Swimming Lessons

Henry just completed two weeks of swimming lessons at the Wilson High School Pool (through Portland Parks and Rec). During the summer the classes meet every day for two weeks which really gives the kids a chance to practice, practice, practice their skills. In addition, we stayed after lessons and swam at least 75% of the days as well. The Sunday before Henry started lessons, he also started swimming on his own! Brett bought him goggles and those were the key to giving him the confidence he needed to really keep his face down in the water and swim, swim, swim. In the short two weeks since his lessons began the improvements have been amazing. He can swim and glide for greater and greater distances, he is starting to be able to pop his head up and take little breaths so he can swim longer, he can just about dive in the water, and he has no problem jumping in. He will still need to repeat this level of swim lessons because he can't quite float on his back by himself yet or do a front glide the way they want him to (arms straight up in front of him and not paddling). I'm hoping to be able to keep him in lessons throughout the fall and winter at the SW Community Center as much as possible so he can continue building his skills.

July Round-Up

 I think that so far this summer we've struck a nice balance between doing lots of fun activities and also being relaxed. While it would have been nice to have Henry utilizing the free summer days for classes, it also has been really great to have lots of free days where we can just do whatever strikes our fancy. Just like Henry is doing in this first picture! Taking a break from running through the sprinkler at Gigi's house.

 His preschool has scheduled a couple playdates each month during the summer so that the kids can stay in contact with each other. One such event was at Oaks Park - here's Henry on the Tilt-O-Whirl. Last summer when I took him on it he cried...this summer he begged to go on it again and again. I could only handle going twice. I offered to find someone else to ride it with him, but he decided not to. Next time we'll take someone with us who can share in the dizzy-duty!

 We've only gone to the beach once so far this summer. Hopefully we'll go more in the second half of the summer because Henry does love it. We went to Cannon Beach for the day with mom and, as you can see from this picture, the weather was less than ideal. Oh well - Henry had fun regardless!

One place we are spending a lot of time in this summer, are the various Portland area pools...especially the Sellwood and Wilson pools. This picture is at the Wilson pool. Henry's swimming has improved so, so, so much this year and I can't wait for him to take his swimming lessons (coming up in August) to see if we can get him actually swimming on his own.A bunch of his preschool classmates' birthdays took place this month which was another great opportunity for him to see his classmates. Here are some of them at Pump-It-Up for a birthday party.

Finally, just for fun, Henry with Batman and Superman at the mall. :)

4th of July

 After about a week of excitement building up to the big day, the 4th of July finally arrived.  We had set off a couple fireworks each night since about the first of July...so Henry was all set and ready to go when the 4th finally arrived.


We had a BBQ at Uncle Scott's house and did our fireworks there before it even got dark out! Here's Henry having a sparkler lightsaber battle with Daniel. Clearly, as the next picture shows, he was quite excited for the fireworks.

 Then we went downtown to see the fireworks which Henry was once again very excited to see. Last year he wasn't that impressed by fireworks in general and there's no way he would have enjoyed the downtown ones because of how loud they are...but this year he definitely loved them.  We watched them from the east side of the river, which was cool because we had the backdrop of downtown behind them.

And, finally, the hot weather has arrived! Here is Henry at Jamison Square in the Pearl yesterday. He's doing what has become his signature move...

Camping

 Last weekend we went camping at a camp site in Welches, Oregon, called Mt. Hood RV Village. It was a huge camp site with spaces for RVs, tent camping and cabins. We wisely booked a cabin and, as it rained on and off all weekend long, were so happy we had the cabin. Especially because the cabin had a porch which allowed us to still cook our food without getting wet. The cabins are called "rustic cabins" for a reason. They are basically wooden rooms with a couple cots and a ratty old couch. But it also had electricity so that was an added bonus. The bathrooms were next door and we had our own picnic table, fire pit and bbq. We borrowed a camp stove from Joan and Bill so we were pretty well set. We made chicken and vegetable skewers the first night. Pancakes and sausage for breakfast, hot dogs for lunch, and steak and beans for dinner the next night. When it wasn't raining we went on walks/bike rides and Henry spent a lot of time cooking over the campfire. He cooked just about anything we would let him...including melons! When it was raining we went to the indoor pool, the game room and even took a trip up to Timberline Lodge.

 On Saturday we went to the Rainbow Trout farm where Henry and Brett fished. They caught four fish in about 30 minutes...which actually was longer than I thought it would take because usually you get a bite as soon as you put your line in but we had to cast about 5 or 6 times before we caught one - which was good...it stretched out the time we spent there a little bit longer.

On Saturday night we went to the lodge and played a few rounds of Bingo. I think Henry liked it, but he started to get a stomach ache that got progressively worse as the evening wore on so we left Bingo after about a half an hour. Poor guy kept feeling worse and worse and it even woke him up in the middle of the night. He seemed feverish too so we gave him some Tylenol and then he was able to sleep through the rest of the night.

All in all it was a great experience but next time we go I'll plan it for August so we will get some warm weather!!

Rose Festival 2012

 For the Rose Festival this year we went to the Junior Rose Festival Parade, went down to look at some of the boats that docked downtown, and attended the milk carton boat races. I really wanted to take Henry down to the Fun Center rides (they have a new name now, City Fair or something like that?), but it didn't work out this year. Next year for sure!

Henry enjoyed the parade again this year; although I think he liked it a little bit less this year than he did last year. During a break in the action he ran out into the middle of the street and started dancing for everyone...the people across the street started clapping for him and he loved it!

 We also went down to the waterfront and looked at some of the boats and even went on board a couple. The picture of Henry next to the big steering wheel is on board a Canadian Naval sailboat. The other picture is on a Vietnam river patrol boat. Henry was super excited about the giant gun...

Lastly we attended the milk carton boat races in Sellwood. This was the first time any of us had ever been and it was so fun. It ended up being a very sunny and almost hot day which was great. The only problem was how long of a delay there was in between each race...next time we'll take a picnic and just plan on sitting around and hanging out for awhile.

Rollerskating!

Wednesdays at Oaks Park (our new hangout!) are preschool rollerskating day. For $5.50 you get admission to the rink and skate rental for one preschooler plus the parent skates for free. Or, the parent can just accompany the kiddo onto the rink in their regular shoes (which is what I did). They also give a free 15 minute lesson to help the kids get started. Henry did amazingly well...it was certainly much easier than ice skating, that's for sure! Plus, Chipper the park's  chipmunk mascot came out and Henry got to skate with him so that was a big added bonus for him. The video isn't the best because he thought I was trying to take still pictures of him and kept stopping and posing, but it gives you a little idea of how he did. We'll definitely be returning for another morning of skating!

Multnomah County Fair

The Multnomah County Fair was held at Oaks Park over Memorial Day weekend. When we found out we could get free ride bracelets through Brett's work we decided it was a must-attend event!  Having just been to Oaks Park the previous weekend, we knew that Henry loves the rides and the addition of farm animals...well, that sealed the deal. So there weren't a ton of animals since they all have to be from within Multnomah County, but the city of Corbett's 4H club made a good showing of alpacas, goats, chickens and a lone rabbit.

Henry is loving, loving, loving the kiddie "thrill rides" this year. He not only wanted to go on just about every single one there, but even wanted to do some of them all by himself. Above is a video of one of the rides he wouldn't go on last year, but did this year (and wanted to all by himself). I foresee lots of visits to Oaks Park in our future!