The Pool

Boy, did we ever take full advantage of our neighborhood pool this summer.  A little in July, but a lot in August when Chip was back to working full days. There were some weeks when we were there every afternoon.  We made lots of new friends; we even met two 4 year olds who are going to our same preschool this fall.

In addition to new friends (and nice suntans, of course), all that time at the pool resulted in another achievement as well- Dan & Belle are now comfortable underwater and are ready for "real" swim lessons.

Yep, now that they're comfortable holding their breath and blowing bubbles underwater, all they have to do is learn the proper techniques, and they'll be good to go.

So, while we started the season in Early June with puddle jumpers, we ended it with them jumping in independently, treading water in sections where they couldn't touch and swimming underwater to retrieve their water toys in water that was 4 feet deep!

It's amazing to see how far they've come.

Some of these pictures you've seen before, but for the sake of showing their progress, I'm including them all here:

Here they are on their first trip to the pool on Memorial Day:

Dan was comfortable jumping in the pool with his puddle jumper.

Anabella enjoyed floating around but wasn't quite ready to jump from the side yet.

June (pool was open on weekends until school let out June 20th):

Here he is one of his first times without the puddle jumper. This side of the pool is 3 feet deep, so they can both touch pretty comfortably.

There he goes without the puddle jumper!

I was always waiting on the edge of the pool for that smile to come up from under water! 

It was Daddy, during the month of July, who finally helped Anabella overcome her fear and take the plunge.

In July, Chip was home by lunchtime most days from summer school so we spent many an afternoon at the pool.  This is when they really started getting comfortable going underwater.  They have 3 little dive toys that they started going under for by dropping them on the steps of the pool, but as time went on, they'd throw them farther and farther out. By the end of August, Dan could swim in 4 feet of water and get them.

While we liked meeting new neighborhood friends, there were plenty of days when it was just us or a handful of others.

Here's a day Dan made a quick friend with this boy with the float.

We always packed plenty of snacks and drinks. These Capri Suns were a special treat; most days they just had water bottles. We did take advantage of the pool pizza specials a few times. Our pool doesn't have a concession stand or anything, but all the local pizza places offer good pool specials on pizza.

One day we brought the boogie boards.

Here we are in August:

These noodles Chip insisted on buying at Costco a few years ago got plenty of use this summer.

Look at Dan swimming underwater!

Go, Belle!

Go, Dan!

Look who likes to float on her back 

We always got in our swimsuits and applied sunscreen to our faces at home; then, once we were at the pool I sprayed their bodies. Only then they had to wait a few minutes before getting in the water. 

The video below was taken during one of our last pool visits in Late August. They were in the "deep end" and had just learned to swim under the rope.

My cousin Lindsay and her kids joined us on two occasions the last week the pool was open. So, if you haven't seen enough of that beautiful crystal blue.....more pool pictures coming soon!