Swim Test

With a morning of presentations to give our new staff members, a friend offered to take the kids for me so the Little Miss A and Mr. D didn't have to sit and wait in my classroom. Ms. A took her triplets and A & D to the pool for some serious fun! A & D BOTH passed the swim test required to use the water slides, a feat they had failed to accomplish when we went a while back. They were so excited!!! What a fun morning!!! Thank you soooo much Ms. A!!!!! :)

Tuesday Trip #8

My final Tuesday Trip with the kids was spent at one of our favorite water spots...Hamilton Pool. After a nice hike down to the pool, we found the perfect spot to settle in for the day.

We had so much fun, none of us wanted to leave. I have so enjoy my Tuesday trips with the kids. What a wonderful summer tradition. (The three of us have thoroughly looked forward to Tuesdays!!) I think we're going to have to continue our adventures through the school year with a monthly Saturday Spree or something like that. :)

I Finally Found my Little Fish!!!!!

After a fun venture to the pool yesterday, I'm happy to report, my little swimmers are back!!!!!!! :) They were slightly MIA towards the beginning of summer. After half of year of swim lessons last year, TOTALLY out and out swimming, we began the summer with two kids that LOVED the water, yet wouldn't really venture into deeper areas of the pool. I wish I had taken them to the pool more often this summer so we would have gotten back to this point sooner, but man we had a lot of non-pool related activities on our summer list this year.

Anyway, we met our neighborhood moms at the pool at 10 and didn't leave until 4!!! The kids were rock stars. Cannonballs, diving, flips, handstands, you name it...they did it. :) It was so nice to be at the pool and not "worry" about them. I was still constantly surveying the area to make sure I knew where the were and watch to make sure they (Mr. D) were on their best behavior, but the drowning concern that has plagued my past was no where in my head.

On a totally separate note, we finally "really" got to play with the other twins in the neighborhood. Last month, a family moved into a house behind the greenbelt from us that has 5 year old boy girl twins!!!! What are the odds, right? Let me just say that our sons and our daughters are more twins with their same gender counterpart friends than they are with one another!!!! They all got along so well, it was kind of scary! :) As we were leaving the pool, we had a trail of blondies all in a line, boys with boys, girls with girls. Crack me up!!! What a fun day!

A Day off with Daddy

We took advantage of a Monday holiday for Independence Day and went exploring. Daddy had heard from friends at work about a cool spring fed pool not far from our house, so we went to check it out.

relaxing

floating

jumping

watching the rope swing...wondering when they'll get to do that

exploring "tree houses"

finding hidden waterfalls
Krause Springs was amazing!!! Definitely a new Caswell favorite for sure. :)

Family Fun for the Fourth!!!

Our cousins from Houston came in town for the 4th of July weekend. YEA!!! We spent much of Saturday just hanging out and catching up. We definitely need to see them more often!!! :)

We went out on the 4th to catch some local hot spots. Barton Springs was definitely a favorite today. The water was a VERY chilly 68 degrees. A little too cold for my taste, but our daughter was in HEAVEN!!!! She was all about getting her feet wet and playing around.

Mr. D on the other hand...not so much.

Little Miss A and Daddy enjoyed the water so much, they both decided to "go in" regardless of the fact that neither one was wearing a bathing suit. :) So glad Daddy was there to go in with A, since there was no I way I would have made it...it took me FOREVER just to get my whole foot in the water!! :)

Thank you so much for coming Snow family!!! We sure have missed you and can't wait to see you guys again in August!!!!

Now I've Heard It ALL

We've heard the "Don't cross that line" line for a while now, but tonight the kids went "swimming" in the "big bubble tub" and I overheard Little Miss A say to Mr. D "Don't cross those bubbles!" Ha!!!

January or July?

Okay, both months start with a J and end in a Y and that's pretty much where the similarities end. Not that our local weather has been particularly warm or anything. In fact there were days this week that were bitter cold, but my little girl CONSTANTLY wants to wear her bathing suits after school!!!! She gets home and changes. It's actually kind of fun to see just how much she has grown since summer. The one in this picture was actually a little too big at the end of summer, but is decidedly smaller now. :)

Not sure what this about or where the idea is coming from, but tonight she has convinced me to let her go swimming in my tub. Maybe we left swimming lessons too early, but after my earlier post this week, I can't imagine having "one more thing." I'll take tub time swimming any day!!! :)

Bye-Bye Nitro

This afternoon marked our last and final swim lesson this year. The kids have both done phenomenally well. Of the 10 stations, A finished out at station 7 and D finished at station 6. I don't think I'll worry about them in the water at all next summer. Okay that's not true, it's me...I'll always worry! ;) Our departure was bittersweet: sad in that the kids were doing really well and I would have loved for them to finish out the stations before we bowed out, but nice to know we'll have our Thursday afternoons back. (Aahh, I can already feel the weight being lifted...one less "thing" to do in the middle of the week after school.) Honestly I don't know how some Mommies do this all year. Already it was a pain with the cooler weather, 62 as we were leaving the parking lot tonight. Doing a TOTAL dry off and re-dress of slightly damp bodies in a crowded locker room...not my idea of a fun time. Not being able to just toss on a hooded towel and hit the car headed for home has it's draw backs...showing me that our swim days are meant for summer.

After School...Let's Hit the POOL!!!

Let me preface this post by saying that we went to one of our local city pools over the weekend and I decided to show the kids how to do underwater flips and hand stands. (The kids are doing so well with their swimming lessons, I thought we'd just play rather than practice.)

We had our first day on "our" campus today with ALL the students. I think Mr. D was a little apprehensive, he was clinging to my side whenever he saw me. I got to eat lunch with them in he cafeteria which was fun. However, when I had to leave he kept saying he "just wanted to come help me instead." Knowing it was almost nap time, I told him to dream about what he wanted to do after school and have his "plans" ready for when I picked him up as soon as he woke up. Little Miss A was so excited about this too. (They both LOVE to have plans.) When I woke him up, D declared he wanted to go swimming. A was immediately on board adding, "D, we can practice our flips in the pool!!!"

I wish so badly I had taken the camera, but with the amount of splashing they have been doing lately, I was too nervous. Needless-to-say, they have BOTH completely mastered underwater flips. Round and round ALL afternoon. They were both so proud of themselves.

That is one thing the kids and I will miss about the hotel. It's like having a swimming pool right in your backyard. (Sadly Daddy has been a little too busy with his new job to be able to enjoy the hotel pool.) Though the neighborhood pool is close to our new house, it's not quite the same as throwing on your suit, walking outside and hopping in. :)

Little Fish!

With a TON of pool time this summer, the kids have REALLY improved their swimming over the past couple months. We took Grandma and Grandpa to the hotel pool and PLAYED up a storm. Little Miss A and Mr. D came up with all sorts of games to play...races, new dives and a crazy lunge/jump game that had D gasping for breathe, but insisting "I just have to do that again." A was amazing...swimming the entire length of the lap pool without a floatation device or help!!! :)

After SEVERAL hours in the water they came out looking like this...

A Pool With A View!

We joined some our new school friends tonight for a dip in our new neighborhood pool. Our house is literally across the canyon from the lounge area...it was so fun to see it from a different angle. The pool was awesome...totally perfect for A & D and their swim abilities. :) They both had a blast and kept asking "Is this really our pool?" After a surreal answer of "yes" I realized how nice it will be to walk to the pool in a month!!! :)

Memorial Day = Splash Day

I totally forgot to post the events from our holiday, but better late than never I guess. Let me just say it was SO nice to "pretend" to have summer for a day, but gosh it was hard to adjust back to the reality of work this week...summertime tease!!! We can't wait. :)

The kids kept saying, "really, we don't have school today?" Nope! We slept in, had a late breakfast, then threw on our swim suits and headed outside. We had EVERY water device out that we own and had to keep switching the sprinklers for added variety. The kids had so much fun, squealing at the top of their lungs. (Okay so that was mostly Mr. D...man he's got a set of lungs!) They got creative this year and put the water hose down the slide on the play scape and created their own at home water slide. :) A full day of fun in the sun followed by dinner with friends...I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday!!!!

Diving...

Swimming Nitro!

Well, we finally enrolled the kids in swimming lessons and had our first session this afternoon. The Nitro swim plan has 10 stations that the kids will move through as they "pass" each station focus area. We started today with station 1...head under water for at least five seconds. I'm happy to say that about halfway through their first lesson, A & D were moved to station 2, so we're on to the star float. :) The class was awesome. We had an amazing coach and A & D are currently the only kids in the class. (You gotta love that kind of attention.) Anyway, I'm crossing my fingers and toes that the kids will be all out swimming on their own by summer time. :)