Summer 2009

Summer has been splendid this year. We travelled a ton last summer. Overwhelmed me. This summer Charley's summer activities have kept us home a little bit more. It has been nice to have something to get up early for that then leave us with a full day to enjoy summer. Our summer has been full of :

• slip and slides
• playdates with friends
• sprinklers
• Popsicles
• sandbox fun
• bike rides
• chalk
• gardening
• swinging
• playgrounds
• strawberry picking
• trips to grandmas
• the beach
• the pool
• swimming lessons
• t-ball
• soccer
• walks
• library
• parades
• fireworks
• fishing
• garage sales
• a new nephew
• the cottage
• water balloons
• the zoo
• sprinkler parks
• rainy days
• sunny days
• perfect days
• ice cream cones
• corn on the cob
• watermelon
• boat rides
• etc.
  

But this afternoon was probably one of my favorite of the entire summer. We live very close to this fabulous fitness center. We are not members for many reasons...mainly I don't think I can commit to using it with the kids being so young. The fitness center has a wonderful outdoor zero entry pool with two big water slides. We have not been to it...until this afternoon. I have hesitated going by myself with the boys because I really had no idea what it entailed. But this afternoon a friend with three little girls offered to let us join them as guests. The pool was perfect for both the boys. I sat in the shallow water with my mommy friend and Henry toddled around happily. Charley was a fish. This was the first time where I was completely blown away by his swimming skills. He watched his friend Sophie dive down under the water and swim a bit. I watched him take that in and the next thing I knew...he was swimming around. Under and over and all around! Unbelievable. Obviously he wasn't swimming...like in deep water but he was for sure confident and enjoying the water to the extreme. He even went down the big waterslides a few times. All of a sudden at least 6 mom's from my Mom's group showed up. Charley was in pure heaven with many of his friends. I was in delight standing around chit chatting while watching the kids play! We stayed from 3:45-6 and returned home for a quick dinner and to bed my waterlogged boys went. I am really glad we did not do this earlier in the summer because it would have been painful to know that such a perfect pool was within eyesight of our house. I am determined to budget in the membership dues and discipline myself to use the club...so that next summer we can be there every afternoon during the bewitching hour when everyone gets crabby in our house.

Thank you Jessie for baptizing me into the club pool. It was fabulous!

We have a few weeks of summer left. Big plans ahead. Almost everyday we have something fun and most of it is free fun! The best! I am pretty sure my boys have had a good ol' fashion splendid summer. Quiet days of at home fun with some pretty special outings sprinkled in there too. Tomorrow daddy will spend a summer day with us! Can't wait to see what adventures we will have tomorrow.