swimming

Isabel LOVES to swim. We swam two times a day up in Park City and she just couldn't get enough. Another little girl shared her alligator with Isabel and we went for rides around the pool. She is getting good at swimming around by herself with her little arm floaties.

playing together

So, one of the nice things about having two kids is when they play together and entertain each other. Sometimes they play nicely and have a lot of fun. Other times they try to kill each other and still have a lot of fun.

the inflatable playground

We just got back from a huge family reunion in Park City. (All but one of my dad's seven brothers and sisters all got together with their kids and grandkids.) Outside our window we could see this enormous inflatable playground. So, we decided to do it. Isabel loved the jumping room and the obstacle course to the slide. There was a giant king kong slide and she wanted to do it. Well...after she climbed up she just walked around the three slide areas and would not go down. A little girl told me she was scared. So, the attendant had to hold up the line and climb up there. He tried to convince her to go down the slide, but she didn't want to. He helped her back down and we went back to playing on other things. They let you play for an hour and after 50 mins Isabel said she was done playing and wanted to go inside and get a drink. I wish they had things like this for adults! It was a good time.

yummy!

Eating can sometimes get messy! Poor Ansel....I just make him use everything Isabel had, including this pink bib. Don't worry, I don't dress him in pink clothes.

bath time

So, I have a lot more pictures of Isabel than Ansel...but I don't want to leave him out. At our last apt we had no bath tub. So, even though he was getting a little too big for that tub we would still have him bath in it. His chubbiness stands out in this bath tub photo. We joke around that he needs to start crawling to "get in shape." People always see me with this big baby and say....well, he sure doesn't get it from you.

parasailing at lake tahoe

We finally took a little trip to Lake Tahoe for the day. Since Joseph swam a lot in High School and is from the middle of the country, he has wanted to swim in the lake ever since I told him we often go there. Our first chance to go to Lake Tahoe was when I was 8 months pregnant with Isabel. I decided the drive and bathing suit sports would not be worth it, so we skipped it. We finally found a good time to make the trip out so he could swim in the lake and it turns out some construction company broke into a sewer line and the shore was contaminated and shut down for a few miles. So....we were only able to swim in the pool. This year will be the year, I thought. When we heard about all the fires, damage and evacuations at south shore Lake Tahoe, we thought maybe we are causing things to happen to this lake. North Shore was a little smoky, but we still were able to go.

I really wanted Isabel and Joseph to have the experience of parasailing. I went once many years ago and it was a lot of fun. We looked into it and it was just too expensive for all three of us to go up together. We were not going to do it until I got an idea! They charged per person even if the person is a two-year-old. So....I called and told them that all three of us wanted to go up, but we wanted to go for the price of two. They said to come on down and our adventure began. (I always feel good getting a deal!) We got to go on a little motor boat out to the parasailing boat. Isabel looked so funny in her little life jacket and harness....she couldn't really move. She was hooked into the same spot that I was, so she went on my "lap." As we were taking off and getting higher and higher I just kept saying, "Hurray! Yipeeee! What Fun!" This of course quickly put to rest any fears she might have been experiencing and it was real fun. I asked Joseph how he was liking it and he admitted to being a little nervous. His engineering mind was looking at the equipment and analyzing the size and strength of the rope. It was such a fun experience and just beautiful. When we got back to tell Grandma and Grandpa Gibby and Aunt Lisa and Uncle Brian how the trip went Isabel said, "Dad was a little scared, but I just thought it was fun."

creativity

Isabel cracks me up all the time. She is into make believe things a lot. She pretends that she is a viking on a boat (bed or couch) and all of a sudden: "Oh no! My friend fell in the water; what are we going to do?! Hurry, hurry, we have to save him!" The "pet store dogs" follow us everywhere. Every time we go to a certain playground, she gets to ride her horse named Rosco. Recently, she told me not to call her Isabel, but to call her Deer because she was a deer. And because deers are so good at climbing she'll climb up "deer mountain" and jump off. She also likes to climb around in the tree in our backyard. We recently had a real life experience where our friend's pet died and so she pretends about death a lot. The horses didn't look before they crossed the street and so they got hit by a car and died, but it's okay because there are other horses that are okay. The mean dogs also died, but that was not very sad. Joseph and I look at each other like hmm....I'm not sure how I want to respond to her talking about such morbid things. Isabel can be a challenge sometimes, but it's fun to see how grown up and creative she is becoming.