Summer 2011 in Review

Well, hello. You may remember me. My name is Amy and I'm a blog-slacker. I am also a picture-taking-slacker, because I just realized that I pretty much stopped taking pictures this summer, and all I have are some my mom took during a couple of visits over the summer. Well, I do have some snapshots taken with my phone and uploaded to Facebook, but really, that's about it. I'm not sure what happened.

We have been busy, but that's no excuse. I worked a good bit. We had some fun trips. Noah has learned and grown so much.
We spent a lot of time in the east-facing backyard this summer in the late afternoons, playing in the water, and eating sweet treats that are best consumed outdoors.

When the heat is this ridiculous, who cares if your clothes get a little wet.

It starts like this...
And goes to this...
And ends up here!
Lots of bubbles were blown. Noah has learned to blow them himself...and is sometimes successful about it.
There was some homemade ice cream, of course.

Swimming at the neighborhood pool.

Lots of jumping.
"Kick, kick, kick!" I am so proud of Noah. When he finally revisited a swimming pool at the end of March this year, he cried and wanted nothing to do with getting it. He now LOVES the water, and is quite a daring, if not proficient, little swimmer.

Mmmm...popsicles on the back porch. Though not pictured here, my mom sent us a Zoku Quick Pop Maker and I made yummy, yet nutritious, popsicles for Noah this summer. :)

And Mimi gave him a DumDum too. His first actual candy. Also known as "yumyums," these handy little dandies are now a regular distractor for Noah's haircuts. They are quite popular. ;)

Eventually, the water hose became far more entertaining than the actual wading pools.

And then there was all the watermelon. I will surely have a vine spring up next year along my fence where I have thrown out rind after rind this summer.

Noah's first snow cone, eaten at the park by our house. Of course, he dumped it all down his front. Oddly enough, he loves sweet things, just not when they are cold. Ice cream, etc. is not a huge deal to him, which is a very odd concept for me.

The first 2 weeks in August, we did swimming lessons through the city of Cedar Park. They were a bit of a joke. I mean, would you want to be still and patient, kicking at the floating toys and blowing bubbles when this wonderland was just behind you?

He climbed up by himself and went down the slide, over and over and...

Showing off his skills. He likes walking around the pool with water up to his chin and does NOT want any help...until he starts floating away and inhales a big gulp. :)

You can see this is one of those great zero-entry, or whatever you want to call it, pools that you are able to gradually wade into. Amazing invention for the little guys.

He likes to lay down in the water (wah-yay) on his belly and walk along on his hands, saying "I going swimming!"

So that is our record-busting, hot, hot, HOT summer in Leander, Texas, in a nutshell. Hopefully, I'll get back on the regular blogger train soon and take some new pictures. It's almost time for finding Halloween costumes and a photog to shoot us for the annual family portraits/Christmas card photos. Yikes!