Only 3 weeks...

Hard to believe, school starts for Benjamin three weeks from Monday. I have to say, this has been a wonderful summer, but seems to be coming to a close way too quickly. I can really tell a huge difference in the way I've felt this summer than in years past. It has enabled me to do so very much with the boys this year. We've packed our weeks with lots of play dates, trips to the pool or splash pad, library story times, many movie theater visits (our theater has a great summer movie program Tuesday and Thursday mornings...we haven't missed too many shows), and just great family time. 

--

One thing the boys have been trying to decide on is what type of activities they want to participate in for the upcoming school year. We've always tried to keep after school activities to a minimum, since Benjamin also has therapy one day a week after school. This past April, Benjamin was actually discharged from Physical Therapy. We expect that the exact same thing will be happening with his Occupational Therapy at the end of August as well. This will do HUGE things for our schedule! Yay! Our days of driving all the way to Temple for therapy are coming to a close...hard to believe after doing this for several years now. 

Jonathan is wanting to start gymnastics in the fall (haven't been there since B's arm break) and he's wanting to do winter Soccer starting in January. Benjamin has decided that he wants to pursue more swimming (if you had told me this a year ago, I would have fallen over). We've found a place that does year round swimming (of course, it's all the way in Temple: same song, second verse), but it comes highly recommended by our new babysitter (who is on the swim team at Ellison). It's a Blue Dolphin Swim School and we're thinking we may be visiting there once a week with our little Michael Phelps. Benjamin is also thinking about doing Boy Scouts with the group at his school. 

So, with what little time we have left, we are squeezing every last drop out of summer that we can. Here's the rest of our swimming lessons photos. Looks like we may be seeing the pool quite often with Benjamin this year! ; )

Double Dippin'

Diving

Swimming to Chris

Look at that form!

Swimming down to the bottom.

Climbing the platform.

Fun times!

Summer Swim 2011

Summer Swim is in full effect for the Dominguez boys. And it's been GREAT already. Benjamin has just turned a major corner with his fears this year and is already jumping off the platforms and working on fine techniques...rather than just praying to get to the end of of swim lessons as we have in past years. SO proud of him. We were sad that our usual instructor, Jordan, did not come back to teach this year.

According to Benjamin, "These college guys are busy, mom. I understand." Whew. Dodged a major bullet there. His new instructor is Katie and they are getting along great. It helps that she is adorable...his word, not mine. {Blush}. Funny, he finds her adorable, yet can't remember her name from lesson to lesson. 

Working on launching into the backstroke from the wall.

Jonathan loves the kickboard. He calls it his surf board. Surf board, kick board....it's all the same, right?

Jumping off the platform!! YAY!

Benjamin's version of the cannonball....and he yelled "Cannonballlllllllll" every. single. time.

Chris (J's same instructor from last year) helping him tackle the platform.

The landing.

I'm sure I'll have a few more photos after these two weeks are over!

New Blue Board & Batten Bath for the Boys

We just finished a make-over of the boys' bathroom. It's been a long time coming. And after seeing all the great board & batten tutorials out there, we were hooked (I was at least....David came on board last night at 3 am when the last piece of hardware was installed).

Absolutely no natural light to speak of so the pictures aren't what I dreamed of...oh well.

The mirror inspired by the House of Smiths!! They rock. Although David hopes they stop doing so many awesome projects so I stop getting so many awesome ideas that become "the next thing on the list"!

It was fine, but nothing to write home about. 

And the lighting? Seriously? This home is only six years old...whose "bright" idea was this?

Interesting Aqua...loving it!!

The first board to go up....fingers & toes crossed!!

Thank you, Hilton, for my shower cap from our last hotel stay. It enabled me to not have to painstakingly pick paint out of my hair for the next week. A necessity when painting a ceiling.

Don't laugh. It was 106 here all week. We moved our "woodshop" to the entryway and kept the shop vac ready at all times to deal with the dust. We also learned that our circular saw makes 45 degree cuts...nice to know. 

Yay!! The mirror frame fits!

Loving the hooks vs. the towel bar.

Hardware....we live in one of those homes where the builder opted for a hardware-free home...so nice to finally have proper pulls and handles.

Still need to replace the faucet...but that's for another day. We're pooped.

So happy to have this all done. It was quite a bit more difficult than we originally thought it would be. But, it gave us confidence to tackle other things of this nature. Our next biggie is transforming our kitchen island!! 

Mustang Island, Summer 2011

We had a great vacation in (on?) Mustang Island. We just got back a couple of hours ago and I was really wanting to get photos up (so it's not hanging over my head for the next week)!

It was a wonderful week with not much of an agenda. We rented a condo on the beach and LOVED it so much. The condo had three wonderful pools that the boys spent a ton of time in....probably more than their time on the actual beach. We cooked most of our meals in our condo and the boys have now decided they want bunk beads like they had in Mustang Island. 

Be prepared....it's picture city.

Okay, so the above pic is probably a bit odd. But the one thing about our condo that had us in stitches was the CrAzY shower/tub/jacuzzi that required gymnastics to actually get into. I just had to take a pic. All four of us (if not a couple of extra people) could fit in this 1982 monstrosity. And you felt a bit "on stage" when in the shower since it had this huge glass window (covered in seashell beads?) that opened into the bedroom. BUT, you could watch the Today show while showering. 

We loved grilling out by the pool. (The boys little heads are bobbing in the water in the back).

Mmmm. Why does charcoal-grilled food cooked by a beach taste SO good?

We logged in lots of hours of beach time. We even braved it when there was a high rip tide warning....the water was all the way up to the dunes because of Tropical Storm Arlene. 

Heehee....this little fellow somehow ended up in Jonathan's swim trunks. He stripped right on the beach to get him out! We laughed so hard....Jonathan of all people! ; )

Lunching it up...

followed by afternoons at the pools...

And a mandatory REST time....even Benjamin (who hasn't napped in a few years) was so tuckered out and needed that sleep every afternoon.

We were also THRILLED to catch up with our friends, the Hills, who now live in Corpus Christi. They drove out to the island one night to have dinner with us. It was wonderful to hang out!

The Hills lived in Muleshoe at the same time as we did. We had some super fun times!!

And the boys adored Nathan & Melanie's precious daughter, Hadlea. They all had a blast together!

We made these crabbie sammies that my friend, Amanda, made famous on her beach trip.

And Melanie brought over yummy strawberry shortcake...which apparently needs no spoon for!

Melanie & I caught a great sunset walking back from the pool! Pretty!

Another night, we headed out to Port Aransas for a great dinner at a place called Beaches.

And we went to a great candy store where Benjamin found....LEGO CANDY!!

Thursday was overcast (and the rip tide was even worse) so we headed to Corpus to the aquarium.

Jonathan especially loved the dolphin show.

We headed down to the underwater observation area to see the dolphins even closer. Is it just me or is the dolphin smiling?

A peek-a-boo tank!

Petting a starfish.

Touching a stingray.

Du-Nuh....Du-Nuh....

Since the last time we visited this aquarium, they added a great splash pad. The boys loved it!

Getting soaked!

Soaking others!

After the aquarium, we headed to Doc's on the bay for a great seafood lunch.

Then back to the condo to make homemade ice cream for supper....a new vacation tradition!

And it was goooood!! 

We also purchased two new friends to come home with us from the beach.

HOWEVER, we were sad that one of them went to that great painted hermit crab shell in the sky when we were dumb enough to leave them in the hot car while we had lunch at Cracker Barrell. Doh!

Rest in peace, little friend. 

One absolutely wonderful vacation. Wishing we were back there right now!!