Swimming

With the Arizona summer finally coming in full force after a rather mild May about 80% of our time outside is spent in the water. Or drying off from being in the water. Our last pool bit the dust, so we got a new one that the kids are loving. It's a bit bigger and the water can be a bit deeper, so they like it way better than the last one.

 We recently went swimming in a real in-ground pool and Annie and Ryan got to wear their puddle-jumper life vests, so when we filled up the pool this time they decided it to get them out again. In one and a half feet of water. They had a blast floating. And Rachel played with the noodles we got to play noodle hockey with (but haven't actually used yet for hockey).

Another day we got out the slip 'n slide and had some friends come over. The kids had so much fun in the little sprinklers that spray up to wet the slide. Ryan would run and belly flop on the plastic and lay there immobile for several seconds before the girls yelled at him to get out of the way for their turns.

One of Rachel's friends from school, Isabella, recently had their new pool finished and invited us and a couple other friends from school over for a swimming party. It was lots of fun. It totally made me want to get a pool put in our backyard. In 5 years when our kids are older and know how to swim.

 They had a slide that was a lot of fun, but after I went down it twice I decided my big, fat, pregnant belly wasn't made for sliding into the pool. I left it to the kids and Jacob after that.

 Ryan's favorite thing to do at the pool is definitely jumping in.

 Though lately in swimming lessons he has also likes swimming to the wall, then turning around and telling me "You go out there. I catch you." He actually means "you back up a few steps and catch me." And he'll push off the wall and go under and kick for a couple of seconds to me until I pull him out of the water. He is a fish. Next year he will be swimming for real. If he doesn't drown from having no fear around water.

The girls are both doing really well with swimming, too. Rachel can swim freestyle, back stroke, elementary back stroke, and has begun learning the breast stroke and catches on pretty quick to new stuff. Now she just needs more practice to be able to swim farther and more efficiently. Annie is really good, too, for a 3-year-old. We recently stopped swim lessons at Sunshine Swim School where they have a max of 3 kids per class and the girls have made huge progress and are doing lessons at the city pools which are way cheaper, but have 8-10 kids per class and I really don't see much progress, but it's basically just a cheap way to go swimming every day. Annie has been in level 1 and I talked to her teacher a couple days ago and she told me that Annie is one of the better swimmers in her class, but should stay in level 1 just because she is the youngest one there. 3-year-olds are actually supposed to be in the parent-tot class, but since I have Ryan in the parent-tot class they let Annie go to the level 1 class. Today was the last day of class for this session and as we left her teacher gave her an extra lollipop on the sly and told me Annie was her favorite. :)

G&G Campbell Visit

Grandma and Grandpa Campbell drove down to Mesa on Memorial Day to help clean out the last of Grandma Updike's stuff. They got that taken care of, then came down with Cari in tow on Thursday, much to the delight of the kiddos. It happened to be much cooler than the couple days previous (like in the low 90s for a high instead of 100s), so we spent a good bit of time playing in the back yard. They especially enjoyed Ring Around the Rosie, Motorboat, and London Bridge with Cari and Grandma. Ryan had about a 2-3 second delay on ring around the rosie and would see everyone fall down, then plop down a few seconds later.

He also was a fan of the flip flops he found abandoned by either Cari or Grandma.

It was a short visit, but much fun was had. And that was about the last day we've spent so much time outside without getting wet, since the heat came back in full force after they left.