Celia's letter to the Swimmers

While reading a friends blog, I came across this beautiful letter she wrote to the Olympic Swimmers. Since I agree wholeheartedly, I wish to share it with you:

Dear Male Olympic Swimmers,

I've been enjoying your races. Congratulations for being genetically predisposed to fast swimming. You are graceful and muscular and almost young enough to be my own sons.I have a request. Please cease and desist wearing the body racing suits. You know, the ones like these:
The guy in the middle (I think that's Phelps) has the right idea. Full chest exposure. Why work hard and train a lot and then keep your assets hidden? It just doesn't make sense. The body suit looks uncomfortable and is kind of feminine. I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking. Check out Ryan in the white trunks below:
I'm sure many women would pony up some dollars if everybody wore suits like Ryan Lochte's. It's a win/win. US Swimming gets sponsors, US women get man candy.
If you could all have faces like Ryan's, it would help too. Phelps might swim fast, but bow wow. Thank you for considering my request. There is another week of swimming left and I expect to see maximum chest exposure. Go USA!Sincerely,Creepy Cougar (Meow)

Relay for Life

Lauren and Genesis posing mid-lap. Genesis was a true energizer bunny that day. She just kept going and going. It was amazing. Elder Bell and Elder Hinckley set up our booth to look really cool with lots of FREE stuff for passerbys.
Olivia posed after Mom did a little face painting.
LATE at night Olivia was swinging at the playground.

Ward BBQ

So sorry it took so long for an update on my blog. The past two weeks has been really hectic. Here are some great photos of our fun day at the Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. It was a ward BBQ and I was in charg of games although I think itw ould have been fine if I didn't do anything because the kids loved playing at the playground. Although they did LOVE
the bubbles that I brought. Here they are:

Lauren running around popping bubbles that the other kids were blowing.
Olivia washing all the bubbles off her hands.
One of our favorite elders (Elder Bell) who just got transferred to Arcada.
Lauren and Genesis were attached at the hip that day.
Benji (Chess master) and Trey playing a nice game of chess.

A First and LAST time for me

Olivia is so brave. She thought it was so cool to hold a real tarantula. She wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.
Lauren didn't want to hold the spider, but she did pet it.

It looks like I'm happy, but the fact is I haven't looked at my hand. I did this only because Olivia did. If you didn't know already, I am extremely afraid of spiders. Over the past few years I have come a LONG WAY. I can now kill some spiders in my home and I am not usually paralyzed with fear, although it has happened before. I think that having kids has really helped me to be on my way to overcoming this fear.

Curls a Go-Go!

OK, if I would have had an extra $100 to buy this cool curling iron that really works, I would have just for Olivia. Olivia gets mad because Lauren has hair like me (curly and frizzy). Since Olivia doesn't understand how annoying frizzy, coarse hair is, she wants it. Her hair is stick straight and has never held curl with or without product. These curls (no product at all) are still there over 24 hours later. I wanted to wait and see if I could convince her not to take a bath prior to church so she'd have this cute hair for that outing, but we'll see.

Lauren has just downed half the bag of mini donuts...(about as good as Krispy Kreme, but less guilt--they're smaller). Here she is with Giselle hair (from Enchanted). Georgeous!!

Still shots bungee jumping

Lauren is really enjoying herself.
Olivia was trying to jump before the cords were completely pulled up.

Bungee Jumping!!

I am soooo... sorry that you have to tilt your head 90 degrees to the right to see the video. The girls were jumping vertically, so I turned the camera over while taking pictures and forgot to switch back when I went to video mode. If Dale knows how to change it to a vertical view for everyone, I'll have him fix it, but it was too great to leave out.

I guess I should tell you a little about this. My mom called me up yesterday morning to see if we would join her at the Alameda County Fair. We had nothing going on, so went along and had a blast. The girls were a little irritated that the county fair wasn't ALL rides and they couldn't go on the ones they did have. I was going to say yes to the carosel until I saw that it was $4 to ride it. What a rip-off! Instead I spent $4 over and over again on many useful sweets (aka strawberry supreme funnel cake, 1 dozen mini donuts (made with a really cute mini donut factory), strawberry lemonade, ice cream (Grandma's $), etc.). If any of you know Olivia, that's not good enough; she wanted to ride a ride---and it better be a good one! Well, the pony ride was tempting, but I thought too boring for $6/child. The spiderman "thing" was too scary (think falling through about 5 big "webs" from 2 stories high)...no way! And then there it was, a mechanical bull. Oh, it looked so fun. I wanted to ride it and see how long I could last...oops I mean they (the girls). They weren't having any of that...next. Ooh! I'm the one that spotted it, then Olivia, then Lauren's eyes lit up (suprisingly to me, I might add). It was this ultimate bungee jumping. Watch the video to see how much fun. Olivia ended up going so high because the worker was pulling on the cord and she LOVED it! Neither of them wanted it to end, but it did. Too bad! At least they got their ride and Lauren didn't throw up either.

Olivia's swim "lessons"

Lauren's great photography skills at work. Here's Olivia and I prior to the time swim lessons start. See the cute smile on Olivia. Wish it would stay for the next half hour.
Day 8 and Olivia's teacher still has to beg her to come into the pool. Yes, this picture looks as if Emma, Olivia's teacher, will be putting Olivia into the water. No, the picture isn't telling the truth. Olivia would not budge. She likes to get in on her own terms and apparently that is always at least 10 minutes into the 30 minute class.

Yes, finally in, but won't let go of teacher when "trying" to do floats. Maybe another session will change her comfort level. Who knows?

Movin' On Up!!

Well, Session 1 swim lessons is now over and the results are in: Lauren's on to Level 2. A session consists of 8 lessons and on day 7 Lauren said, "I should have gone under water before. It's so much fun!" One day prior, I was telling her teacher that I expected that Lauren would just continue in level 1 until she was comfortable. Well, apparently that day came sooner than I thought. I am so happy that Lauren doesn't "FEAR" the water now. She's having fun with it, which is what I wanted for her in the first place. And here are some pics of Lauren getting ready for her swim class.

What a Happy Family!

Ahhhhh, and you think that I actually paid for this picture. Besides the fact that Lauren looks dazed and confused, Julia is not even looking at the camera and Olivia started her first of many crying fits of the day, the picture was free so I got it to remember the hectic beginning to our fun family outing. Yes, it really was fun overall. It just started and ended like this.

Discovery Kingdom (aka Marine World)

Daddy and daughter with their floppy hats...how cute!

Julia, you just amaze me at how cute you are.
Lauren and Olivia rode Bertie Bus in the ThomasTown section of the park.









Lauren and Olivia found
Sylvester after seeing the Sea Lion Show. We had to pry Olivia away so some other kids could get pictures.











Olivia was brave enough to go on Tony Hawk's Big Spin with me. She regretted it afterward though. It was really fun!

Swim Lessons-day 3 and 4

Day 3 went horribly. Lauren went backward in her confidence and her fear grew exponentially. Tears were hitting her cheeks as soon as she got in the water. Poor little thing. All she kept doing was looking at me and shaking her head no, as if telling me "don't make me do this!" It was a very hard day. Well we talked a lot after lessons on day 3 and before lessons on day 4. We talked about the fact that her instructor is a life guard and will keep her safe. She said she understood while her face said "I don't think so". I asked...more like pleaded...with Lauren to at least TRY everything that her teacher asks her to do on day 4. She was truthful and said, "I don't know if I can". Well, guess what!?! She did. She tried and did everything! She did the superman glide, the backfloat and flip-over, the getting her face under water, etc. I am so-so-so proud of Lauren today. I wish that I had my camera on day 4 because all she kept doing was looking at me and instead of shaking her head with tears in her eyes, she had a big grin with a thumbs up. As we walked into the locker room, Lauren said to me, "I guess this is kinda fun!" THANK YOU!!!

Swim Lessons-day 2

Olivia is a bit happier with the comfort of her teacher Emma holding on.

Lauren is holding on for dear life even with assurance that her teacher Cliff won't let go.

Well, now that wasn't so bad---but I'm still not putting my head under water, even if you keep making the whole class do it until everyone has (3 times today).

Swim Lessons-day 1

Happiness prior to the start of class is key.

Fear of the unknown is very unsettling for Lauren.

Olivia finally (halfway into the session) got into the water.

Pool time

First dip in the pool for Julia.



Cooled everyone down!

Lauren & Olivia at Lake Lahontan in Silver Springs, NV
Lauren
Julia and Shannon
Olivia has been playing in the sand.