Public pools and other summer joys...

Boy do I sure miss blogging and reading your blogs! I feel out of the loop on all of your lives and am anxious to catch up. Keeping two children occupied this summer without plopping them in front of the TV, requires A LOT of going, doing, planning, activities, etc...thus my computer time is really down to an hour at most, and this rare blog post finds me thinking of ways to get out of the public pool experience, (and blog instead!)

"Ready position!" Ashlyn and Kyle are both playing tennis this summer and we have a fantastic local instructor who teaches out of her backyard court. Tennis is a great summer activity, but the pool is another story!

I love to swim, always have. I have no fears of water, and never had a bad water experience. Since I have positive swimming memories, it always surprises me that my kids don't like the water or getting their faces wet,etc...swimming in the summer is as "All American" as apple pie.

Although I like to swim, I sure liked sunning by the pool better when I was 20 years younger and 20 lbs. lighter! With age and packing around more weight than I would like, I invested in a "Mircale Suit" which sucks in any fat rolls in a girdle like fashion. Not comfortable, but it enables me to enter a busy pool with a shred of self decency amidst hoards of kids and fit teens! I also don't want any excuses not to get in a pool...by gosh my kids will learn to love the water this summer!

Kyle doesn't like getting his face wet, so although he has learned to swim, he looks strange doing the pretend-to-swim-face-above-water-faking-it-method. I have paid for group and private lessons for Ashlyn but we were disappointed in Florida this spring to realize Ashlyn couldn't keep herself above water without dog paddling. So, since standard lessons don't seem to be cutting it, I am determined to teach Ashlyn how to swim myself.

We had our first lesson yesterday. "Lesson" may be too strong of a word, it evokes a picure of a calm instructor, a willing student, and plenty of space to practice needed skills.

We set out to swim at the local outdoor pool. How hard could that be? Turns out it was harder than it should have been. When we arrived there were wall to wall people. Really, like people in every inch of that pool and on every inch of land outside of it. It was just like a picture of Waikiki Beach where you really don't see sand, but zillions of people packed in like sardines.

I was ready to rough it, and set our beach towels down in the remaining dirt seating section since the small grass patch was filled with towels and sweaty people. There was no parking to be had though, so we set out to find another pool. There are two baby activity pools in town, and the only other option with some depth was the local indoor pool.

Off we went to try and have our swim lesson there. Fortunately, there was plenty of parking, but once inside we realized why that was. At least 3 day care centers were there with 25-50 kids each in matching t-shirts. (Busses drop off so it is deceiving to know how many kids are really inside! :-)

I was determined that we would swim though and have our lesson, so we marched in that pool and I found a small 3 ft. by 5 ft. area for Ashlyn and I to practice. Ergh...what a fiasco. I forgot to mention that the 3 by 5 ft. section was in the baby area with a depth of 2ft! So there we were, practicing arms and kicking skills trying to not scrape our knees on the bottom. While I hollered out "blow, legs straight, arms tight to your sides" the other children swam into Ashlyn, accidently kicked her, etc... It wasn't much fun, and I have to admit that even this water lover was ready to give up. My poor kids didn't even want to be in the water at this pool after a floating turd incident last year.

Apparently a baby was not wearing a swim diaper and once the floating surprise was noticed, the whole pool was emptied of people. Workers with santizing suits went in to retrieve the smelly floater. (Nancy you were visiting at the time...sorry for the bad first impression of our Longmont pools!)

It wasn't much fun; last year's incident as well as this years, so I am thinking a little backyard dough-boy pool may be the way to go! Tom doesn't want the hassle of it, not that I can blame him, but I would rather take the hassle of a plastic pool vs. the crowds and fears of floating poops. And the best reason of all to get a private backyard pool...I wouldn't even have to wear the "Miracle Suit"! :-)