Biking & Swimming

Nyla's never really been into riding her bike before, but we had a breakthrough the other day. We thought that maybe she wasn't that into riding her bike because our neighborhood is hilly. So we took her and her bike to a nearby, very flat park, and she rode for about half an hour straight (breaking her previous record of two minutes). And now, she rides her bike around the neighborhood too. I think she just needed the confidence that she could ride her bike, to be willing to push hard to get it up the little hills rather than just give up and assume she can't do it. Here she is on her bike:

Also, Nyla just got done with her swimming lessons, and has tremendously developed her swimming ability in the past two weeks. Her instructor said she did very well and recommended that she move up to Level 3 if she takes lessons again. Her favorite stroke seems to be the backstroke, because she doesn't have to worry about getting water up her nose. Unfortunately, it isn't really practical to take a camera to the pool, so no action shots of her swimming.

Trip to Iowa

In June, Wyndee and the kids spent three weeks back home in Iowa (I was there for one of those weeks). They had a great time. Nyla spent a lot of time with Go and Julien:

And Celia spent a lot of time with "my friend named Aiko", as she put it:

They had a great time with all their cousins, but most of those times are not captured on photo. They also spent a lot of time exploring Grandpa Benesh's farm and, in particular, the creek:

We also took the kids to the Iowa City Children's Museum; here they are shopping in the mock grocery store.

Finally, Kristy and Darren chose us to be godparents for their beautiful baby girl Sophia. Here we are at the baptism:

Hook

Nyla and Celia have both been really into Peter Pan lately. Celia's favorite character is Captain Hook, for some reason. She just digs pirates. Arrgh! Here she be thrusting her cutlass at that mangy scoundrel, Peter Pan: