It's summer. It's Texas. It's HOT. Melting hot. So, we survive with lots and lots of swimming.
Back before Christmas, I shopped fitness centers, trying to find the right place to leave my blood, sweat and tears. A huge factor in this decision was whether or not pools were on site. The place I ended up joining (thanks to help from my grandmother and mother!) has huge indoor and outdoor pools, both of which have amazing, two-story high, water slides. The kids LOVE it.
We grab a few chairs, lay out our towels and dump our stuff (including the heavy swim bag full of pool toys that they rarely use) and then we spend the new couple of hours swimming.
Here's a picture of the outdoor slide, and lo and behold, that's Remy coming out the chute!
I used disposable, water-prppf cameras to take all the pictures in this post. I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, having never used them before, and the resulting quality isn't great, but they have kind of a neat look to them...and I wasn't about to get my beautiful new camera near the water.
Here's the outside slide in all it's glory. At the top you can choose to go down the covered tube or the open tube...it's really two slides with two chutes. I have to know in advance which one Remy's coming down, so I can be near where he exits at the bottom. He can swim well, he just get's a little nervous in the deep end sometimes.
Most of the pictures I took of Donny, Remy and fun Uncle Chris who was visiting from Austin were coming out of the slide...but often I only ended up with photos of big splashes! This is Uncle Chris's splash and that's a life guard to the right. They have one life guard at the top of the slide and one at the bottom, making sure one kid at a time goes down, everyone's safe, etc. There are usually six life guards in all at this pool. I'm impressed with their safety.
Here's Remy with fun Uncle Chris. Uncle Chris came to stay with us for about five days. He's one of my hubby's younger brothers. Bless his heart, he spent almost the entire visit playing with my boys. He's such a good sport. Donny and Remy look up to him and have such a great time hanging out with him. And, he gets extra points for being willing to have photos of him thrown on my blog. I usually ask family members before posting them. And see if they want nicknames, that sort of thing. :o)
Donny is threatening me with his super water shooter thingy. I got hit more times than I can remember that day at the pool until I threatened to kick him out of the pool if he hit me one more time. He stopped.
Both my boys have to have goggles on while swimming, and they have both taken to wearing rashguards (those water shirts that provide UV protection).
Then we went crazy and started taking underwater photos. I can't believe I'm posting a picture of me in my bathing suit. Thank goodness this is a blurry, fuzzy photo and not a close-up. Not super flattering, but we were having fun. It's me and Remy.
Here Donny being fun and nutty.
Donny has flippers on. He loves how much faster he can swim with them.
So, now you've seen where and how we spend most of our summer days.
Do you have a regular pool you go swimming in?
Here's our stuff.
He puts his feet in, but it's just torture, he contemplates the water...he wants in.
he decides the go for it and dips in!
and then looks around to see if anyone caught him.
Yes, Remy, we all saw you!
There's nothing better than a little water basketball. The boys LOVE it.
and then a storm heads in and ruins all our fun that day.
