at a great restaurant and then to see Captain America. So thankful for a fun day together.