Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

After several years without a pool membership, we finally splurged again this summer and joined Turner Farms. The past two summers I'd taken the kids out to Lake Johnson Pool in Cary, which is fabulous but far away so we only made it out there several times the entire summer. By the end of last summer the girls were no more at ease in the "big pool" and in the "deep water" (that was all of 3 1/2 feet deep) than they were at the beginning...I had even stooped to buying them water wings...and I have always hated those things! And then come to find out we weren't allowed to wear them at Lake Johnson Pool...talk about adding insult to injury. After the fiasco that was last summer's swim season, I was determined that THIS was the summer that they would FINALLY learn to swim. I had it all mapped out in my head...my mom and I leading morning swim lessons for the younger two while Cassidy was in school and then private afternoon lessons for Cassidy with mommy or Mema. We bought goggles, and a kickboard, and diving rings and I searched online to refresh my memory of how and what I used to teach during my swim instructor days. I was ready.

Turns out I didn't need to prepare. I didn't need to worry. All I needed to do was sign up for a pool membership, pay my money, and then bring them to the pool everyday...or at least a lot. By the second day the two girls who didn't like to go underwater were proudly showing off their submersion skills. Submersion quickly morphed into making cups with their hands and the beginnings of kicking and paddling...two months later my girls are jumping into water that is over their heads and swimming to the ladder unassisted. Janet Evans they are not...not yet anyway...but Lily's got a beautiful little freestyle in the works, both have a mean backstroke start, and Cassidy's backstroke is really starting to take off...I think she may be a backstroker! Most importantly, they are confident in and around the water and a whole new world of fun has been opened up to them!

Finn, too, has become quite the little water bug. He loves running around in the shallow end, practicing kicking and paddling, blowing bubbles, and climbing the ladder. With his sisters as wonderful examples I am certain he'll be swimming with them next summer!

I had to capture some footage of their swimming feats so that we'd always remember the summer that they took to the water! :)

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