Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Swim Season is Here!

Both Ben and Nick started up their swim lessons for the school year. Ben has been taking private lesson for 2 1/2 years, now he is doing so well I put him in a group lesson..."swim team". The problem is, he loves to swim under water and not work on his strokes!

This is Nick first time actually doing swim lessons. He is in a group w/ 6 other kids. At his age they have a parent go in the water w/ the child. They do lots of fun songs, games, etc. Since Ben and Nick have their swim lessons at the same time for a half hour, Todd went in w/ Nick and I was able to sit and enjoy my boys swim.

Below is a game they play...the child sits on the edge of the pool, the child then dives of the edge to the instructor, gets up on a big foam cushion (little bigger than the size of a crib mattress), then the child walk across to jump to the parent waiting at the other end. Nick flipped out at first, wasn't sure about jumping into the hand of the instructor...

But once he saw the other kids do it, he got right to it and did a great job! Daddy was very happy of his brave boy!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Adult Day!

Well, Todd and I were able to enjoy a day away from the boys. Just a 25 minute drive up Highway 154 and you find yourself in another world...up in the Santa Ynez Valley. It is so pretty up there this time of year. The weather was perfect, warm, but not too hot. In tow we had our dear friends, Jimmy G, and his daughter Kelly, w/ her boyfriend Ryan. We all share a passion, WINE! We all are members of the Gainey wine club, and every year they throw a "Crush Party". This is to kick off the beginning of the new wine season. And yes, we did "crush"...
I got the crush party started...

Then Kelly joined me...

Finally the boys got enough guts too...

The grounds are absolutely gorgeous up there, the land sprawls for miles w/ rows and rows of vines. Here is the whole gang...

I had to take some pictures that captured some of the beauty of our surroundings...



All in all, a fantastic day with amazing friends. Can't wait for our next Santa Ynez event!