Summer Comes to an End

 We've had such a great summer this year. It was full of lots of fun activities, like . . .

bike rides

relaxing in our homemade hot tubs

painting the deck with water

playing wii

 "go go go!"

painting ceramics (a childhood tradition for me)

attempts to take pics of all four together

washing our faces with yogurt

(okay, so that was just Pyper)

painting projects

going to the dentist

watching a few movies

making our own family trees

(Pyper did her hand prints for the leaves; I put the pictures down for her. The other girls did their own leaves, cut out their own pictures, and glued them down where they wanted them.)

playing in our homemade sand box

And lest ye think it's all fun and games in the Barney home . . .

Not pictured: Pyper (clinging to my legs)

I'd been waiting for this moment since Basil was born--for the moment when all four kids were crying at the same time. It happened just last week. And of course, as soon as I got my camera out, Summer stopped crying and started picking up the puzzle pieces that I asked her to clean up. Ironically, the moment I turned the camera off, she burst into tears again.

Painting

This was taken just a few days ago. I was really enjoying watching Summer paint with her water colors, so I thought I'd capture a bit of it on film. And I was pretty impressed that she figured out how to take a bit of red and a bit of orange and then paint along the side of the paper until it faded a bit so it was just right for the skin color. What a science!

I also wanted to capture her and Claire interacting together. I would say the majority of the day, this is how they are. Okay, well maybe 50/50.

Pre-Basil

These clips were taken before Basil was born. Back in January, I think.

The first is a demonstration of what Summer rigged up one day with a whole bunch of material she tied together. (Jill--bring back any memories of our younger days???)

The second clip is when Pippy first started unloading the dishwasher. She was just a few months over a year. Look how little she looks!

And the third clip is the time that she bathed with the foam sheets and stuck them one by one onto the side of the wall. Such a character.

Swimming Clips

Here are some videos of the girls in their swimming lessons. You get to see them "swimming," and then in the last bit, you get to see each of them jump off the diving board. 

Look at that proud face on Summer after she jumps in. Love it. What a girl.

FINALLY . . . VIDEO!

I have finally figured out (or more appropriately--taken the time to figure out) how to load video clips from my new camera to our blog. It has been EIGHT LONG MONTHS without videos. 

I won't promise any fancy video clip transitions or title pages. But I will promise lots of cute little girls!

So . . . 

be prepared

for 

video

overload.

Ice Cream Ocho and More

Last Sunday, after church, I asked Summer what they talked about in Primary.

She said excitedly, "There's going to be an ice cream ocho!"

It took us a while to figure out she heard "ice cream social" during the announcements in Primary.

***

Me: "Claire, did you swallow your gum?"

Claire: "But mommy, my spit comed to get it."

***

A while ago, Pyper wanted to hold Basil, so I propped Basil in Pippy's arms.

Claire looked over and said, "They're both babies! Now that's what I call a disaster!"

***

Claire, while eating some goldfish crackers: "I wish my head was in my mouth so I could see what my tongue was doing."

Summer Swimming

This was the first year the girls got to do swimming lessons. I heard about this great place called "Jackson Swimming Lessons"--a place in Spokane Valley where a family has been teaching swimming lessons in their backyard for sixty years. I called them and talked to "Grandma Sal" about the girls--about Claire who is our little mermaid already, and about Summer who is a little anxious in the water, who doesn't like to get her ears/eyes/face wet, and who can't even let water run over her face in the bathtub.

Grandma Sal listened, suggested putting the girls together in the beginners class, and reassured me that their main focus was on helping kids enjoy the water so that they could actually learn to swim without fearing the water.

We showed up the first day of the two-week session, and I watched as the kids each picked out an inner tube, spun circles like a merry-go-round, and then rode a bucking horse by jumping into the air in the water. These were their daily warmups to get their legs ready for kicking. Then they would practice kicking from one side to the other. Claire is in the front with the pink inner tube, Summer is the one with the bun in her hair. (They would do these laps four times--back and forth just kicking, back and forth with arms, back and forth blowing bubbles, and then on their backs back and forth.)

By the second week, they were doing laps the long way across the pool.

 (*Grandma Sal in the background)

 On their backs.

It was soooo fun to watch--all these little kids kicking as hard as they could and barely going anywhere. They looked like a whole bunch of ducklings.

At the end of each swim lesson, the kids were invited to jump off the diving board. Surprisingly, both Summer and Claire went. And they loved it. Here is Claire.

By the end of nine days of swimming, the girls were putting their faces (with open eyes) under the water! And swimming (kicking and reaching with their arms) without their inner tubes. I was so proud of them. The looks on their faces when they came up out of the water was so priceless. They were elated at their accomplishments.

Summer working on swimming without an inner tube.

 Claire working on it.

Summer

Claire

There were some days that they really did not want to go under the water. But they did it. I'm so glad we did swim lessons this summer. The skills they learned, and the confidence they gained from doing something hard, has totally been worth it. Great job, girls. I'm proud of you!

* On the way home from one of the lessons, Summer kept trying to figure out how to do "big arms" when she had little arms compared to Grandma Sal who had BIG arms.

* Another day, on the way home, Claire said, "I'm so proud of myself and happy inside because I was so brave."

From Barney IP to Lee & Hayes

We were sad to say goodbye to Barney IP. I'm so proud of what Rhett created.

First of all, love the logo. (Thanks Kate!)

And the website--wow. Nice job, Rhett. 

Loved the vinyl print on his door with the logo (thanks to a friend on the Library board with Rhett.)

And loved his office at the Portal. (Here is the link to the Splash [local newspaper] article written about him in the Portal.)

Yes, we are sad to say goodbye. But we are so excited about how things are going at Lee & Hayes. When Rhett sent me a link to pictures of his office, I realized he was making a tiny step up from Barney IP. Check out pictures here.

Lee & Hayes was originally just a patent IP firm. In the last year, Chris Lynch (Rhett's IP professor and attorney at Lee & Hayes) began working on adding trademark work to the firm too. For about a year, he'd been in touch with Rhett, telling Rhett they wanted him to come work for them, but the timing just wasn't right. Finally, in June, they offered Rhett the job. So now Rhett is the go-to guy of the new trademark group at Lee & Hayes. The people at the office call him the "trademark guru." And Chris has told him that he could actually teach the IP classes at Gonzaga if he already wasn't! What a compliment!

Here is his attorney profile page. And here is a snippet from the Journal of Business announcing his change to Lee & Hayes.


We are so proud of Rhett and all he has done.

Who is who?