Swim Across America

This was Emily's fourth year raising money for cancer research and patients with Swim Across America and we couldn't be more proud of her!

You can read about her previous swims here.

And check out her fundraising page here.

I let our summer schedule get in full swing before I looked to find a swim in our area and get her signed up. When I checked the website I was shocked to see they were all in about a week or so - not enough time to raise money! I called the organizers from our old swim team and they said they would be happy to have Emily join their swim.

The good thing about that is it gave us more time to fund raise - the bad thing is that their swim starts at 6:30am and is 30 minutes away. Man, have we ever worked ourselves into a "summer" schedule. My kids have been going to bed so, so late and then we have all been sleeping later in the mornings. Only the fact that they have to be at the pool for swim team practice at 8:30am has us dragging ourselves up somewhere around 8, wolfing down breakfast and racing up to the pool.

Getting up so early on Saturday was tough - and creeping into their rooms and waking them felt so mean, especially little Em who had such a job ahead of her.

Here she is once we arrived at the pool and got her signed in.

Even that early in the morning she is still smiling. I love this kid!

I was a little bummed that our "number streak" ended. Her first year she was #4, the second she coincidentally was #14, so last year we asked to be signed in as #24 ... this year they already had her listed as #17 when we arrived. Oh well.

She likes to use the time as an extra practice and mixes up her strokes.

 Jacob & Jane entertained themselves while she swam.

It was really hot and humid, I am surprised they didn't "accidentally" fall in.

 

She saves 'fly until the end few, so she doesn't tire out too much.

Still smiling at the end.

72 laps - not a bad way to start your morning!

Guess who "wanted in" on the picture?

So we let the goofballs get one too. (They really are proud of her.)

And so are we.

Swim Across America

When we first heard about Swim Across America it seemed a perfect fit for us. We all love to swim and cancer took Rick's Mom back in 2007. Emily is really the only one who can swim a mile - but we plan on more family members joining her in the future!

Today she participated in Swim Across America for the third year.

Here she is after her first swim in 2009.

2010

and getting ready for the 2011 swim.

When I was looking at old photo's from her past swims we realized that she had been number 4 her first year and number 14 her second year, so we were stoked that she could be number 24 for this year!

After she was all signed in she got on her cap & goggles ready to hit the pool! It was a little overcast & chilly but I knew she'd warm right up as soon as she got going.

One down, 71 more to go ....

She mixed it up doing some freestyle, some butterfly, some backstroke some breaststroke. She still has swim competitions this coming week so it made for a good workout!

 72 laps - still smiling!

I did it!

 Mom!  I'm so tired, please stop taking pictures of me.

Then she got to sign the banner. Emily always dedicates her swim to her Grandma & signs the banner to her.

 

Oh, how I love this girl

A picture with Aidan, one of her good friends who also swam today.

We're so proud of Emily & know Grandma is too!

Toothless

Jacob lost a tooth about a week ago. "Lost" is probably an exaggeration, I pulled it out. It had been really loose for so long and it was 1/2 way twisted to the side and was kind of creeping me out but he would not let me near that thing! Finally, one night I begged him to let me just have one shot at it. He agreed, I tugged, my hand slipped, it didn't come out and he swore I'd never touch it again. A little lot of bribery later and he let me try it again. This time I got it in one quick tug. We rinsed his mouth out and put the tooth in a cup to save to show to Dad ... then kind of forgot about it for a few days.

Low & behold the next thing I know the gap was bigger. Jacob had pulled out the loose one beside it himself. I guess he didn't want me getting another crack at one!

The night we came home from Mystic we put them together in a little cup under his pillow. It's our family tradition to put this pillowcase on your pillow if you have a lost tooth. We've had it since Bek was little and they love to use it to let the tooth fairy know to look under there.

It reads

"Dear Tooth Fairy,

When this pillows on my bed,

you'll know a tooth's gone from my head.

I know you'll take it

while I sleep.

Just leave some cash that I may keep."

How cute is that little six year old smile?

I could freeze him and keep him just like that forever!

He thinks it's super cool to stick his tongue through the gap!

Getting ready to hide them under the pillow.

He was pretty stoked to find $2 ($1 per tooth) under his pillow in the morning.

Pioneer Day 2011

We love Pioneer Day. Emily in particular just loves Pioneers & hearing stories about them and seeing how they lived. Each year we like to dress up and play pioneer games and have some activities to make us appreciate them & all they did so that our beliefs could flourish.

This year Pioneer Day (July 24th) fell on a Sunday. I figured we'd just do our Pioneer Games on the 23rd, until they scheduled our Worldwide Day of Service for that day. Soooo, we did it on Friday afternoon.

A few years ago Emily grew out of the little blue pioneer dress we have. I had her wear a skirt she had with a pioneer-y blouse the following year. Last year I said I'd make her a new dress but didn't get around to it & just quickly made her a long skirt & had her wear it with a blouse again .... promising to make it this year. As the day loomed closer I wsa feeling the absence of that new dress for Emily. Honestly, I was tempted to tell Emily, Jacob & Jane that I was too busy this year (with packing and moving & all the work of building the new house) to be able to pull it off, but that's the thing about traditions - it's well, tradition! They love it & I didn't want to break the fact that we do it every year. So at 10pm the night before I pulled out the ol' sewing machine to make Emily a dress. Don't look too closely at the pictures, she wore it un-hemmed (I'll get to hemming it later this week.)

We invited over a few friends and I split the kids into under 6's and big kids. It was super hot & humid so we did everything inside the house, with the exception of the hoop which the big kids started with on the back patio.

Those are authentic pioneer flip flops.

Jacob in his "coonskin" hat.

While they were doing that the little kids did the bean bag tossing game. Two cans are attached to a stick on opposite sides - there's a small bean bag & you have to toss it from one to the other by flipping the stick over while the beanbag is in the air. We copied it from a game we saw in Nauvoo and the kids love it. I really need to get Rick to make us another of these so we can have 2 going at once.

Then the big & little kids switched.

After those 2 games Emily read them a couple brief stories from pioneer children's journals

from "I Walked to Zion."

I had made 4 loaves of bread that morning before we went to swim team practice, so after the games and stories the kids shook cream in a jar to make butter.

They took it very seriously!

Then we enjoyed the butter on our thick slices of bread with cold milk. Probably just the snack pioneer children would have loved.

By then the taffy had cooled enough for us to pull it.

 I had left it bubbling on the stove when I ran out to set the little kids up with the hoop and had kind of forgotten about it for a few minutes. It got hotter than it should have by the time I remembered it. They could still pull it but once it had cooled it was more like hard candy than taffy. Oh well, they still liked eating it, I just told them not to try and bite it in case they broke their teeth!

Guess who still bit it?

Little Pioneer Children.

This is the last year Jane will fit this dress. Next year I'll have to make her a new one too. It has been such a great dress. I made it for Rebekah in 1997 for the 150th anniversary re-enactment of the pioneer trek. She and I met my mother, who had been gone for months walking from Winter Quarters and finished the last 5 days of the trek with her. Emily wore it and now Jane. That dress has seen some happy days for my 3 girlies.

I'm glad I pulled it together at the last minute because the kids had a great time and now it's still our tradition.