Swim Lessons
Ha! Just once my goal is to have my children graduate from a level of swimming lessons into the next level without aging out. We'll see. I have a love/hate relationship with swimming lessons. We do it for two weeks, four days a week, so eight lessons total, right in a row. Usually the first week is bleh; the kids are still adjusting and somewhat aggravated by the entire swimming lessons concept. Laurel cried when she realized this was her first swimming lessons in the pool without Mom. I felt super bad for her instructor. Sigh. Wesley had the same instructor as last year, and I wonder if he thought, "oh dear heavens, here we go again." Thank you Noble and Jordan for taking one for my team.
Both of them are in this photo...
Anyway, what happened was this: after swimming lessons concluded, they both kept talking about how much the loved swimming lessons. They came home and played swimming lessons, wherein they threw a blanket on the floor in front of the couch, they jumped off the couch onto the floor, and one caught the other and they took turns. It was um, kinda crazy? So I did the most reasonable thing I could think of and signed up for more swimming lessons. Yup, we did two rounds in July. Each child had different instructors the second time around, but they both did great and that one-week "adjustment" period didn't happen. And yet, still neither of them "graduated" their level. Oh well.
Watch Wesley use the rope swing... I'm so proud of him!!
We'll do it again next year.
July 4th
I'm grateful for my amazing friends. So very grateful. Vicki invited us to her cabin on Lake Goodwin for July 4th and my kids were beyond excited. Vicki has a boat (and Laurel sang her the motorboat song), and there was swimming and s'mores and sleepovers and glowsticks and Legos and simply everything wonderful. I am so grateful to my friends for inviting us to be part of their holiday tradition. I felt so loved and included and I was just thrilled.
Vicki invited a couple families up, plus her sister and her family were there. We loved it.
We ate food outside....
Checked out nature (there's a butterfly)...
And played in the water.
There was also a hot tub and squirt guns and campfires and boat rides and FIREWORKS. Laurel sat on my lap and we watched, but Wesley said he was "scared" and stayed inside, although he stood by the door in awe all night. They were loud. I didn't put either of them to bed; at one point Wesley told me he was going to bed, then Laurel said she wanted to go, too. Um, it was awesome?! Can my kids always put themselves to bed calmly as their bodies need it? Wouldn't that be great. Even if it's 11 PM.
The next day was Sunday, the Sunday where I sideswiped Vicki's brother-in-law's boat trailer and did this to my car:
Yayyyyy. It's currently September and things were finally squared away with this. I got it fixed by filing an accident claim with my insurance, but I had to go back to the body shop twice because some damage was done to the gas tank and some seals were broken that they didn't catch at first. Finally, all better. My poor baby car.
More Summer Fun
What's summer without carefree fun?
There's painting with monster trucks...
And the best part: cleaning them in the sink...
There's Legos. Lots of Legos. This is a campfire and s'mores. I LOVE their creativity.
Plus, there's been play-doh. Here are some sharks (with gills).
Golly she's adorable.
Colorado
Here is an interesting story. Last year, on our way to swimming lessons in the car, I got a call from my dad that my Grandpa Twining passed away. It wasn't unexpected but it was quite sad to lose a member of my family. This year, while trying hurriedly to get out the door for swimming lessons, I got a call from my brother that my 26-year-old cousin Jessica has passed away. Um, what?! Maybe I shouldn't answer the phone when it's swimming lessons time.
Jessica fell down the stairs in her townhome apartment and broke her neck. It was terribly sudden. She left behind a very upset, grieving, and somewhat bitter husband and three lovely little children, ages 6, 5, and 2. They live in Colorado Springs.
My mom and I decided to fly to Denver, although in retrospect we might not have gone. There has been some conflict and drama in the family, and my dad's brother, Jessica's father Sidney, was un-invited to the funeral service. I have lots to say about it, but perhaps you'll have to call me up to hear that story. I did get to see my dad's sister Nancy and Grandma Twining, who flew in from Ohio, as well as Kurt and Melani and their crew of kids, who drove in from Utah. I got to see all of other cousins, like ALL of them.... Jessica was the baby. There is Mark, who is closest to Kurt and lives in Kansas City now; Dawn, who is closest to me and was also going through a divorce; Jonathan, whose kids are freaking teenagers now; Ryan, who is married to lovely gal and has such a warm and giving heart and home; Kristi, who is married to a spiritual rockstar and has raised a wonderful little family; and Ray, the oldest cousin we haven't seen in ages because he lives in France! Yes, Ray came to the funeral! (Excuse the weirdo picture which doesn't even get us all in there. The woman taking it was somewhat clueless. Maybe she thinks we all know how to use Photoshop?)
Um, funny story. There were several HUGE lacrosse tournaments in Denver that weekend. I was just there for like 3 days total. The cost to rent a small compact car was twice as much as to rent a minivan? So just rented a minivan. And here is what I got:
Um yeah. A Chevy Suburban. For ME. Like, JUST ME. On the way out of the car rental facility, I saw this family of four cram all of their stuff into a Ford Focus and I almost begged them to swap with me, like for free. Unfortunately they were going to be there for several days longer than me, and then drive their car to New Mexico. Well, boo for you having more complicated plans.
Anyway, the best part of the weekend, I think, was Sunday after Church when all of "my" family -- my brother, Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Nancy, all gathered around a laptop in Nancy's awesome hotel room and did family history together. Oh man, I LOVE this stuff. We played around on FamilySearch and RelativeFinder and we talked about life and temple work and experiences and testimony. I love my family. I love that our hearts are knit together. It was crazy awesome.
July 14
This deserves its own entry even though I have no images. On Tuesday, July 14, I appeared in front of a judge in Everett, the Snohomish County seat, and my marriage to Shane Gottula was officially dissolved. I am divorced. I legally changed my name to Angela Lois Gottula Twining, and now I'm single. I'm very grateful that it's over and we are friendly.
Midsingles Conference
Three days later, I went to my first LDS single-adult activity! It was a huge conference that cost money and lasted all weekend. Friday night was a dinner and dance with a live band. I took my friend Eva and we ran into a couple people we knew and we rocked all night.
Saturday there was an "Amazing Race" activity, which I aced. I saw some familiar faces and we assembled a team of eight people, and we had these clues and we ran around South Lake Union and Seattle Center and got pictures and stuff. This guy Ryan and I were smarty pants people and we planned out our journey to make good use of time. Our team came in second! First Place beat us by 15 minutes! I'm proud of second place. It felt good that I knew the answers to a lot of the riddles.
Here are some of our scavenger hunt pictures...
I took my friend Kalei with me on Saturday, along with Eva, so it was three of us girls. For lunch we got to wander around the Bite of Seattle at Seattle Center, which was SO COOL.
We got food at a Taster's Table sort of things, where we got eight "tastes" from eight local restaurants. It was awesome. The thing in the middle there was chicken & waffles which now I'm obsessed with. The tomato mozzarella thing was also completely amazing, it had a Mexican flare with cilantro instead of basil or something? Blew my mind. It was all so good. I had a great time and will totally go again with friends. Maybe not kids? It was really busy. Lots of people. But so fun.
Later that afternoon we went to Magnuson Park for some beach time. This was where the most memorable moment of the weekend occurred. I'm wading in the water. There's this totally cute guy there. We started talking. I ask him what he thinks about these things or whatever, and he says something like, "I don't like to be friendly because then people think I want to be friends." OMG. I just couldn't believe this guy was so full of himself. I tried to brush off his comment and we continued to talk about how he likes to shoot guns, but the whole time he was just all smug with me. I'm kinda like, dude, you came up and started talking to ME? Like whatever. Get over yourself.
Sooo I didn't meet any great guys. I got two or three Facebook friends out of the weekend. Saturday night was another dance where they played questionable music (Honey I'm Good? Really? TWICE?) and I did meet a gal named Jamie that I reeeeeeally like. I have a serious girl crush on her. She's awesome, I'm dying to see her again. We've emailed.
Ducks
Father's Day was in June. It was a hard day for me, since I um, have no father in my home and my earthly father has died, so I was feeling a bit blue and everyone was talking about it on Facebook and I kinda wanted to barf. The coolest thing about Father's Day was when I got out of my car on a busy road near my home and helped a momma duck and her babies cross the street. I stopped traffic and made a guy with a beard and black leather jacket on a Harley totally chuckle. Then another woman rolled down her window and thanked me. I just wish I had my camera!!
Well lucky me! In July we got to help some more ducks cross the street. I noticed them leaving our neighborhood so we followed them. We kept a safe distance :-)
It was sweet. The kids laughed. There's a retaining pond over there so I hope the ducks figured out how to get in there.
Instrument Petting Zoo
One of my favorite summer activities is the Instrument Petting Zoo at the Mukilteo Community Center. I love it!!! I love watching my kids experience the instruments.
Oh man, their little faces. LOVE IT!
And because I'm so nice, enjoy these awesome videos!
Raspberries
We picked raspberries. I was super happy that day. I found an awesome place and we were some of the only people there. We listed to Spotify on my phone and picked berries and danced.
The only downside was I came home and made fruit leather and it was a TOTAL FAIL. EPIC FAIL. I had to throw all of it away. I was so disappointed. Let's just say wax paper isn't the same as parchment paper. I didn't know OK?! I feel stupid enough.
Picnic Point & the Splashpad
Picnic Point is our favorite beach. Here they are making a bridge across the creek. They did a lot of cooperative play this summer which was been so fun.
Here is Laurel's adorable "shark bite" swimsuit that her Grandma Gottula hand-sewed for her. She loves it. Girlie loves sharks.
Splashpads are fun. We actually didn't get to our favorite this summer, which is a bummer. But we stayed cool when we needed it, nonetheless.
Jetty Island
Of course we did Jetty Island. It was just as wonderful as every year.
The kids played in the mud. There was a cool teepee they played in.
We walked alllllll the way out (the tide was way way way out) in the afternoon and even I went swimming. Gosh it was perfect. I love these memories, I just love them. I love the carefree days of summer. I love LESS that they stayed up until 11PM most nights, but I loved that it didn't matter. We stayed up, we slept in. Sure I haven't cleaned my bathroom in ages, but the dishes and laundry get done and we are fed and we have laughed a lot. I never want to forget this.
Our other big thing was our CAMPING TRIP!!, but I'll make that its own post!
It was a fabulous July!
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