a memorable memorial weekend

justin hardly ever has days off and we intended to make the most of this weekend! it started out with a fabulous swim session and BBQ at the jensen's! not only were justin and i excited to spend time with adam and wendy, but our kids adore them and were equally as thrilled, i mean just look at that face...

...or at cole just chillin' with adam.

ali started out with a little sun bathing

and

daintily showed off her swim cover (thanks nana kathy!)

but was soon ready to hit the water!

who wouldn't be, this pool was amazing, 91 degrees, naturally heated by hot springs, and gorgeous.

cole loved the water, but was a little apprehensive about being on his own, even though we swore those flotation devises wouldn't fail him.

ali is too little to worry about such things and happily bobbed along.
(don't worry daddy's arm is safely keeping her afloat)

cole decided to give the ridiculous notion that you could keep yourself up by kicking your legs and laying on your tummy a try. he loved that, apparently swim lessons need to be on the agenda this summer. he was soon yelling "look at me! i'm swimming!" to onlookers.

and ali couldn't wait to dive in. if you tried to sit her up on the side, she would lean head first until she was right back in.

can i just say what a cute daddy justin is? he loves helping his kids learn and explore and is definitely the reason our children have hope of not being chickens (like their mother).

cole thought that "blowing bubbles" straight into mommy's face was great. this candid shot caught us just as he had finished dousing me.

we had so much fun at the pool. thanks for inviting us to come play adam and wendy!

after the pool we headed back to their house to get cleaned up and have a BBQ! the basketball game was on, so of course the boys settled right in to watch that, which was fine with wendy and i because it gave us some much needed girl time. and the kids were happy to play with aunt wendy's stash of toys! it was so much fun to spend the day with great friends and have great food (thanks wendy!).

then on monday we had another action packed day. we got a lot done in the morning and then headed up to gardner village to redeem my free b-day month entree and look at all the fun shops. i was camera-less and didn't get to snap any shots of the cute petting zoo, or of cole riding a pony. he loved it all though, and was probably happy to have a memory minus mom clicking away. the random thing though is that we later found out that adam and wendy were there at the same time that day...i guess great minds really do think alike! and we ended the day by catching up with a football teammate of justin's who we hadn't seen in forever.

we had a great day together as a family. as we passed by the cemetary on the way back and saw it overflowing with flowers, it made justin and i so grateful to all be together.