Beach Vacay...the pool

We don't get to swim in pools very often. We aren't members anywhere, we don't have any friends with pools, and we don't have a local public pool. We usually go swimming in creeks and rivers, and the kids usually don't go into the water too deep alone. The boys have taken swimming lessons the past two years, but neither of them can swim on their own. But I feel like a switch was flipped this week. They really gained a lot of confidence in the water. I think it was because of the life jackets (and having a full week to devote, of course). Wearing them allowed them to move around freely (and was much less stressful on our end), and then after awhile, they seemed more confident whether they had on the jackets or not. Here they are, all doing a great job trying to take care of their little cousin Winnie. They thought they all had to hold onto her ring. And she, as usual, is doing her best to keep up with the big kids. Thanks for letting us borrow your boat, Matt and Michele; it was so much fun.

Dash really impressed me this week. For someone who usually clings to an adult in the pool, he was jumping off the side into the water and letting people throw him up in the air to land in the water. He even did flips underwater. Tornado wasn't to that point, but he did work really hard trying to paddle and kick. There was a lot of, "I'm doing it! I'm swimming!" and "Look, Googie!"