Last day at the pool....

....and it's official. We have had our last day at the pool for the season. The girls had a blast, and Mommy and Daddy had fun just hanging out with them.

 Ashley found a ball that she had fun with...

Daddy's feet are always fun to hang out on....literally.

 Danielle is showing off how far she can go underwater -- 2 whole lanes!

How do you know you had a good day? If you have wrinkle-hands, of course!!!

We took a little walk....

Last weekend we decided to surprise the girls by taking them up to the racetrack for breakfast. Once we got there, we knew something was wrong. Pretty much because about 6,000 other people had the same idea? Or could it be that we just hadn't paid any attention and had completely overlooked that it was Traver's Day. Hm.....no, that couldn't possibly be it. Needless to say, we couldn't go in for breakfast (it was already a total zoo by 9am anyways), so we changed our plans to going on the carousel in Congress Park. Only problem, the carousel doesn't open until 11. Soooooo.....we took a walk around the park. 

We had breakfast on a nice shady bench after we chased all the ducks we could find...

 Sisters!!

 The 'pretend that you love each other' picture!

Awwww....melt my heart!

 

Girls and face paint....

You might be wondering (then again, you're probably not) what happens when lots of little girls get to use the face paint all by themselves.....and the parents are having too much fun socializing to really keep tabs on them.

 Um.....apparently Danielle found the black?

Oh well, they had fun!

A little peak at swim lessons...

So....in case you can't tell from the cover picture, the girls have LOVED the pool this year. Danielle had lessons again, and this year things 'clicked!' Not only did she master the high dive (yep, I said HIGH dive), but she discovered that she could have fun jumping off the side of the pool and practicing floats, etc. Ashley found out that water wings really do work, and by the middle of the summer she wore them in the 'big pool' and was jumping off the side right along with her big sister.

While lessons were running, this was pretty typical for Ashley -- borrow someone's float that forgot it and play with toys in the kiddie pool.

Danielle was the only girl in her class....

 ....and this is pretty much what I get to watch now -- jump, swim to the steps, repeat. About 50 times.

Lake Arrowhead!!!!

And I'm finally catching up!! The whole reason for our trip to CA was for a week long family vacation at Lake Arrowhead. Dad and Carol found a GREAT cabin for us to rent, and we had a BLAST!!!! What could be better than 5 cousins hanging out and exploring together?!?!

 We started the week with some serious girl-time. Danielle and Ashley were treated to mani-pedis from Gramma Carol.

Ashley sporting purple fingernails and pink toenails...

Danielle imitated Gramma and got a different color on each nail.

 Beth and I took the kids to the lake 'beach' one afternoon...

We saw a cute mommy duck and her chicks....

 The beach club had floats and buckets for the kids to play with....

 And they thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

 Danielle got in some swimming...

 And that evening the kids were all tuckered out. We went out for pizza and then wandered around the village. By the time we got back to the car, we tried to take a picture.....but NONE of them wanted to cooperate....

 I don't remember the story behind this one, but I'm sure there was one!

 Gramma Carol also had a birthday party for Danielle on the 4th....since Julie and Jeff and Linda were coming up, we decided more party would be good!

 How awesome is this cake?!?! Carol is amazing!!!!

 Each day Gramma and Grandpa took one of the kids for some one on one time. We called it their special day. On Ashley's day, Carol had tons to do for everyone coming up (it was the 4th), so I got to fill in! She fed the ducks with Grandpa...

 ...rode the train ride at Lollypop Land...

 ...and here she is showing off her "free-B" that the ride operator gave her.

 Then back to finish up with party prep! The girls helped make cake pops!!

 Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

 I don't remember the story of this one either, but with the face Beth is making, I had to include it!

 Carol also got us all "My Family Rocks" t-shirts. We wore them into town one morning and took Dad and Carol out for breakfast for their 5-year anniversary!

 Love you, DLS!

 Grandpa with his grandkids!

Gramma with her grandkids!

And Gramma with silly goof-balls!!

Disneyland!!!

Once school ended, we packed up and flew across the country for some fun with family in California! The girls LOVED how our CA adventure started off -- at DISNEYLAND!!!!

 Had to get the family picture in front of the castle...

 Waiting for the Carousel!

 Say cheese!

Super excited going on Dumbo!

 Daddy showed them how to make the giant marble roll...

 This was also our only time with Grandma Sweetie and Grandpa Curt -- and the train was a nice little break for us adults....

 Back on the carousel!

 Frozen strawberry bar -- YUM!!

Going on the 'big-kid' rockets ride...

 Ashley decided it would be ok if she rode with Daddy....

 G&G brought a stroller for Ashley.....and it was AWESOME when we decided to stop and have the girls take a nap!

 We found a little out-of-the-way spot (the old dock for the motorboats) and had Danielle lay down on a towel while Ashley snoozed in the stroller. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a cup of coffee, and the adults got to enjoy a bit of quiet visiting!

Then we were up and off to the Autopia -- I asked the ride attendant to take our picture. I didn't know Ashley made a face until we looked at these later....

 On the whole, we made lots of silly faces all day....

 Our last attempt of the day to get a family picture. It almost worked.