Tennis Lessons with Daddy

Just yesterday Jason took the kids to the tennis courts in our neighborhood and starting playing around with them. Alia took to it right away and wanted to keep playing and playing. Max mostly enjoyed chasing the balls around. This morning he purchased them some child sized racquets and then headed off for another "lesson" in the afternoon. You'll see that Max takes after me and was immediately frustrated and wanted to quit. Alia however stuck with it for a while and even hit one over the net (which unfortunately I did NOT catch on camera, ugh)!

Tennessee Vacation 2013

We had a great time on our annual trip to my dad's house on the lake in Tennessee. We pretty much spent the entire time hanging out on the dock, swimming and boating. The weather tried to mess with us a bit, but we weren't having it. Alia (being a true Oregonian) even did a little swimming in the rain. As a bonus, Liz and Don drove down and spent a couple of days with us too!

The only naps Max took the entire trip were on boat rides.

I'm fairly certain it was on this ride where 3 out of 4 Douglas's got a sunburn (not Max). 

Co-Captain

Hanging with Mimi at the beach

We took Nana and Sir on a boat ride and showed them how to put their hands up when we went over waves ... Max fell asleep again :-)

Alia and Max enjoyed taking care of the Moose friends while we were there. These two slept with them every night. 

Alia wasn't in the mood to smile for pictures. Ugh!

If you look VERY closely you will see a little girl who swam halfway to the neighbors dock to rescue her squirter toy. We were all very impressed!

One of the kids many new experiences on this trip was swimming off the back of the boat in the middle of the lake.

Unfortunately, it was a VERY quick swim. We had to jump in and scoot home because a thunderstorm was brewing. 

And then Max fell asleep again

Here is a little video from the trip as well. At the end you'll see the kids dancing upstairs to the tunes of Big Mouth Billy Bass.

Swim Lessons

One of the MANY awesome things about our new neighborhood is that we have a community pool about one block from our house. They offer swim lessons there in the summer. The kids are currently taking the level 1 class together. The first 3 days were an adventure as the weather was cold and rainy! Today is their last day of class. I'm anxious to see what their teachers think and if one or both of them "passed". I wasn't planning on continuing with lessons for another two weeks, but I've been so pleased with them and the kids have made so much progress that if there are openings I'll sign them up for another round.

(Couldn't get the video to load in the usual way. Hope this works ... If not, I'll edit it later!)

Blackmail :-)

I think if you combine the title of this post and the pictures ... It's really self-explanatory!

Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows

A few performance day photos for you!

Color Me Mine

While my mom was here we took the kids to "Color Me Mine", an art studio where you get to chose your pottery and then paint it. They supply everything and fire it for you afterwards. The kids had a great time and LOVED picking up their projects and admiring their work. I painted a little bowl, Grammy painted a vase, Alia chose a giant platter and Max painted a car (of course)!