Tons of Videos

The last 2 days the boys have both made huge improvements with their swimming skills so of course we took a bunch of videos. Zak went from swimming with his swim vest to swimming with nothing! Ryder went from not willing to jump into the pool or go underwater to jumping in without even arm floaties!

Zak swimming on his own for the first time (yesterday)

Ryder jumping in with floaties yesterday

Zak showing off his new swimming skills to Nanny & Poppy today

Zak got very brave and pretty much stayed without his vest the whole time so we had to be better about really watching him because he would just jump and start swimming then sometimes need help.

Zak put on his vest for a little after he got tired. Here he is practicing his diving.

Ryder decided to join in

Ryder also decided he wanted to jump in with no floaties

Right before we left the boys drove around on their "monster truck" which they always love to do!

This week is going to be busy. I need to get laundry done, clothes packed for our trip, run some errands for a few last minute things, and get everything else packed. Ryder has therapy on Wednesday and I will take them to the $1 movie on Tuesday. We pick Christine up on Thursday and then head out on the road around 3am Friday morning!

Bike Riding Videos

I wanted to first explain the new blog background I chose. The boys & I are taking a road trip the first weekend of August to Kentucky for a family reunion. I am excited to go and see my mom along with other family members. The boys have been talking about our "trip to tuckey" ever since they talked about it with Jamison on Friday. So I felt this background fit pretty well for now.

Today Zak asked to have his training wheels taken off his bike! I think it had a lot to do with the little boy who lives across the street from us. He is about 3 months older than the boys and has been riding his 2-wheeler bike for a while now and is always telling the boys he can ride. Honestly, today we got very upset with the kid because he was pretty much making fun of Ryder for not being able to even pedal a bike! So Ben took the training wheels off, I grabbed the camera and this is what we got....

(the sound is pretty loud so you might want to turn the volume down or off)

This video I did freak out at the end because I thought he was doing a little too well and was heading straight for the road. I think if I had kept my mouth shut he may not have fallen over.

He did better than I thought he would and every time he fell he got right back up and wanted to try again. He would laugh many times when he fell. We are very proud of him!

Of course we couldn't leave Ryder out of the fun! He practiced on his bike for a little while, but once he gets too frustrated we suggest it is time for the scooter. I didn't get the camera out quick enough because by this time he had pretty much had enough. Poor guy is trying so hard though!

Soccer & Playground

This morning we took the boys to the playground for a little bit. They started by playing some soccer and football then moved to the playground. Zak really is an athletic kid and picks up pretty much any sport fairly easily. The boys miss the cut off for soccer this year by only 5 days so they will have to wait until next year.

Of course I stood on the wrong side of the sun was shining right into the camera. The quality is horrible, but you get the point. He did it a few times before I got the camera out which always happens so I didn't get his best ones on video. When Ben is holding his butt he is only helping him swing a bit and not holding any of his weight.

Zak thought this thing was pretty fun however Ryder didn't like it. We have made huge progress in Ryder's vestibular issues, but he still has things to work on. He dislikes swings for the same reason he dislikes this spinning.

Day at the Zoo

This morning the boys & I left the house at 7:30am to meet up with Colleen, Joey & Jamison at the metro so we could go to the DC Zoo. The boys were very excited about riding the train, seeing the animals, and hanging out with Joey & Jamison. We got home around 6:30pm so it was a long, but very fun day!

This deer was not part of the exhibits at the zoo. It had wandered into the zoo and was just walking around with all the people. It didn't seem to mind people getting close to it. It did decide to run away after a little while though.

These two were so fun to watch. I took a ton of pictures of them! It was a baby and mother that were playing the whole time.

I loved watching the big daddy lion playing with the lion cubs!

The boys got to pet a few animals in the children's area which they thought was very cool.

All three of the boys thought it was funny how the Toucan was talking to them. This bird was following them around the exhibit just yelling at them. It was pretty funny to watch. Of course once I got the camera out it just stayed in one place.

Swimming Videos

Today at the pool I took the camera so I was able to take a bunch of videos. All of the videos are pretty loud because there was a party going on with a DJ so you can't hear anything the boys are saying, but that is not the important part anyways!

4th of July

On Monday we spent the day in Annapolis. I always look forward to 4th of July in Annapolis and the boys do as well. We left our house around 10:30am and got home close to midnight so it was a very long day, but we all had a great time!

When we first got to Annapolis the boys played in the yard with Jamison for a while.

They took turns playing all 3 positions

(catcher, batter, pitcher)

Hockey was the least successful

After we had lunch the four of us walked to see some of my friends. Our first stop was to play with kitties. Many of you will think we are crazy (which we already know) when I tell you that we are looking at getting a new kitten. VZ is really my cat although Zak has pretty much won her over and taken her from me. Ryder tries so hard to get on her good side, but she just doesn't seem to like him very much. He is always saying he wants a cat that says meow and actually said he wants one for his birthday. So we are thinking about getting a Turkish Angora kitten for him because every time we go to my friend's house her cats are all so social and let both boys pick them up and play with them. Then we walked around the corner to see another friend and catch up since we have not talked in a while. The boys had fun playing with all of the kids there at the block party as well as getting to feed the fish in their fish pond.

Once we got back to Colleen's house we pulled out some water toys for the kids to play with since it was pretty hot. They played with a sprinkler and a water hopscotch game. Ryder spent a lot of the afternoon eating the watermelon though.

Of course there had to be a lemonade stand. This year there were lots of helping hands so for next year Joey is already talking about setting up multiple sites with all of her little workers!

We then went to the parade at 6:30pm. Nathan was giving out lots of hugs which seemed to always turn into a headlock with Zak. Ryder wanted a hug too.

When we got back to Colleen's after the parade for the cook-out there was a surprise waiting...Chelley, John, and Maddie had come over for a little while. We had a good dinner and then hung out until it was time for fireworks. Chelley, John & Maddie left just before the fireworks because Maddie is not a fan of them.

We tried to get a picture of all of the kids and this was the best we got.