I don’t remember loving the pool (and water) this much at this age, but I know I did later on. She has to be my daughter. I’m actually amazed at everything she does in the pool. Even just two weeks ago she couldn’t get a ring that had sunk to the bottom of the pool and now she dives down no problem! And of course, she still jumps off the side like a crazy person!
Owen took the camera. He has no idea how to hold it and every single picture has his fingers or hand in it.
We’ve been going about 3-4 times a week since it opened. The lifeguards even know us!
Today we got pretty new white and blue chairs (and umbrellas)!
I’m not sure where she learned to do this but I love it.
Trying to get a serious picture.
But being silly instead.
We invited Katie’s classmate Mason (and family!) over for a pool and pizza play date! I took my waterproof camera to hopefully get a bunch of pictures, but I wasn’t in the water long since it always feels so cold to me. This was the only pic I got!
They love riding back from the pool in the back of the car but we haven’t been able to do it with all of Owen’s baseball stuff…but since baseball is over I cleaned it out!
So, I have my good ol’ standby bathing suit that I love that I found in a smaller size, so I’m happy about that. But I need more than once suit, so I found a cute one—size 12!—that *GASP* doesn’t have a full skirt. (I’ve worn a full-skirted suit for as long as I can remember.) And even though it fits and looks decent, all I can see when I see myself in it is THIGHS and VARICOSE VEINS. Ugh.
But, since my new mantra is FUCK WHAT ANYONE ELSE MIGHT THINK—I’VE LOST 135#—I wore it to the pool the other day with a friend. She said it looked adorable. Other Naturally Slim friends asked for a picture and I told them baby steps: I wore the suit. In public. To our pool. With other people. A pic would come later this summer. But then I put it on again today and said WHAT THE HELL. So here it is.
Of course my friends all applauded me and said I looked great (and that I wasn’t an 18yo Sports Illustrated swimsuit model so who cares about thighs and varicose veins). 🙂 But, to make myself feel better, I found a Before picture from last March. 🙂
WHY DIDN’T WE MEET SOONER?! Melissa Ann and I met through friends and hit it off instantly. It’s been less than a year and she’s moving. Damn military.
So, today we had a fun few hours at the pool with our kids.
And this is what the pool normally looks like when we’re there…yes, our two kids were the only ones in the pool and we were the only two adults there. Love it!
Let me remind you what it looked like for the BBQ.
We stayed after they left and then I took these.
And then we had to walk home (since we rode down with our friends)!
Unfortunately this run will end soon…we still have about three weeks left of school (they don’t get out until June 23!) so we can only go to the pool on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (she goes to school MWF at 12:45 and the pool doesn’t open until 12) so until school gets out we can only go Tu/Th and Sa/Su.
And then she got super lucky and the life guard offered her an ice cream that was leftover from the BBQ yesterday.
Otherwise known as Day 3 of 3. 🙂
We had a super fun four hours at the pool for the Memorial Day Cookout! We were there as soon as they opened and it was GLORIOUSLY empty—and quiet—as we were the only ones there! (We were there so early because we know the pool gets CRAZY when they offer free food—everyone and their brother who never come to the pool all summer otherwise show up for the free burgers, chips, and pop 🙄 —and we wanted to be sure to get good seats.) The forecast had called for rain all day, so we were excited that the weather held out and was actually very nice. The sun even came out to warm things up just enough for me to take a quick dip in the pool and take some pics with the waterproof camera! It eventually clouded over but it never rained!
We made her get out of the pool and dry off because her lips were blue and she was very visibly shivering—even though she didn’t want to. Yep, she’s definitely my daughter—that’s exactly how I used to be!
After two towels and some snacks, she was ready to go again!
Katie and her friend Ainsley (they will be moving later this summer). 🙁
The huge crowd (which my pic doesn’t really even do justice)—which we will only see for the cookouts today, July 4th, and Labor Day.
Of course, Owen knew all the kids—there was a chorus of Hi, Owen when we walked in—and we learned that one of the first grade teachers lives here, as well as one of Owen’s classmates!
The water wasn’t nearly as freezing as I had expected it to be but I still sat in the shade while the kids were swimming.
Labor Day is officially the last day our pool is open, so we headed down early—hoping that it wouldn’t be too crazy busy because they were having a BBQ (free food brings out everyone and their brother who NEVER come to the pool any other time) from 1-4. Fortunately, it wasn’t that busy when we got there at 11, though it got steadily busier as the actual BBQ time got closer.
I took a bunch of pics with our waterproof camera which is always fun because it’s so bright out you can’t really tell what you took so you can’t tell if you got any good pics until you get home and check them on the computer!
I like this one because Owen looks like a stingray.
Katie enjoyed pouring water on daddy.
And throwing water at him. This was a lucky shot!
Another ham in the family.
Katie loves it when daddy goes to the bottom of the pool so she can walk on him.
They each had a hot dog and chips…then Katie had a second hot dog! EEK!
A full pool. Quite a difference from the empty pool we normally have when we’re there.
Tom ended up taking Katie home a little early and I stayed with Owen until about 3:30. He would have stayed longer but I was exhausted—we’re rarely at the pool that long and I was done with the sun.
…and we are the only three here.
Taking a panorama while Owen walked by captured this:
The wait was finally over—the day for Owen’s postponed birthday pool party! And the weather was perfect!! We had 19 kids and 14 adults!
The timing was perfect: at the end of every hour, the lifeguards take a 15-minute break and all kids must exit the pool. So we used this time to have our pizza lunch!
The second break was time for cake! Of course, I had completely forgot to put the balloon in the cake…
So it went in the leftovers so I could take a picture. 🙂
Two of the kids from his Kindergarten class (who are about his size so he looks normal!).
Everyone had a great time! The kids LOVED the water shooters and, while a few got broken, each kid was able to take one home. We guessed pretty good on the pizza—we ordered five and ate about four. There was enough cake to leave out a few pieces and freeze a nice chunk for a later date. The best part was after 10 minutes of cleaning up and packing the car, we were DONE. 🙂
We took the kids to Kalkaska today for open swim…and boy did they have a blast! Owen was excited to go down the slide again (mom fail: I may have forgotten to mention he did it for the very first time when he was there earlier this vacation). I LOVE the faces he makes. 🙂
My favorite:
You see his harem standing by watching him, right? 🙂
Katie really wanted to go down the slide but she was too little…or so we thought. The lifeguard came up and told Tom she could go down as long as he was at the bottom to catch her. So Owen took her up:
There were other kids going up and they were getting too close to them on the stairs so Owen put his hand out to stop/block them and protect Katie. And then he guided her into the slide while he made sure to keep everyone back. Awwww, I know. 🙂
Here she comes!
Caught her!
Her reaction? She LOVED it and wanted to go again! (But she was done after the second time!)
I still can’t believe it—Owen was 6.5 when he finally went down the slide…and Katie was 3! You can tell who the family daredevil is!
Finally jumping into a pool that has a deep end! All the pools we frequent are a max of 5′ deep so he always hits bottom! This was a new experience for him and he loved it!
Showing Grannie Lin that he can really float now!
And this little stinker! Here she is jumping into the shallow end…BUT!…Earlier, she walked down to the deep end where Papa and Owen were, walked right to the edge, and jumped right in! Went completely under and everything—and came up smiling! SHE HAS NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE, even with prompting! It was so unexpected that I didn’t even have time to get a pic of it! She swam over to the ladder, got out, and DID IT AGAIN! I missed it again, too, because I had a brain fart on how to take a video with my real camera. ARGH! Of course, she refused to do it a third time!
She loves her brother!
Strangely enough, her in the pool doesn’t bother me…but her climbing up this ladder scares the crap out of me.
This is a horrible picture but I need to use it as an illustration. You can see I was a bit away from her and she had climbed up there. No biggie. Then she reached up and grabbed the first bar. Still no biggie. Then she leaned out and grabbed the second bar (as seen here) and right as I snapped the picture, she swung her legs off the bar so she was hanging there. I practically dropped the camera and rushed over there—knowing she couldn’t hang there very long on her own and not wanting her to come crashing down. EGADS. I grabbed her and she proceeded to work her way across the bars like no big deal. NO FEAR!
Friends of ours came to spend the night on their way to their OBX vacation…so we took the kids to the pool. I only snapped a few pics because we were busy visiting!
The water was colder than usual (from all the recent rainwater) so she kept getting cold and wanted to sit in her mermaid towel. 🙂
Then it would get too bright so she needed Owen’s towel over her face. 🙂
Today his teacher said that he’s getting close to moving up a level!
It was still really warm and humid after dinner so we took the kids to the pool. Katie was in a new bathing suit. 🙂
Owen practicing his swimming!
Tonight was supposed to be the first community pool party of the season but there was some bad weather rolling through so they cancelled it. As it turned out, the weather passed in time, but that’s life. They still gave treats to the people that were there. Katie really enjoyed her Popsicle!
Owen has REALLY been looking forward to the cookout and I was excited because Tom would be home so we could ALL go to the pool together for the last time. It was definitely warm enough and it looked like the rain was going to hold off for a bit, so we headed down after Katie’s nap.
Now, let me preface this by saying that when we go to the pool, there are typically just a handful of people there. As in maybe 3-6 other kids AT MOST (with parents)—and most of the time, there’s less. And when Owen and I went this past Saturday (the last Saturday before the pool closed for the season) we were the ONLY two people there (four total if you count the two lifeguards). And by the time we left two hours later, the only other people there were two older couples! I was baffled.
So today we walked in and HOLY SHIT there were a lot of people. As in “Wow, I guess there really are people who live here.” As in “If it was this busy all the time we wouldn’t come nearly as much.” There were lots of older annoying kids who didn’t much care that they were running into people or splashing people or just being overall obnoxious (and of course their parents weren’t doing anything about it). I heard the lifeguards’ whistles more today than all the other days combined. It was extremely chaotic.
The super annoying thing was that we had nowhere to sit when we got there. I felt like we should really have our names on some seats because we were there ALL THE TIME. All these other people NEVER went but were taking up all the seats for the free food. Well, at least that’s what it felt like. Literally the only seats that were open were in the kiddie pool area. Which was fine…just annoying.
So Tom was swimming with the kids and I was chatting with the mom I had hoped to see there (with the son in Owen’s class). And then I saw another mom I’d met at the pool previously (the ones that are moving this December) so we chatted a bit. And then Katie was coming down the pool steps behind me and I turned to see Tom behind us as well (just having moved our stuff to a table that had become free) and he was saying “Katie! Katie!” at some other little blonde girl wondering why she wasn’t stopping to listen to him. Well, it turns out her parents were right in front of me and Tom obviously had the wrong kid, so we laughed about it and started chatting and WOW, fingers crossed, they might just be our new best friends here. We just really hit it off—they have a 2.5yo girl with another on the way, they’re military (army), and they just moved here in late June so they don’t know anyone, either! And we instantly hit it off (as opposed to the other people we’ve met who are NICE but I just didn’t feel that instant connection with). So much so that we invited them to come sit at our table with us!
And then! Tom was sure he recognized a guy sitting across the pool. I told him it was all him—I’d done my part meeting moms. 🙂 So it turns out it’s someone he went to TBS with back in the day…AND THEY LIVE ON OUR STREET!! Small world, right? So we might end up with some good friends yet!
So then we had a little more fun in the pool and then Katie wanted to go home so as Tom was getting her packed up, Owen also decided he wanted to go home. I think it was just too chaotic for him (which I totally get).
Papa happened to call right as we were walking in, so I Skyped them back so they got to watch Owen do a few jumps and watch Katie swim around.
He kept doing this and I finally asked what he was doing… You’ll never guess. He was trying to do a somersault! 🙂 I told him I’d help him when we were in the big pool!
Katie saw Owen holding his nose, so she was trying to do the same thing!
The kids she had been playing with in the kiddie pool were going home, so she was at the fence saying “Guys! Guys? Where are you going?”
He loves just floating like this.
If you didn’t know he liked to do it, it might freak you out because he looks…well…dead.
This is how Owen moves across the pool when he’s not actually swimming.
And then it was time for the special surprise! Not only was daddy at the pool with us…but we ordered pizza for dinner! Poolside! (Ever since Owen saw the signs and saw someone have pizza delivered, he’s wanted us to do it. Since the pool season is almost over, today was the day!)
She loves being tossed in the air…but can’t quite manage to count to three. 🙂
My turn with Katie. The video isn’t that great (meaning Katie doesn’t appear to be having that much fun) but she really was…and it’s rare for me to actually be in a picture or video with the kids. So here it is. 🙂
I finally got a video of Katie getting out of and back in the pool. However, she only did it once. The other day, she just kept going up the ladder then back into the pool—time after time after time.
And the bonus to the whole day? I started talking with a girl at the pool (she was there with a little girl who Katie was playing with in the kiddie pool) and long story short, she’s a babysitter and lives in the neighborhood! WOOHOO!
And the funniest thing of the day? While I was at the kiddie pool talking to the girl, Tom came over to tell me what Owen had just said. Tom said they had a race across the length of the pool and of course Tom won, but when Owen finished, Tom asked if he was tired or if he wanted to go talk to me. Owen’s response? NO! I’M PUMPED UP! LET’S GO! 🙂
So I thought I’d try to get some better swimming shots. 🙂
Posing because he’s a goof.
Pouting because I wouldn’t give her the goldfish and juice (which were for the snack break later).
Getting into the pool and then swimming around. I LOVE her little legs just scooting her along!
This isn’t the best video of how great Katie swims but it’s something (I have one week left to get a good video). She has no fear and just kick-kick-kicks her little legs so cute and motors around the pool.
Her favorite thing to do, however, is to climb up the ladder (not the steps—the ladder on the other side of the pool), walk two steps to the pool edge, then get back in the pool by sitting on her butt, rolling onto her stomach, then sliding into the pool. I hope to get a video of that, too. 🙂
Owen has apparently taught himself how to swim by watching other kids and maybe taking a few small tips from me (though he never seems to care, he must be listening). He obviously does better when he’s not holding a gun in one of his hands but it’s still miles ahead of where he was just a few weeks ago.
I can’t wait to get them both lessons next summer.
Both kids also like playing with other kids. Two little girls were there and at break time (when the kids have to get out of the big pool) they were all in the kiddie pool. The girls started to leave and Katie piped up: “Guys! Guys?” Their mom told them the little girl wanted them to stay, so they did. 🙂 Later when they did leave, Katie said “Bye! See you soon!” 🙂 Later, Owen was over playing ball with the girls and Katie had to be right in the middle of it. 🙂
