May Days and a Birthday

I've been doing a little research on shooting my photos in RAW format and was finally able to figure out what in the heck that is, just another way of taking pictures that are clearer and more easily edited. Anyway I took a few of Lily the other morning, and of course I had to bribe her with gummy bears to get her to actually look at me. 

Here are a few that were taken in Grandma's bathtub after a sleepover, I came over to see them before a family photo shoot I was doing for a friend.  

I love that gap between Lily's teeth, I'll savor it for a little while longer. 

Yesterday was Grandma Baum's birthday and it was such a good day. I'm glad she let us tag along for the ride. I woke up yesterday morning and had the urge to make my favorite muffins, rhubarb muffins! So I made those to take over to a breakfast we were having with Mom, Dad, Zack and Nati. It was a delicious breakfast even if Dad used a pancake recipe to make waffles, ;). After breakfast we took flowers down to the family graves, of course since it was Mom's birthday it was raining but it made everything beautiful and green. We walked around for awhile until we couldn't stand the cold any longer and then went on to Jackson Hole for the day. Mom had suggested that we go to the Jackson Rec Center and go swimming, we haven't done that for so many years and I knew the girls and Nati would have a great experience. I say Nati because he had never been to a pool and actually he was quite nervous. He doesn't know how to swim and had a bad experience when he was younger in a lake so he was a bit nervous but I assured him that he would be safe at this pool. When we got there I could tell that the girls were going to love it, and love it they did! Our girls turned into little fish! 

I put a pair of goggles on Leah and in a matter of seconds she was under the water swimming (seriously swimming!) and she wasn't even holding her nose. Lily was about the same and didn't mind going under the water, I didn't really trust her to swim by herself since the water level was about halfway up her face but she sure loved jumping off the side. 

At one point she went under and wasn't quite prepared for it so came up with a mouth full of water,  then she opened her mouth and belched like an old man! It was so long and low that even though my Dad was staring right at her, he could have sworn it came from someone else. Mom laughed and couldn't stop laughing, she then asked Lily if she was okay and Lily wiped the water off her red face and said, "I'm good!" 

They both went down a small water slide several times and then ventured to the big water slide. I couldn't go down but I loved watching their faces as they took turns coming down with everyone else. They had a blast and I wish I could have captured the entire experience on video. 

Nati of course was nervous getting in but was relieved to find that the small pool went only 3 feet deep. He was still a little nervous and was probably overwhelmed with all that was going on. He looked around at the slides, the big pool and the waterfalls and admitted he had never seen such a place. We gave him a few pointers and soon talked him into going down the small water slide. He wanted to make sure that Dad was at the bottom to catch him, Dad just told him to stand up once he got to the bottom. He went down and was caught in the current and it took him a little while to stand up but he soon did and, though a bit scared, had fun. He said he would never do the big slide but as he watched little kids come down he decided if they could do it so could he. He ended up going down the big slide three times and had a really good time. 

Zack and Andrew played in the big lap and diving board pool for awhile. Zack landed on his back a couple of times attempting a back flip, which he later admitted he'd never tried to do before! Crazy kid, no wonder he landed flat on his back. We spent a good two hours there and we asked the girls if they were ready to get out and they both said no! Leah's eyes were so red and had permanent rings around them from her goggles. Lily, I knew, was going to be ornery and cranky as soon as we pulled her out, and she was, along with about four other little 3 year olds in the dressing room. It was pretty funny but as soon as we got Lily dressed, which was quite the ordeal, she zonked out right on the dressing room bench. 

Lily's nap didn't last long because afterwards we went to Jackson square and walked around for a bit. After seeing many stuffed moose, deer and other wildlife we decided it was time for dinner. We went to the Mangy Moose which we hadn't been to for several years. It was a bit pricey but the buffalo meatloaf was delicious and so were the hand cut fries. It was a great ending to a perfect day! Hope Mom had a great birthday, we had fun celebrating it with you!