Swim Lessons

The girls had swim lessons at the Dunkley pool again this year. They loved every minute of it! Olivia had her first year of swim team this year, and learned some more technical things, including a flip turn. Lola tried her best to talk her way out of jumping off the board or diving in, but after two weeks of lessons and a week at the Jones's pool, she is jumping off the diving board and swimming all the way across the pool, and loving every minute of it!
Trenton was along for the ride, as usual.

Father's Day

Free Fishing Day

On a Saturday in June, Idaho has a free fishing day, where anyone can fish without a license. Livi looks forward to it every year, gathering the tackle, her fishing pole, and anything else she thinks she might need.
Lola, on the other hand, was sure to bring a book and some good snacks. (This photo op was the only time she held a pole that day!)

We all had a great time at the pond, and after three years of not catching a thing at this event, Rich has promised the girls to take them fishing all summer long until they catch one! Just as we were about to leave, we saw that there was a casting contest for children. Lola had already done an earlier casting contest for younger children, and told Livi "you can't win if you don't try," which was enough for Livi to decide to enter. She was the last (and youngest) child to cast and ended up casting right onto the bull's eye. She won a fishing pole, which was just about the most perfect thing in the world for her. It was really great. She spent the rest of the day practicing her casting in the backyard. Quite a day!

Capitol Classic

We always tell people what a great town Boise is for families. This event is one of those reasons. Every year, near the end of school, Boise hosts the Capitol Classic, a mile run for children in the downtown area. It's such a fun event, even with the rain we experienced this year! Liv turned to me as the race started, and said, "Mom, here's the goal! We're going to run the whole way, okay?" And she did! Such a great way to start off the summer...

School's Out

Olivia is now a 3rd grader! She had a great 2nd grade year with Mrs. Ash and is still really interested in history, science and social studies. She loves to read, and is starting to have a hard time finding a Nancy Drew book in the library that she hasn't read. Each year, near the end of school, Olivia begins to design a quilt for her teacher. From the beginning of 2nd grade, Livi knew that Mrs. Ash's quilt had to have something to do with the Boise State Broncos. I was nervous about the colors, and was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. Livi sewed alot of the squares together, laid the quilt design out, and even did some of the math to decide how big the quilt would be. Pretty soon, she'll be doing this all on her own!

Soccer

I know I already wrote about Livi's soccer season, but I just got this picture, and I LOVE it! Livi and Mikella are good buddies, and two really cute soccer players...

DC Girls' Weekend

Last year, my sisters and I decided that it would be great to start having a yearly "Jones Girls' Weekend." After some discussion of where we'd like to go, we realized it would be fun to take Mom to places she had never been, but really wanted to see. So, we had Mom make a list of the top ten places she'd like to go, and then, each year, we're just going to knock one off the list. Our first weekend together was in Washington, D.C., in May. We had such a great time. We saw everything on our list (and more!) and walked about 10 miles a day to get it all in! It was so fun just spending time with my sisters and Mom...something that we rarely do at this stage in life. I feel so blessed to have such a great family. We also got to visit Aaron and Steph's family, spending the morning at Eastern Market with them and then Sunday at their home. It was a wonderful trip, and I can't wait for next year!

This is kind of morbid, but so funny. We found a grave marked Catherine Jones at Arlington, and talked Mom into taking a picture with it. She refused to lay down near the marker, this is the best we could do. :-)