In Ordinary Moments: swimming

Washington is not known for it's pools. In California, almost everyone has a pool or at very least has a friend with a pool. Here in Washington, we only have about 2 months that you would want to go swimming and therefore nobody has a pool.

Because of this swimming does not happen very often.

However, Justin's sister, Aunt Hannah lives in a condo complex with does have a pool. Better yet, it's a rather deserted pool!

We took the whole family over one day so the kids could get in a bit more swimming practice and fun.

Everly had never even been in a real pool and she actually did well. She spent more time out than in but it was a good first dip in the pool.

Logan is still quite adventurous as he was last year. Still wearing the water wings but making laps around the pool faster and faster.

Ransom has finally gotten more comfortable in the pool. Last year, he wouldn't leave the steps, even with the water wings on. This time, he was very slowly making his laps by way of doggy paddling.

Verity had her very first pool trip and just like in the bath, she absolutely loved it. She is definitely a water baby. We probably could have left her in there all day and she would have been quite happy.

But rather than explain it all, I think I'll just show you…

Here's Logan showing off his swimming skills.

Verity making her laps around the pool.

This was a year that we didn't think we would be taking a vacation. It just didn't look like it was going to work out. However, Justin then was asked to teach at our church's high school retreat. Now our high school group can have some pretty swanky retreats. Sure they've done their usual camping trips like many youth groups but this one, their Whistler one, is pretty amazing.

If you've ever been to Whistler, you know that there isn't a single bad looking hotel. They are all over the top, amazing places! We realized that we could easily turn this teaching event into our family vacation (ah the joys of being a pastor's family).

So we loaded all of us up, put all three kids in the middle row for this trip (yay for Diono car seats!) and headed up north.

6 days of mostly relaxing (as much as you can do when Justin taught at night and I was still mom), no cooking breakfast or lunch, dinner was bought I just had to throw it together. Lots of friends. Tons of pool time, and some special highlights (which I'll cover in my next post because it's just that amazing).

We've been trying to get the boys used to the water and "swimming" for awhile now. It's a lot harder of a task in the pacific northwest than it is in sunny California! There's just not many days that are hot enough for swimming. We knew that Whistler would be a perfect time to get them swimming. Last year, we attempted this at our Bible College retreat. The boys have been told that if they want to go out to the floating trampoline then they must first swim all by themselves to a buoy (maybe 15 feet out). They are wearing life jackets and everything so they really aren't in any danger. Last year, Ransom did great. He made it to the buoy...and then freaked out because he realized he couldn't touch the bottom anymore. I had to go rescue him and bring him back. Logan however, would have none of it.

When we got up to Whistler I figured it'd be the same again; Ransom being more daring and Logan sitting in the shallow end. Wrong! Logan was the one who dived right in (ok, not literally dived in) and water wings and all was floating around the pool. Ransom was the one holding on to the edge and terrified to float. Eventually we got Ransom to float...barely. Enough to say he did it once and that was it. Logan was daring enough to want to attempt swimming without water wings...yeah, he quickly realized that it's quite a bit harder that way! He still loved swimming though. I think they'll be ready to touch that buoy when we go to the next Bible College retreat next month. Oh and Everly? Crazy girl didn't want to even touch the water. She preferred to sunbathe.

Ironically we went up to Whistler during this years Summer Olympics. Logan has been fascinated by this "thing that happens every 4 years" and so it was neat for him to see the Olympics on t.v (we don't' have t.v at home) and see all the leftover paraphernalia from when Whistler hosted the Olympics.