New Do

Claire has very thick hair which is curly underneath and more straight on top. This is very Anderson hair and is particularly like Lauren's. When I told Lauren this she offered her condolences. Because of her hair texture and thickness it is very difficult to brush and Claire HATES brushing it. Most days it was ending up in a ponytail to avoid any hassle (It was very challenging to find a picture of Claire with her hair down). Every time she cried during a beauty session I would tell her that we could cut her hair short so it wouldn't hurt so much. She got very excited about this idea and started to tell me how she wanted short hair. 

On Wednesday she got her wish. We were in Orem visiting my family so I asked my friend Mirinda to come over and cut it off. Claire was thrilled (of course she loves to be pampered)! After the haircut she wanted to look at it again and again in the mirror and commenting how beautiful she looked. I think she looks very grown up.

Swim Lessons

   This month we attempted swim lessons. We did it at the South Davis Rec Center which was a little annoying because of the distance, but it was also nice because Marc's nephew Ryan is a swim aid there and was able to assist in the girls class a few times. The lessons were everyday for 2 weeks and 25 minutes long. It was shocking to me how a 25 minute lesson ended up taking up our whole day. It was a real eye opener to what preschool would be like. It is a good thing we already decided to skip preschool this year because otherwise I would be pulling my kids out. Way too much of a commitment! Living in the canyon has it's limitations.

   Claire did great and was good at following instructions and the other kid's lead. Alice on the other hand got progressively worse instead of better. At the beginning she was excited but each time was more apprehensive and toward the end spent the first few minutes of each lesson crying. This is when it was nice to have Ryan there because he peeled Alice out of my arms and was able to work with her one-on-one. Their teacher was a cute 16 year-old named Hannah who informed me pretty quickly that Alice was in danger of not passing the class because she didn't want to submerge her head in the water or float on her back. I took her a couple of times to the pool for a few hours to play and practice her skills. While improvement was noted, it wasn't good enough. Needless to say, Alice flunked swim lessons while Claire passed. It was still fun and I am glad to see the girls a bit more confident and independent in the water. 

Their swim class

Blowing Bubbles

Alice did a lot of crying whenever water got in her face

Alice, Ryan, Claire, Hannah

Alice, Hannah, and Claire

Oakley Rodeo

To celebrate the 4th we went to Oakley with Marc's family to have a BBQ with his 2nd cousins and then go to the Oakley Rodeo. We had so much fun last year at the rodeo and the girls enjoyed it too that we gave it another go. The BBQ was fun and my cake was awesome (if I do say so myself). 

I think the girls were meant to live in the country.

The rodeo was really fun except every time an event started that I really wanted to see one of the girls needed to use the bathroom and they HATE going in the men's room with Marc, so that was out of the question.

Alice's favorite part of the rodeo was the clown act. She just laughed and laughed and she especially liked a bit they did with an ambulance that sparked a few fireworks.

Claire's favorite part was "when the horses tried to kick off the cowboys"

At the end of the night we were disappointed to hear that the fireworks had been cancelled due to the extreme fire danger. Understandable, but still disappointing. When we left both the girls were very tired and Claire told us, "don't ever, ever keep me up late again." What can I say, my kids love to sleep. It was very fun to go to the rodeo and to spend time with Marc's family over the holiday.