Fun filled day with grandparents…

My parents were here in town, so we went to the theaters & watched Kung Fu Panda 2.

 

Then they took us out to this restaurant called El Pueblo Grill for some south-western food.

 

The boys ordered a calamari appetizer & we all loved it. It came with zucchini & jalapenos, too.

 

I think my dish was called avocado chicken & it was delicious.

    

 

 

When we got home Marlee kept entertained with her kitty, we adopted him from the pound about a week and a half ago. It usually tolerates all the love (aka torture) from Marlee.

 

She has this toy camera & she likes to take pictures of her kitty. She usually likes to do anything that I do & of course that includes taking photos.

 

 

The boys always love to hear night time stories from grandpa Turley. This time he told them that they had to be dressed like puppy dogs before he would tell them a story. They used socks to dress up like puppies.

Clayton’s 9- where did the time go?!?

Clayton chose crepes for his birthday breakfast (I totally forgot our tradition of letting him use the cream cow-oops):

He really wanted to open his present from us in the morning. We got him a nice fishing pole, reel, and some line. He was pretty happy since he loves fishing so much.

Checking out the new pole:

I took the kids to the movies to see HOP. I love the summer movie deals here-$2 adults & kids are free. We’ve gone to the movies almost every week.

For lunch we out to the Sushi Garden (usually just Laun takes the b-day kid out, but Clayton wanted us all to come). Then we headed over to World’s Sports Grill where the boys played arcade games.

My parents came in town & gave Clayton some cash (always a fav for him) & another bird/water feeder-we can always use more of those with how many birds we keep hatching. He also got cash from his Frost Grandparent’s-he was pretty pumped. For dinner we had fish tacos (some of the fish we had was one’s that Clayton caught), but I forgot to get a picture.

I made him Monster cake as he requested. It is layers of chocolate & white cake (dyed green) with a pistachio filling & all frosted with ganache frosting. I like the way it looks before it is covered in chocolate-it looks like a massive hamburger.

This is the second year in a row that he has wanted Monster cake, except this time we made a fish on top out of powdered sugar. Clayton is really into fishing right now.

Holy cow this boy is handsome! This picture makes me laugh because his shirt is on inside out & backwards-haha.

We also had our neighbor Jacob over for birthday cake & ice cream.

We had so much cake that we took some to 3 of our neighbors & still had some leftovers!

Happy 9th Birthday Clayton!!! I can’t believe that our firstborn is nine-crazy! I love this kid & he has grown so much this year-not only height wise, but in maturity. He had a very successful year. Some of the highlights during his eighth year were: getting baptized, earning 2nd place overall in the school’s spelling bee (he even competed against 8th graders), hatching & selling birds, completing 1 year of scouts, and competing on swim team for the 1st time & placing in both of his events in the championships (2nd in backstroke & 6th in freestyle). I had such a fun time watching Clayton this year in all of his achievements. He is a wonderful big brother & such a helper to Laun & I. We love you buddy!

Marlee is techno

Marlee thinks she is so big-here she is ^ with Laun, Darlene & Jonathan on her lap top. I just thought this looked so funny with everyone on their laptops.

Darlene was using a mouse pad, so Marlee thought her mouse should go there too. Marlee was in heaven with Jonathan & Darleen in town. She was loving all the attention & got crazy hyper. She is such a fun girl & knows how to keep us laughing.

Swim Team season coming to an end…

This was Clayton’s first summer to do swim team. At the end of the season they have 1 day of regional's & whoever makes it in the top goes onto Championships.

Day 1: Regional's

Clayton’s cheer team:

You are there early in the morning until lunch time, so it is a long stretch of time. Porter & Marlee found ways to stay occupied.

Here is Porter getting ready to catch a bug. I love how one of his legs if off the ground-nice balance.

attack…

and success…

Clayton had a sweet swimmers haircut (even though he didn’t think so). Here’s the coach touching his hair before a race-possibly for good luck?

Clayton swam in 2 events-1st was backstroke:

He got a time of 33.95 seconds in that heat, which qualified him for championships & in case you can’t tell from that smile (which he is trying hard to hide), he was pretty darn happy about it.

I love how he sticks his tongue out to the side, it reminds me of his Grandma Lucy.

After the races they post the following-it let’s you know what your child’s times are & if they are going on to the championships.

Another way these two kept themselves busy was by doing unique stretches & the splits. That funky pose Porter is doing (not the splits) reminds me of me when I was little, I used to do that same thing.

2nd swim of the day for Clayton was freestyle.

I love this photo- his mouth is open big for that breathe of air. All these people are from the different city of Tucson swim teams, that are competing (or cheering on the swimmers) today.

Clayton got a time of 24.82 seconds in that heat & that qualified him for championships.

It was an exciting day & we will be back tomorrow for championships.

Day 2: Championships

Clayton liked hanging out & playing card games with his teammates.

His 1st event was backstroke & it was fun to watch. Laun video taped it & it was funny to hear how excited he got & near the end I think he was video taping the sky:)

It was so hot out & that water looked so refreshing-wish I could have jumped in.

When Clayton finishes a race he asks the timer for his time-that way he can keep track of his personal record. This race was so exciting because Clayton had a time of 29.85 seconds (4 seconds faster than yesterday) & he won 2nd place, which means he medaled!!!

The kids attempted cooling off by eating some eeggee’s slushy.

Then was his final race of the season-the freestyle.

He got a time of 25.54 seconds which landed him 6th place & a ribbon!

What an amazing swim season-2nd in backstroke & 6th in freestyle! We are so proud of him & what a great swimmer he has become. When he tried out for swim team he struggled to make it across the 25 foot lane, but now he just jams! Practice & hard work sure do pay off-way to go Clayton!

This picture of Clayton with 2 fingers up is showing that he placed 2nd & the other one is at the teams eeggee’s party with his coaches. We are grateful for all the time that these coaches put in to help these kids become great swimmers!

After the team celebration I took Clayton out for Cold stone ice cream. I had told him awhile back that if he got into the Championships I would take him. And Laun told him that if he placed in the top 3, he would buy him eggs off of eBay to hatch. Clayton was pretty happy that he earned both rewards.

I’m already excited for next season & then I should have two swimmers to cheer on-Clayton & Porter.

*On a side note-the boys finished the library's summer reading program which was like 30 something hours of reading! They got their rewards today, but they were most excited about the Water Breakers (water park in Tucson) pass. I am one proud mamma today.