Pool Antics

On Friday, August 15, we bid a sad farewell to our beloved friend, the city pool. I guess it would be more accurate to say that the kids were sad to say good-bye to the pool. I've pretty much heaved a sigh of relief with every towel and bathing suit I've washed and stashed away for next year.

The routine went something like this: once or twice a week we ate lunch at 11, loaded the van, slathered everyone with lotion, put our suits on and drove to the pool around noon. Most days we headed home around 2:30-3:00, so some of the kiddos could nap. Rach and Zekers usually ran over to the "big pool" while Karis, Malachi and I hung out in the kiddie pool. About halfway through the summer, things got a little more complicated when Karis fell in love with the water slide. I spent most of the time in the water or on the concrete near the slide, holding Malachi, who, for some reason, always seemed totally offended that we would even consider putting him in a baby floatie.

I'm not going to lie to you: it was a lot of work. bnvg xxxxxxxc,lll, ¬,zz,. (Malachi is bent on helping me write this paragraph) But it was well worth the trouble. I enjoyed spending time with friends at the pool - as much as it's possible to do while keeping an eagle eye on a 9-month-old - and it was a great way to get the kids outside during really hot days. AND it came with the added bonus of actually wearing them out so they slept really well and took longer naps than usual. The summer pass was definitely really cheap for the amount of pool time we got out of it.

And I'm hopeful that from here on out, trips to the pool will become progressively less work as the kiddos grow and become more independent.

I just had to share some of the pictures I took throughout the summer, most of them snapshots of Karis. She's usually either making me laugh or making me blow a gasket - there's not much middle ground with her. In these pictures she was making me laugh.

She loved to chat it up with the lifeguards - especially Ty, who, I think, wasn't quite sure what to think of the animated little squirt in the baggy orange bathing suit. In these first 2 shots, she's talking to him quite excitedly and he's patiently trying to seem interested, although I could tell he had no idea what she was talking about! At one point she sat down next to him on the edge of the pool for a few minutes and kept on talking. Ty and Marissa won the prize for "favorite lifeguard" this summer.





I guess all that talking wore her out. I could always tell when it was about time to pack up and go home!




On our last visit to the pool, the weather was a little cooler, so they all spent most of the afternoon playing with balls, buckets and mermaid dolls on the concrete.




Watching Karis come down the water slide was a hoot. She loved it so much, she'd sing a little song every time she came down, with a huge smile on her face.




A close-up of my little beach baby




This was Marissa's last year at the pool. We'll miss you, Marissa!