The last days

You would think that leaving after 6 weeks would be an easy thing, but after the summer we have had I’m afraid there is going to be lots of tears at the airport.  Troy has been back at work this week, & mom & dad are at the ring, so we decided to take Wednesday afternoon & make it our big goodbye.  (Troy’s wonderful idea!).  Troy & dad left work really early, and we all hung out in the water & had a great day of play, before the days of packing commence…

    

Thanks again everyone for making our time in Seattle so special!

Sophia swims!

One goal for our time in Seattle was to get Sophia into swim lessons, which we did when we signed her up at Day Camp - an hour a day for 5 days, and boy did she learn! By the time we got her back in the pool in California, she was jumping off the side and swimming - some crawl, some breast stroke, and some doggie paddle - all the way across & back again. Over & Over. It was wonderful, and amazing. All of a sudden swimming was fun!

The Pleasant Hill Water Park

We really wanted to get together with Troy’s cousin Sandy & her family, as well as Troy’s brother, but having all the kids at a restaurant is not a situation where you can actually have a conversation about, well, anything really.  So Sandy found a water park in the East Bay that looked like it would work out well for us.  It was perfect, the closest thing to a German water park I have seen in the US, apart from the fact that they made a couple of bad design decisions.**

Anyway, we had a great time.  The kids just RAN & jumped into the water.  Sophia was jumping off the edge of the pool & swimming underwater to the ladder – thank you swim lessons!  Alexandra was really happy to toddle around in the sprays.  For Sophia it was especially fun because her cousin Amarah is 6 months older than her, and it is always more fun to have a friend when playing.

Marty & his new wife Monica came as well, and Marty chased down the ice cream man & bought treats for everyone.  The best way to make an impression as a fun uncle for our kids.

It was great to be watch the kids play & have fun & we managed to actually have a few conversations on the side.  It was a hot day, and the water was the best place to be.

(**The water spray area has a cement floor, so the kids can’t run thru any of the fountains or sprays…  What’s with that?  The life guards spend most of the time yelling at kids to stop running!  Where is the fun there?  And it puts the life guards in a terrible position – how do you allow the kids the be kids when they can’t run & play?)

Ski supreme

It’s all in the family…

The Patriarch.

The Son-in-law

The daughter.

Next up, the return of the prodigal son…

Next year, the first grand-daughter!  (Sophia was already grabbing the handle of the rope tow.  I was so proud!!!)

Lake Days 2009

We just have too much fun in the water.  And I am loving this weather after the dismal June in Munich.  It is just so much easier to be a good mom when you can actually go out & have fun all together.  It was also fun to pick up Troy at the airport, and have a great day at the lake with him, before he has to go into the office this week.

 

Little Swimmers

As soon as we got to the lake we didn’t even bother to unpack the car, we just found the bathing suits (or swim diapers) and jumped, being joined by Sean & Papa in short order.

Escape to the lake

We needed to pick up a couple things from the lake for the weekend, so we spent a couple hours in the water & imagining what summer & sun look like after weeks of torrential downpour in Munich.  All in all, very promising…  

The last day

After our struggle yesterday morning trying to get out & see something touristy, we decided that our last day should just be a pool & beach day. Being a Sunday, the beaches were amazingly crowded, so we decided to stay at our pool, and Sophia decided that today was the day for her to learn how to swim.

yes, Alexandra even sucked on her binky after it had fallen into the salt water…

She had been trying to swim without her water wings for most of the time here, but only 2-3 feet to the ladder & back to us (mostly covered by her push off), but suddenly she told me to walk backwards as she was swimming toward me, and off she went.

(she still looks a bit like an animal just able to keep its head out of the water, but she made it the whole length of the pool!).

Plus after a few swims across the pool she was able to push Alexandra around in her swim ring. Very fun for both of them!

The video is of her attempts & success over the days,

Attemps to Swim

The pool at the Moulin is not heated, a fact that may be preferred during the blazing hot summer when the nights are warm, but keeps it very cold right now when our nights are still quite cool. Sophia was begging to get into the water, so we kitted out the kids & brought them over to the pool.

Sophia was very brave & swam once down the pool, then just stuck her feet in after that.

Alexandra kept climbing in & out of the water, shes never been in a pool that wasn't at least 30c, so I think she was a little confused as to why the water was so cold.