Tee-Ball

Evie is excited to be on a tee-ball team for the summer. She is pretty thrilled to have her own glove and cleats.

Yay Green team!

She is still learning, but slowly improving. She is finally able to catch the ball, so that's a big improvement.

Today after she hit the ball, everyone was saying, "run, Evie!" She got overwhelmed, and then picked up the ball to hand it to the other team. Then when everyone was saying, "no, run to first base", she went back and picked up the bat and started running with it, until the coaches told her to leave it. Then she ran back to home plate to set the bat down, and finally ran to first. As soon as she was safely on base, she grinned and waved. It was pretty cute, and I don't think she really knew why everyone was laughing. She was a good sport, and laughed right along with us.

So far she is loving it, and I think maybe by next year she'll really understand what she's supposed to be doing. She's definitely in good company with the other 4-6 year olds. There was maybe one kid today who seemed to have a grasp on how the game works. It's fun that they can all figure it out together.

Swim season

The girls have been keeping busy with swim team this summer. Evie is very excited that she made the team this year. She has really struggled, but at least she's doing it. I almost didn't buy her a team suit because I didn't think she had a good chance to be on the team, but I'm glad I got it for her.

Kiersten has really loved swimming this year. She is one of the slowest in her age group, but she keeps improving, so I have to remind her that she's going in the right direction.

Kara has been doing pretty well too. She sprained her foot last week, so that has slowed her down, but she's hanging in there.

We have also spent lots of time hanging out by the pool aside from swim team.

It's nice to have Evie swimming confidently now. She only wore her swim vest once, and now she doesn't need it. I still feel like I need to keep a close eye on her, but she really does fine.

Ben raced with a few of his friends a few weeks ago. He got beat, and it was pretty funny.

One day last week, the lifeguards kept calling everyone out of the pool for thunder. Just when it was almost time to be able to get back in, there was more thunder, so I gave up and took the girls home to run through the sprinklers. They had a grand time.

It gave me a chance to weed the flower bed. I didn't mind getting sprinkled, because it was really hot out there.

Evie hasn't shined quite yet in the swim meets. She is terrified to jump off the block, even though she does it all the time at practice. At the last meet, one of the coaches finally just pushed her in.

She does okay when a helper is in the water with her, even though they don't actually touch or help her at all. I think it just makes her feel more safe. She has done really great at practice this week, so I have high hopes for her next meet.

Kiersten keeps setting new personal bests, so that's really all we ask of her. She swam a no breather lap at practice the other day, which was something she was really working for.

Kara was getting better, but her hurt foot has slowed her down. She also swam with her eyes closed when her goggles fell off, and ran into the wall pretty hard. With that and getting a frenectomy and braces in the last two weeks, she's had a bit of a rough time lately.

Go Castle Pines Crocodiles!

Magic Kingdom 2015

After we disembarked from the cruise, we took the girls to Magic Kingdom for the day. We didn't tell them we were going there, and I acted like I was annoyed at Ben for going the wrong direction. We kept asking the girls to help watch the freeway signs so we could get turned back around. I got a pic of Kiersten right as she was noticing the Disney World signs. The other 2 had fallen asleep, but at least Kiersten had a fun reaction.

It was a fairly pleasant day to be there. Not too hot. At first they were still confused, and weren't sure if we were just going in to use the bathroom quickly. I'm still not sure how they thought we had tickets, and rode the monorail in, and would just be going to the bathroom, lol.

Our fast passes worked out pretty well, and we got on many more rides than I expected we would. It felt really crowded, but we really didn't wait in very long lines.

They didn't want to meet very many characters, but Kiersten couldn't pass up a chance to get a picture with Ariel.

Evie's favorite ride was Goofy's Barnstormer, the same as 2 years ago.

The girls were pretty excited to see Tinkerbelle. And we went right at the perfect time, during the parade, so we just walked straight in to meet her. It was an exhausting day, and almost seems like a blur in retrospect, but a fun time was had by all, and I'm really glad that we decided to take them.

Castaway Cay

The second stop on our cruise was in Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. I would live there if allowed. Ben and I decided to run the 5K in the morning. I wish it had been earlier so it wouldn't have been so hot. We didn't start running til almost 9AM. Ben was worried he wouldn't do well, but he beat my slow butt.  

I felt like I was running so slowly. But as I finished, I was surprised that it only took me about 3-4 minutes longer than my normal time. The heat was really more than I anticipated. Luckily, there was a guy who annoyed me before the race, so when I saw him pass me, it gave me a second wind to finish strong. I had to beat that guy in the yellow shirt. There was another guy I was keeping pace with for the entire race. We passed each other 7 or 8 times, but right at the end Ben said he sprinted hard and finished a few steps before me.

Then we headed back to the ship to get Vicky and the girls. The walk back felt a lot longer in the heat.

We ran into Goofy on our way to the beach. I know I can count on Kara to look at the camera.

We also ran into Mickey, so I made us get a family picture. So there you go, we probably wont get a new one for a few years now, haha.

Vicky and Kara went for a bike ride around the island. I can't recall what happened to Ben at first, but I took the little girls to the beach. It was another lovely day.

Kiersten did whatever Kierstens do.

While Evie did whatever Evies do.

And they played together rather nicely.

Olaf opened a new smoothie stand since we were last here.

Ben took Evie snorkeling for the first time, and she seemed to enjoy it, the little cutie-kins! I don't think she saw many fish, though.

Then I took Evie on the float so Kiersten could snorkel. She loves it. She spent a lot of time out there, and even went again later with me. She was getting mad that people were walking in the snorkel area, and clouding up the water. So she asked to be dropped off in the Oceaneer beach for the kids.

Kara and Evie also went to the kids beach, so Ben and I decided to check out Serenity Bay, which is for adults only. There were not many people there, so that was nice. We snorkeled a bit, and did some swimming.

Ben dove down to get a huge sand dollar for Kiersten, but it got confiscated on our way back onto the ship.

I felt like we were on our own private beach. Seriously, if Disney would let me live here, I would. I'm actually kind of annoyed that I'm not there now.
Kara and Kiersten both got sunburned. I felt badly, but the burns didn't last long.

Back on the ship it was pirate night! Always a highlight for us.

Kiersten tends to have random, inexplicable pouty moments on occasion. There is usually no reason, or no good reason. During the pirate show on deck, she started pouting, and did not want to watch the show. I think she regretted it by the end. She didn't know why she was grumpy, just that she was. I'm guessing she was tired. Also, she left her pirate hat in the Oceaneer Lab, so that could be part of it.

But sunshine was happy to be there. Kara went down on the deck to dance, so we didn't see much of her til after the show was over.

I need to carry a copy of this picture with me so when people ask why we like Disney cruises I can just show them. That face is why.

We had a great seat for dinner on the last night. We also were there for breakfast the next morning.

I had to get a picture since Kara finally dressed up for dinner. And then Ben posed with such a straight face! He said he was doing a European portrait.

I love this girl more than she will ever understand.

4 days feels awfully short after doing a full week on the last 2 cruises. We were sad to disembark, but happy about what a wonderful time we had in the Bahamas and on the Dream.

aaaaaand... here are the rest of the pictures I almost forgot about because they were on the other camera. ;)