This year Julia and Micah took lessons from a swim instructor that was recommended to us who runs a swim school from her home pool with her daughter. Micah was in level 1, Julia was in level 2. By the end of their four weeks of lessons they both just had a couple more skills to pass of in order to advance to the next level, so they will be in the same level again next year. Julia is a lot more comfortable in the water than she used to be. Micah has always been comfortable in the water, he just needs to work on the actual skills. The day after they finished their last swimming lesson I went into labor and we had Lincoln the next day.
With the temperature heating up in the valley we took to the mountains one afternoon after swimming lessons to get outside and keep cool. It was mid-70's up at Silver Lake at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, the perfect temperature for a short hike around the lake.
The Sandberg Reunion, in backwards order! Starting with Sunday afternoon family pictures.
I forgot exactly how many people, but it was about 97? By Sunday afternoon some had already left but this is the majority of the people there. My Dad's siblings and all their kids and families.
My Dad is one of 10 siblings. Both of my grandparents have passed away and we miss them every year.
Micah had fun rolling down the hill and playing in the dirt with his buddy Heber, they are only a month apart.
Talent Show Saturday night
Dinner on Saturday night. The dutch oven dinner is really a site to behold. Every family is suppose to make a dessert or a main dish, and we get a feast of great food out of it. This year Robert and I made ravioli because we figured it would be different from everyone else's, and it was!
Saturday morning we had a 5k run. My Dad and Robert in the lead on the way back. Camden was the only one of my kids awake that early, so he and I went out for a walk to follow the runners and then walk back in when they started coming in. It was weird for me not to be running this year.
Riding their horses on the way out. Uncle Don said this year it was a horse race and gave everyone a stick to ride out on. Robert said he was going to ride that way the whole way....
Dave getting an early start with the dogs, or the dogs getting an early start with Dave?
Camden waits with me to see the runners take off.
The two sleeping kids. It's always exhausting playing at the Ranch all day.
Robert got up early on Saturday and went for a hike to the top of the hill with a view of the main part of the Ranch.
Friday night hot dog roast.
Just lots of chatting and getting reacquainted
I see lots of love in this picture
Camden didn't remember the Ranch from last year, so it was like it was brand new to him. He loved it. A couple weeks later my parents went back down and offered to take one of the kids and Camden jumped at the chance to go back. He didn't care at all that I was not going to be there.
Micah in the Dodger hat and Italian soccer clothes.
Friday before the hot dog roast Robert wanted to go up to a lake above the Ranch to check it out as a possible place to bring his Scouts next year. He also brought all his guns and targets to target practice.
I had to stay far away because it was too loud. I stuck around a little closer at first and the baby would jump at each shot, so I backed off and didn't shoot at all.
When we were planning our Italy trip we debated if we would have time to go out to Pisa or not. It is just a 45 minute to an hour train ride from Florence, but we didn't have much time to spare in our itinerary. We decided to go for it and I am glad we did, it was fun to see such an iconic site. We only stayed for a couple hours but it was plenty to just see the tower and church area.
The train station. We need a better train system in the US, train transportation in Europe is great.
I liked all the Italian cities listed.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is actually the bell tower for the church in Pisa, but you never see the church in most pictures because the novelty of the leaning of the tower overshadows it.
My holding up the tower pose. Can I just say I loved my Altra shoes on this trip. We were walking 20,000+ steps a day on this trip and I don't think I could have done it being pregnant with any other pair of shoes.
See everyone else also doing the same pose or variations on it.
Robert was confused as to why it looked like everyone was doing yoga, so he decided to do some of his own yoga poses.
Inside of the church.
The baptistery, also almost never gets seen.
The front of the church. Construction began in 1063.
The tower. Construction began in 1173 but it wasn't completed until 1350. The soil that it sits on is clay and sand so the tower began to lean when they got to the third floor. They stopped construction for a while, then started again and tried to compensate for the leaning by building one side taller than the other, which did not work and the tower leaned even more.
Waiting in line to go up to the tower.
It wasn't until 2001 that the tower was stabilized. Until then the tower continued to lean more and more. Under the stabilization project they actually brought it back upright .5 degree because of fear of a collapse with how much it had begun to lean.
Going up! This was actually the second tower we were climbing that day. I thought I did pretty good considering I was pregnant!
The inside of the tower has a series of counter weights and monitors.
The stairs are so worn down from all the people through the ages trekking up and down. You could definitely feel the tilt as you went up. On one side it was harder to walk up the stairs!
Bell at the top.
View of Pisa and the countryside.
You could really feel the tilt at the top
Looking down at the square where we took our pictures before.
