Swim Lessons

Doodah took swim lessons 3 years ago when he was 4. He did great, but was still a bit too spazzy to get tons out of the experience. Chewkie, has had less than zero interest in taking swim lessons ever since - adamant that she does NOT want to put her face in the water. Last summer, I tried convincing her to take lessons with the promise of going Great Wolf Lodge as a carrot. She was still not interested.

This year, she finally agreed and we found a great Swim Camp at a local swimming pool. They put 30+ kids in a pool with 10 teachers for an hour a day for a week and see how much they can learn. I was actually surprised that despite the seeming chaos of it all, it still manages to be a helpful program.

Doodah has been trying to teach himself to swim ever since his swim lessons and was able to pass off a few levels pretty quickly. I was so impressed with his dedication to his teachers and following their instructions.

Chewkie spent the week in the beginning class with the preschoolers, content to play with the babies and the toys. After Wednesday I expressed my frustration that I paid for lessons and she refused to make any progress. Thursday she allowed herself to be dunked by her teachers, which was a great step in the right direction, but still not enough to move on to Level 2: learning to float on her back.

Friday morning we had another talk about being brave and after an initial reticence, she finally got it. She let her teachers teach her how to blow bubbles with her nose and began going under water easy peasy. It was as if a switch had been flipped between total terror and complete comfort. I still can't get over the transformation.

Next week we will try another round of lessons - Chewkie in Level 2 and Doodah in Level 4. Great job my babies!!

Update to add: Chewkie and Doodah never made it out of their respective levels, but the following Saturday we went to the pool together as a family and Chewkie made crazy progress in her swimming abilities and Doodah, instead of honing his skills reveled in being tall enough to go down the big slide and went down at least 20 times.

Family Reunion 2019 - San Diego: Road Trip Home

No one was looking forward to the drive home. We were all done with being in the car and we had watched all the movies we bought. I decided to take three days for the return trip instead of the two we took to get to family reunion. I thought we would have more time to relax and more time to stop for lunch if we wanted. 

The first day they were done in the car after just a few hours and boy were they excited once we got to our hotel and found the pool. The pool was the size of a small backyard pool and it was literally a stone's throw from the freeway but you have never seen two children so excited to be in a pool.

The second day they really started slipping. We stopped for lunch and Doodah could barely keep his head up. Neither of them had much energy to eat their lunch so we stowed it for dinner and kept moving. We got to the hotel and invited my nephew N to join us at our hotel pool while my parents visited friends nearby. Chewkie enjoyed her time with cousin N while poor Doodah could only watch limply from the side.

When everyone was done at the pool, Doodah complained of a headache. There was a Walmart right next door and a Fred Meyer half a mile down the road. I thought we might all benefit from a nice walk to get some medicine but Doodah could again, barely muster the energy to walk across the street and back. He kept wimpering about being tired and getting back to the hotel. At one point I had to carry him because he just couldn't walk any further.

We spent the rest of the evening watching a movie on my bed before making it an early night. I thought a good night's sleep would help, but neither of them had much energy the next morning and pleaded not to stop at the Safari we had planned so they could just get home.

I have a theory. The kids were up late every evening and itching to get see their cousins every morning. After a whole week of fun, their little bodies finally gave out and just needed rest.

Suffice it to say we all had a wonderful time at family reunion. Even Matthew, who wasn't excited to go because my family can be a bit overwhelming, enjoyed himself.

Family Reunion 2019 - San Diego is officially a success.

Family Reunion 2019 - San Diego: Camp Ramona

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns a camp outside of Ramona, California. It has a pool, cabins, campground, zip-line, rock-climbing wall, archery course, soccer field, rifle range, team building course, and lots of cool boulders on which to climb for HOURS. It was about 20 degrees hotter up in the hills than by the ocean, but it was still a dreamy setting for family reunion. I think we took advantage of just about everything the camp had to offer and then added hours of playing games and chatting on top of it.

Playing games (the littles are finally getting to be not so little and are allowed to play)

Time with cousins was priceless. Especially these two. They both have no problem mixing it up with the older boys, but they still LOVED on each other all weekend long.

The four seven year-olds in ascending order of age.

The seven-year olds playing on the rocks

The rock-climbing wall. Chewkie was all excited to get suited up and then quickly got nervous climbing. That is about as far as she made it.

 Doodah did a bit better than his sister.

 Matthew, thanks to his length and arm-span only needed to climb about half-way up before he got to ring the bell.

Not pictured me. There were two sides to the climbing wall. I started on the more difficult side and got most of the way up until there were no more handholds and had to come down. I may have gotten a bit angry with my dad who was insisting I could go further when I couldn't. After waiting my turn again, I quickly got back into the harness and powered up the other side proving to myself that it wasn't me it was the @#% wall.

The pool. I'm pretty sure this pool gave Chewkie the needed impetus to take swimming lessons. We didn't bring a life jacket for her which meant she could only stay in a small part of the pool where she could touch. Unfortunately for her, almost no one else had the same area restrictions. 

Not pictured is the slide which Doodah and Matthew did countless times. Now that Matthew doesn't  need glasses, his enthusiasm for water slides has sky-rocketed.

In order to do the slide the life guard made each of the kids swim across the pool to prove their competence in the water. Doodah is not a proficient swimmer but he REALLY wanted to go down that slide so he practiced for some time swimming on his back (his best stroke) before he finally passed. I was so proud of his perseverance.

Sunday, we went to church with Paul and Bre and their ward. Afterwards we got our one and only group photo (the two heart boys are Nichole's foster children who can't legally be shown on social media)

After church on Sunday we headed back to our camp for team building exercises and a faith walk. It was a meaningful experience made even more meaningful to be able to do it with my family (even though not everyone was able to make it).

I'm so grateful for my parents for bearing and raising 8 crazy children. I'm grateful my siblings have turned into fine adults and are raising their own beautiful families. I'm grateful to everyone who supported Paul and me in our family reunion scheme and went with the flow all weekend. I'm grateful for the knowledge that families can be together forever and that forever can start right now.

Family Reunion 2019 - San Diego: Beach Day

We stayed a few nights of our family reunion on the Naval Base just outside of San Diego on one half of Coronado Island. It's a very ritzy area that we had access to for way less than those staying on the public half. We also had a semi-private beach with sand that was oddly sparkly (as if a glitter barge dumped its payload somewhere off shore). The kids played so happily with their cousins in and out of the water while the adults took turns watching children and hanging out chatting under the tent.

And then of course all the kids wanted their turn to be buried up to their heads. I remember doing this as a kid, so I happily helped bury set after set of children. Here's Chewkie and her sweet cousin P. These two were basically inseparable the entire weekend.

After a LOVELY two days in San Diego with warm sunshine and cool breezes, we made our way to the mountainous camp Ramona with its 100 degree weather.

Family Reunion 2019 - San Diego: Road Trip and Sea World

This year for family reunion Paul and I were in charge, and just like the last time we were in charge, we did it a year late. This time it wasn't our schedules that were the problem but wanting our parents to be there. To switch things up a bit and to give Paul the best chance possible of making it to family reunion, we opted to stage it in his neck of the woods. We all descended on San Diego and spent one day at Sea World, one day at the beach, and the weekend at a camp owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had so much fun.

Matthew had to be down in Long Beach for work and had to get back quickly for other work commitments so the kids and I either drove by ourselves or convinced a nephew to keep us company. The kids mostly did fine on the way down (it was basically their first real road trip). We had fun books to listen to and new movies to watch. The first day we drove to Sacramento and the next day we made it to San Diego. After being in LA traffic and then rush-hour San Diego traffic the kids wanted nothing more to do with the car. So I left them with aunts and uncles to play at the beach while I went to get take-out dinner.

It was dusk and I'm pretty sure no one had their swimsuits on but they had fun in the ocean with cousins until it got dark and they realized they didn't have warm clothes or towels. Thankfully our hotel was close by.

The next day, Thursday, was Sea World day. Matthew was still in meetings and had no real desire to come, so we met him later that evening.

Sea World was fun, the shows being by far the best part. Poor Doodah couldn't seem to find a ride he wanted to do for which he was also tall enough. Bitter tears were shed. So he and I ditched Chewkie with Grandma while he and I had our own little adventure for a bit.

After that ride he was all smiles again and we rejoined everyone else for lunch, whale shows, dolphin shows, shark petting and just about every other fun thing Sea World had to offer.

Most people stayed for the evening light show but my mother was tired, Matthew was waiting and I was happy to have an excuse to leave. Sea World was lovely, but I was done with the crowds and I just really wanted to see my husband.