We have a swimmer!

Its been a great day. S had swimming lessons and today he graduated from beginners to immediate! I was so proud of him! He has been swimming really good the last couple weeks at home, since he got his new teacher, Miss Maybell. His old teacher was just so dull. Months went by with no progress. But he has had 2 lessons with this teacher and they were both private because no other kids are signed up for that class. And he has learned soooo much.

So today he had to jump into the pool, flip over onto his back and float for 10 seconds, then swim over to the side and grab the side and climb out. Anyways, he did it and the deck manager came over to me and said that Maybell just signaled to him that he is ready, so he is going to watch and make sure. And he was! After 5 months he finally did it all!

He got a metal and got to stand up on this little platform and they played Olympiad sounding music and announced that he graduated. It was so cute. All the other kids were coming up to him and giving him high 5 and saying way to go. Ive never seen him be so proud.

A few pictures from this week

S learning about dipping cookies in milk.


S with his nerdy glasses he won at Chuck E Cheese

C with his nerdy glasses given to him by his brother

And the lovely scorpian that stung me on the bottom of my foot the other night. He was promptly killed right after this picture was snapped.

I haven't posted in awhile. Its just so hot right now and we are cooped up inside and there is nothing going on. I cant wait for these hot days of summer to end. Oh Fall. I think of you and I am so excited for you to come back into our lives. Cool days...well 75 degrees is cool here...and the park and being able to send the boys outside! We cant wait!

C is already trying to talk to us! Its so cool because he is talking soooo much earlier than S did. Here is a little list of his words so far:

Dee Dee (thank you)
mama and daddy
Sah (Sam)
Bye Bye
Hi
baby
ABCD...he tries to sing the ABC song up to the letter G
awa awa awa (he is trying to sing S's favorite song, an Alicia Keys song, As I Am...no one, no one, no oooonnee!!)
baba (bottle)
wawa (water)

And what about S. What's he been up to this long boring Summer? I assure you he finds many ways to pass the time. Like swimming and playing with the hose. He loves to glue and use glitter. He loves to cut. I just give him a bunch of paper and a pair of scissors and he goes to town for about an hour just cutting up paper. He also likes to find new places to pee. Yes I did just say that. He pees in the bushes outside or just on the rocks. He even peed in the dryer! Yep! I was doing laundry last week and as I'm going to put the clothes in the dryer, I open it up and see that there is some yucky yellow residue in the bottom of the inside of the dryer. (it had been a few days since Id opened up that dryer so who knows how long it had been there?) Apparently, S didn't realize that the dryer isn't a toilet. Luckily its wasn't that hard to clean up because little three year olds don't have huge pees yet.(Thank God)

S is starting official preschool on Tuesday. I know that earlier I posted the pics of his first day of school, well that was in June and it was really just Summer Camp. Real Preschool is starting next week. We had our very first meet the teacher open house last night. He is very excited about his new teacher, Miss Jill Majestic. Yes her last name is really Majestic and she named her class the Majestic Monkeys! I'm sure it will be a fun year for him!

Prescott and Grand Canyon with the Cuencas

Tiffany and Luis are visiting the US right now with Luis's parents, Jauni and Luis. It is their first trip to the US and their first time ever out of Spain. Its been really great to see them. Earlier this week, we all headed up to Prescott. Tiffany and her in laws stayed at Dad's so we all stayed over at Jason and Kristal's. The first night there was a really nice dinner at Dad and Fran's. Everyone was there and all the little cousins were running around and having a blast. The kids even found a HUGE horney toad and everyone got to hold it and pet it. It was so nice seeing Aunt Lucy, Sarah and her kids, Beth and Mark. We got up early one day and drove to Williams and took the train to the Grand Canyon. Its really fun. They have a whole Wild West experience for us on the train complete with fake train robbery and entertainers that come through the cars. We got up to the canyon and had 4 hrs to walk around and eat and enjoy ourselves. Luis's dad took us all out for lunch to the El Tovar Dining Room. Its a very nice restaurant up there in the neat old El Tovar Lodge. Charlie fell asleep in his stroller right before we ate, so it was nice to enjoy a relaxing lunch for a change.

When we got back to Prescott, we picked up Pizza's and everyone went to Jason and Kristal's for dinner and to hang out. It was great staying over there. Sam and Charlie had a blast with Evan and all of his toys. Their house is all baby proofed and had tons of toys and kid entertainment. We had the whole downstairs to ourselves and it was wonderful! We only had to bring our clothes with us, and that is rare with small kids! We are looking forward to staying there more in the future so Sam and Charlie can play and have fun with their cousins. Thanks so much Jason and Kristal for your hospitality. I hope that next time, we wont be as busy and can have some time to chill.

Even though we had a great time, it is always good to get home. Tiffany and Luis will go to Kauai for the next week to stay with Mom and Randy. When they get back, they leave the next day to go back to Spain. We get to see them soon though cause they are coming to Michigan for Grandpa McGuire's 100th Birthday. Yay!!

We got soooo many great photos of this trip. If you'd like to see all of them, click here.