The Circus Comes To Town

Ringling Brothers rolled into town a few weekends ago and my parents made the trip down here to go with us.  It was the boys' first circus and they were excited!  Adam was glued the entire 2.5 hours and Caleb was the first half.  His head hit my shoulder at the end of the elephant show, his favorite.  He made it through and then crashed.  The boys were spoiled rotten by their Mema and Pop with souvenirs from the show.  We had a great time watching it ourselves, but mostly watching it through the boys' eyes.

Pop and Caleb watching the show. 

Chris and Adam see something amazing!   Notice any similarities between these two???

Adam Completes Swim Lessons

Adam had 2 weeks of swim lessons this year and made huge progress.  He can do the freestyle and the backstroke now.  He's not going to win any races yet, but this is the beginning of his swimming education.  We are so proud of him!!  He comes from a long line of swimmers on both sides of the family.  We weren't allowed into the pool area until the last day of class, called Show Day.  The families were invited to come and watch the kids from the sidelines.  We took lots of video!

Adam doing the backstroke to his teacher. 

"I didn't just get 1 ring...I got all of them!!"

We Call These..."Dragon Ribs"

Chris has been working on a new, faster style of cooking ribs.  He's bends them around the rotisserie and he can have them cooked and delicious in 2 hours!!  Yum!!

Brothers

Just thought this shot at the library was cute...

What We Do When It's Scorching!

With family in town to look after the boys, Chris and I took the opportunity to do a couple hours down the Amite River near us.  We've tubed this river on a cabrewing trip...don't even ask.  Now we wanted to do it for real in our kayaks and this is not the river to do with the boys in the 105 degree heat.  But, we had a great day paddling.  I think it was too hot for the snakes and other critters b/c we didn't see a thing! 

We got these new wheel trailers for our kayaks b/c we've been burned in the past with having to lift our kayaks all the way to the water plus 2 kids and stuff.  It can be challenging.  So, we looked over these things that are just 2 poles with wheels on them that stick into the holes in your boat.   Then, they break down to ride with you to your get-out point....So Much Easier!!!  It's a good thing we got them because this walk was LONG!

Still walking...

Start of the trip under the Florida Blvd bridge.  It's not the prettiest river or the fastest river...but it was fun.

Meandering through the fallen trees and shallows

At about 3 miles down we went under the new bridge construction for the I-12 expansion.  Chris took about 50 pics of the construction from the river's point of view.  It was pretty cool.

Paddling

Things We Do When It's Sunny

Our neighbors just moved to the other side of town to be closer to work so we went to check out their new digs and their new pool.  Fun, Fun, Fun!   This was Adam's second exposure to a diving board in one week. He loved it!  

Things We Do When It Rains

We've had some rainy days here lately and there's only a few things to do around town that are indoors, entertaining for both me and the kids, and FREE!!  One day we went to the Mall to play at their indoor playground and ride the carousel (which is free on Monday mornings).  We rode the carousel a few times and got to test out the speed of the different animals.  Caleb also used this opportunity at the playground to go through a few diapers.  Let me just tell you it is a long walk to the nearest changing station and we did it 3 times!! 

Chris is in the picture because he got to come meet us at the Food Court for lunch...special treat!!