::swimming::

This post will just be a celebration of a cute and adorable baby loving the pool.

This is notable because the last time I put him in a pool--at Disneyworld I think--he was very unsure of himself and skeptical of it all. And when I took him over to a little splash pad he just started crying.

So when we were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago I wasn't sure whether he'd be excited about the pool or not.

But when he saw it--just saw it--he got so excited.  All he wanted to do was walk over there and GET IN.

And once he was in, he was so happy.  Splashing was the best.  Max chasing him in the water was also the best.  And as all little baby boys do, he got overconfident and dumped himself in several times.










The baby floaty was great.  Those are hard to find.  When we were in FL in jan I saw one at a grocery store and snagged it.

When I had to get him out of the pool he bawled and screamed.  Many adults sitting around the pool doing nothing gave me dirty looks, which was lame.  He just didn't want to get out EVER.  But it wasn't that warm and his lips were blue.

The rest of that trip anytime we left the door of the hotel he tried to run towards the pool.  I was just glad there was a fence around it.

And yes, Max is wearing the GoPro, so if you're interested in some super cool footage you can come over and check out the swimming videos.

::more st george pt 1::

Here's some more fun from our St George weekend.

First, a photo of Sandy on the way there. He's such a good sport. He and Max (and Sultan) all do a great job in the car. And poor Sandy has nothing to entertain him really, except the mirror and whatever toys I think to hand him. At least Max has movies and books and stuff.
Anyway, he's a great little guy.


One of the beloved things about staying in St. George is the pool. And the fact that it's usually warm enough for swimming to be tolerable. Sadly, the day we took Sandy to the pool it seemed way colder than usual, so he had to get into the hot tub, which was also cooler than usual. Still too hot for him to stay in for long. Too bad because he was having a blast.

He was splashing and giggling and getting very startled when he accidentally splashed himself right in the face.

He's not a serious as he looks.

But the bigger kids, of course, got to have the best time. They don't have to quit and go home for nap because the pool is too warm/cold. They play and play and play.
Here's Max and Parker comparing heights. We're not exactly sure how Max is suddenly a head taller.



These guys basically have WAY too much fun together.
And KC looks on, as usual. I'm sure he'll get over there and start pinching somebody at any minute.

And some launching:


What else are dads good for really?

In other news, we got to eat at In & Out Burger and Cafe Rio. We went to a movie with all six of the kids and survived. We put them all to bed every night and they stayed and there was actually some grownup time had. It was rather amazing--probably a blessing that we all needed!

More to follow--the drive home has some rather interesting events worth reporting!

::max swims::

Max has always loved to swim. He's been basically a fish for a long time. I had him take a couple of rounds of swimming lessons at the Y when we lived in Providence. Those were basically a joke. They started with about 100 floaties on, and then if the kids were wimpy the teachers would let them put even more floaties on. I think all they did in those classes that was worth anything was blow bubbles into the water and kick.
Anyway, it turned me off swimming lessons.

But when Sandy was born I realized that I was going to need Max to be a solid swimmer if we were going to go swimming in the summertime with just Max Sand and I. So I got him into some private swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer, and it's been amazing. The teacher is the nicest old retired guy. He's jolly and kind, but not afraid to push and ask a lot.

Max went from refusing to even try to roll on his back to floating on his back quite well. He's also doing the backstroke along with freestyle strokes, the butterfly and all sorts of other things that I haven't a clue what they're called.

I just have these pictures because the other day Kris asked me to bring my camera and take some video so that he could see how Max is doing, since the lessons are always during work hours. I felt like a dope, dragging my huge camera to document every little thing my kid was doing, but as always the photos made up for it. They're just so fun to have!
And my mother would be interested to know, these are straight out of the camera. I really should probably have lightened them up a bit, but I think they're pretty great.


Hopefully Max can continue to improve, and most importantly continue to love swimming and it can be something he can enjoy doing for a long long time. We're proud of our little fish!

::phoenix in january pt 2::

We made some very exciting and awesome videos with our new little waterproof video camera when we were in Phoenix. We're putting it all together into a big long one which will probably be way too long for youtube, but here's a teaser for you. The underwater footage is so fun!

A little more Phoenix to come, hopefully tomorrow!

::scenes from laaaaaava pt 2::

I'm just completely ignoring the fact that this was all a month ago. At least I'm posting!
Anyway. We stayed at this funny little bed and breakfast kind of place in Lava Hot Springs when we were there. They had about 5 or 6 hot springs pools around the building. The kids were in heaven. The day we left I guess they were refilling the main pool in front, and so the water level was a little lower than normal. This meant that the big boys didn't need their floaties and they could go crazy.
Speaking of the boys, they all woke up SO excited.  They just wanted to get into the pools right away.  They really had a blast.

Here's the funny mountain hill thing that looked like popped up right behind the pool.

and the pool:

Like usual, the pool looked really gross because of all the minerals in the springs, but luckily, _unlike_ other pools like this we've been in, it was nice and clean. And it was truly heaven for the boys. They could've just swam for an entire week straight--well swam and just come out once in a while for red vines and chips of course.
Grandpa Ken always coaches little boys in weird kinds of jumps.

I just asked Max what kind of jump this was and he said "the belly-flop." I guess I wasn't there when we was taught that one.
Parker was a great jumper too.

Max says the next one is called the "daddy jump."

There were some really beautiful flowers around the hotel and pools, we enjoyed those for sure.



After the swam we packed up our stuff and headed back in the mini vans for home. Now that's a whole nother story...

oh, but not before a little big boy fun:

::speaking of::

Speaking of swimming--when we were out in UT Max and I got to go with my mom to visit Bryce and Nancy and Derek in their new place. (well it's new to me anyway.) It was really fun. I love visiting Bryce and Nan, they're just a ton of fun, and Nancy's decorating is so great--especially her rainbow towels.
Anyway, the highlight of the visit (for Max of course) was that he got to go swimming in their condo complex pool. With Bryce and Derek.

Big D and Max haven't quite realized that they're going to be good friends in a few years. But no worries, I'm sure it's going to happen.

The only problem was, we came just before Derek's nap I think, and he was getting pretty sad at the pool.


Ah, such is the life of a 2 (he's two, right guys? maybe three) year old.

It was here that I really realized how much the water wings are a necessity. I brought them but accidentally left them up in the condo. So we thought he could probably just play in the pool without them. First thing though Max just jumped straight in. And this is the kind of pool that's got steps, but the shallow end really isn't that shallow. So we found out that all the YMCA swimming lessons he did for a year taught him was to tread water--desperately. Luckily Bryce fished him out. After he repeated the episode again I went and got his wings. And all was happy splashes from there on.


I like how Bryce is looking down here, wondering if Max is ever coming up I guess?
The really scary thing is that after Max was fished out from his useless dog paddling water treading he wasn't even phased. Not scared at all. He thought he was fine. Yikes.
So that's why I keep water wings and a close eye on the man in the pool. I like him too much.

Thanks for letting us come over guys, can we come again?? The dudes need to hang out more. Right big D?

::bravery::

About a week or so ago Max and I got to go swim with some friends from church. Thanks to the Doutres for making it happen, by the way!

We got there and the pool was huge with two big old diving boards and two huge slides.
The first thing Max did was hurry over and jump off a big diving board straight into the cold water. Brrrr. In some things he's seriously fearless. Water seems to be one of them. He's so confident it's scary. He really thinks he can swim, though without the water wings he really can't. All he can do is barely tread water. So I have to keep a tight eye on him and make sure he doesn't overstretch himself. At least he likes his water wings. That's a good thing.

Anyway, he did lots of jumping off the boards, but there was this monster slide down at the deep end that Max had his eye on. It was really really tall and steep. Tall and steep enough that I definitely didn't want to go on it.
But Max did. So he went for it.

He climbed up to the top then froze. For like 5 minutes with this scared look on his face. I started to get worried about him, but he snapped out of it, got up to the top and went for it. He looked really scared all the way down. Then when he came back up out of the water he was like, "That was AWESOME!!".

He went down a million more times--making me nervous every time.
He loved it.


Sometimes it's really fun to have a fearless kid--in situations like this where there are fun challenging things to do. Not so fun when he likes to run away from us in any situation though, and he's not scared he'll ever get lost or get in trouble. Argh.
But he's such an adventurous swimmer and we're super proud of him. Go Max!

::scenes from laaaaaava pt 1::