Our First Family Getaway

Swimming Sisters

Malaine

Sawyer thrilled that I got his picture, you know it is rare to get him.

Mavery clinging on to her daddy!

Smiling in the water, and moving in on her own terms.

Taking a rest, Sage tired from all that swimming

Recognize that pout? Yep, the same one we saw in every picture of China!
Does Mavery look a little nervous to you? Worried what Sage might try to make her do!


Mavery floating, she was most happy to float on her back like this. Sage tries to float but can't keep her body up, Mavery, she just floats right up there! ;-)



I am happy to report that we survived our first weekend trip to the lake as a family of seven! In case you are not familiar with "our lake", my parents own a condo on the Lake of the Ozarks, which is about 3 hours from us. They are so generous to let us use it. We enjoy spending time down there, especially because there is an indoor pool. We were anxious to take Mavery to see how she would do swimming and traveling. Thankfully she did better than I expected. Overall she is not a good car rider. She is better than she was , but she is still not easy. Movies? She does not even watch 2 minutes of anything. Give her a toy, she plays with it about 2 minutes and throws it around the car. Then continues to scream or repeat over and over, "I dropped my book" and when I say over and over, I mean over and over and over and over. Only stopping when you hand it back, then she throws it again. The other kids were all thankful for their noise reducing headphones I think! Because have I mentioned that Mavery does not really talk, but screams? Try explaining to her that we are going to the lake (because she also asks over and over, "where we go?") What is a lake exactly and why does it take us 3 hours to get to it? So I finally told her we were going to Walmart to shop. That she gets! One moment that we were laughing so hard.. We had Sage and Makenna in the middle, the other 3 in the very back. Mavery kept asking Sage questions, over and over.. Finally Sage screams "MAVERY QUIT YELLING AT ME". It was hilarious because Sage typically does not lose it like that, but a girl can only take so much!

This was the first time we have tried Sage & Mavery sleeping together and we were happy with how well they did. Besides getting up before 7am, they did good and maybe they will be able to share a room before to long here.

Our family enjoys swimming and the kids were very anxious to dive into the pool. Sage, got a little over excited and dove in to the deep end before putting her floats on or having one of us in with her. Thankfully Mark was close by, but we did alot of practicing this time on how to swim to the edge and by the time we left today she was swimming all over with out her floats on and able to grab on to the side. I am certain this child really is a mermaid, I have never seen a 3 year old who can hold her breath for so long under water. She has never had a lesson and is just amazing in the water. We now have 4 swimming on their own, which is nice.
Then there is Ms Mavery. She went right in all excited. (First time in a pool, China we tried to get her in with no luck) But then the water got in her face and that was that. She was done. Since her daddy does not understand done or fear of water, he spent alot of time making it fun and she was doing pretty well by today. No jumping in or anything like that, but I think there is hope. I was proud of her for trying so hard to stay in. The bribe of cookies helped a little bit to. ;0) (yeah, yeah, yeah, we are supposed to be watching her food, but that can't happen at the lake!)
I wish I had my video camera going for a few moments. First, Mavery was hanging on to the rope in the pool. Sage came up near her and Mavery screams SAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!! (meaning do not come near me because I know you are going to splash me or something crazy!) Well Sage, being Sage, thinks Mavery is looking for her, grabs onto her and says, I am right here Mavery, right here.. It was to funny, because Sage can not understand WHY in the world anyone would not want her near them!
Second, they are both sitting on the side of the hottub with their feet in the water. They start giving each other hugs and all of a sudden Sage has flipped them both into the water! Sage comes up laughing, Mavery, not so much. WE sure had a good laugh over it!
Besides swimming we did NOTHING, which was so nice. We watched movies, hung out and it was so nice to get away and just enjoy each other.

I am so far behind on posts and have more pictures, want to try to get caught up before Easter!