Swimming lessons

I had waited too late to sign Kyle up for swimming lessons somewhere. He just about had it but just needed some confidence and technique. Linda called me the other day and had an opening for a half session so we took it. I knew that was really all he needed. He got it in no time.



take a big breath





jumping off the side



"diving" off the board



And I didn't get a picture of him actually jumping off the board at Linda's but we had gone swimming at the Paulo Pool before swimming lessons and he was jumping off the board there.

I love this age

Ashley is at the age I love. She is so funny and beginning to talk. Here she was playing with the kids silly bands and loving them.

New bikes

The kids have been begging for new bikes. I didn't think they needed them because they really don't have any where to ride them in our neighborhood (we don't have sidewalks). Well John of course wanted them to have them. He had been looking at some different bikes but most were pretty pricey. Well on a message board I frequently visit someone was selling a purple woman's bike for $40. That is a great price and we couldn't pass it up so we got that one for Kaitlyn. Ben's old red bike was out at Luke's but it needed a new tire. So when I picked up the purple bike and brought it to Luke's to surprise Kaitlyn, Susan went to Wal-mart to get a new tire for the red bike and Luke fixed that for Kyle. So now they both have new bikes we just have to get them back to our house somehow.

Riley's wedding

We went to Riley and Christie's wedding today. It was a lovely wedding. They got married at Savannah Woods.

They put these cute signs at the turns



All the Luttrell family at the wedding



The boys



Riley and Christie



Sisters

Going to Disney

Well it is official, I paid the deposit today for our trip to Disneyworld over fall break. We are a little over 3 months away. I had booked the trip last week. They had extended the free dining plan offer so I called a travel agent (who came highly recommended) and booked. She said "oh the dates you all want to go are blacked out for the free dining". I said "of course they are". Then late last night I got an email with a new pin code for free dining, called Angela (that is the travel agent) and she called Disney to apply it to my trip and it worked! It saved me almost $700!! I was super excited.

Here is our pre-trip report about what I have for us to do so far:

We are staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort on Disney. We will be there a Sunday through Friday. As of right now we will be driving. We have 5 day park passes.

Sunday -- arrival that morning, Epcot day, dinner reservations at Garden Grill with Chip and Dale, Pluto and Farmer Mickey

Monday -- Magic Kingdom, I hope to be there for the rope drop when the park opens then we will leave briefly to go over to the Grand Floridian for dinner at 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the evil stepmother and the step-sisters. Then we will head back to MK and hopefully close the park. This will be a long day.

Tuesday -- no park, we will sleep in that morning, probably play at the pool, maybe go to Downtown Disney for a while (but that may not happen) then head to the Contemporary resort for dinner at Chef Mickey's with the "fab 5" characters. Then after our early dinner we will go to Magic Kingdom for "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party" and again close out the park with the party ending at midnight.

Wednesday -- Animal Kingdom, early breakfast at Donald's Safari (probably not the smartest move since we will be up so late the night before for the party but we will have to sacrifice some sleep if we want to squeeze as much as we can in), this park closes early though so we can rest for a little while and then we head to the Polynesian for dinner at Ohana

Thursday -- Hollywood Studios, no eating reservations made for this day, I would like to be there when the park opens (so that we can make a beeline for Jedi training and get fastpasses for the Toy Story Mania ride) and then when it closes but we will probably have to take a break in the middle of the day for that to happen.

Friday -- we will probably go back to Hollywood Studios this day but may go back to Magic Kingdom. It will depend on which place has more that we didn't get to do the first day at these parks. But we will only stay a little while at the park then leave to come home. I am going to try and make a character breakfast reservation for this day but probably won't be able to get into one this late.

I have become slightly addicted to a message board site called disboards.com. There is so much information on that site it is crazy. I know we can't do everything at disney but since it might be a while before we are able to go back I want to try and work in as much as possible. I am going a little nuts making lists (things to definitely do, things we can do if we have time, things to not waste time on, making journals and travel games for my kids, etc.). I also put a countdown on the side of my blog.

We can't wait!

Off to camp (year 2)

Kaitlyn left for church camp at Midsouth today. This is her 2nd year to go and she loves it! She would go all summer.

All packed up and ready to go, she packed her stuff for days and bugged me night and day about what she still needed to get and to help her wash her clothes.



Putting her stuff on the trailer



With some fellow future 5th graders going to camp



The group of those that rode the church bus



I bought her a small old digital camera for $15 at the Unclaimed baggage store so hopefully she will have taken some pictures this week.

July 4th

We spent July 4th at Luke's (of course). We ate burgers and shot some fireworks.

The kids shooting bottle rockets









There was some house a couple of streets over that were shooting off some huge pretty fireworks so we got in the back of the truck to see if we could get a better view from the back of the property. We couldn't.

Paulo Pool

We had our first swim at the Paulo Pool today. They had to get something in their pool fixed and then fill it back up so it was kinda chilly but the kids of course still jumped in and had fun. I am trying to get Kyle to swim without those floaties. He can do it, he just needs some confidence. I didn't get him into any swimming lessons this year because I waited too long but hopefully he kinda teach himself and I can get him in somewhere next year to perfect it some.