Summer Swimming

Swim lessons have been going pretty well. We started a week ago and we have lesson 5 of 8 tonight. Lessons are held with friends from school at his buddy Briana's house. Next week it gets a little hectic though because we also have lessons at the local YMCA and that's every night for 10 days so a few days we actually have double lessons.

Colton is great at jumping into the water, holding onto the side of the pool and climbing out unassisted, pretty good at kicking on his belly and/or swimming with his arms. He has not blown a single bubble and doesn't seem interested in trying. He isn't a fan of floating on his back or going under although he does hold his breath now, rather than suck down water like the first day.

We also had an incident at our 3rd lesson. Leave it to my kid, and the only boy in the bunch, to go #2 in the pool!! I had to rinse him off with the hose and change clothes and Bri's mom had to skim the pool....nice, couldn't he have even given me his usual "i poopy" heads up? Guess he was too distracted with swimming :) Oh well, thankfully everyone was understanding and it was at our friends small pool and not the Y where I bet they clear out for the night to clean!!! Hoping the next lessons are much more uneventful.

Swim Lessons

Love,

Jenny

AppaSauce!!

Colton is saying so many words now and even putting phrases together. One of our favorite words is applesauce which is definitely a favorite snack in the Highlander house. Here is a short video... I apologize that it's sideways, I don't have video editing software on my netbook yet.

Just a quick note to update our friends and family about more exciting news for the Highlander family. Last Thursday Josh started work at his new job!! He is a Project Manager with Gray Construction Services. After 3 years with Brown and Cullen as a Project Engineer he was ready for a change. Lots of planning, prayers and hard work went into this transition and I'm beyond excited for him.

As I mentioned before, Josh recently obtained is Professional Engineers license (PE), something he would not have been able to do without the time spent at Brown and Cullen under two PEs (licensure requires 4 years working under a PE). While is new job is more focused on project management and on business development, he will still be able to put his PE to very good use and it's definitely going to serve him well as he grows in his career. The new job allows him to get back into the work he absolutely loves which is more on the construction side. The team at Gray is also a great fit for him and I just love seeing that sense of excitement about the future when he talks about this transition.

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure I shared Josh's news with all of our friends and family :)

Love,
Jenny

Independence Day!

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend in Steinhatchee. My parents came into town so we went out and stayed with them at their new place. They're almost done fixing it up - all of the bedrooms now have mattresses and the appliances and living room furniture are complete. Mom is still doing painting and decorating and dad has a few projects outside. Steinhatchee is such a cool little town and it's small enough and quaint enough that most people use golf carts as their mode of transportation - which delights Colton to no end! It's scallop season in Steinhatchee so it was pretty packed with boats and people in town to celebrate and bring home some seafood. My parents are currently in the market for a new boat so sometime in the near future we'll be joining the masses out on the gulf in search for one of my favorite yummy shellfish treats!!

Since we didn't have a boat we just relaxed, ate lots of yummy food, took rides around in the golf cart and ate some more. My only complaint was the INSANELY loud fireworks that sounded like they were going off at our back door. Amazingly, both nights Colton never made a peep and slept soundly for 11 hours through it all. We, on the other hand, nearly jumped out of our skin every time a boom went off! What I can say, boat people like some fireworks!!

I left my camera card at home so I'm using mom's pictures and some camera photos. Next time I'll be better about that!!

On the actual 4th Josh and I came back to Gainesville early to enjoy some much needed project time. Josh finished painting his room upstairs (not sure if I've updated lately but he built out a closet and closed off an attic access door so now that painting is done, floors can finally go in!!!). I spent way too much money at Target and caught up on laundry, yes, what an exciting 4th we had!! My parents brought Colton back in time for a yummy dinner and then they stayed home with him while Josh and I caught the Alachua fireworks with the Weitekamps. I was really surprised what a great job Alachua did and a whopping 30,000 people came to our small town to see them! We found a perfect spot with a handful of other families (high up on the hill) where we could see them and hear them but not have to fight the crowds and traffic. We definitely have our spot for next year!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. We're so grateful for the men and women that defend our freedom and allow us the opportunity to raise our family in this great country. There is no place else we'd rather be.

July 4th 2011

Love,
Jenny