Summer of Swim

This summer (well, the last few weeks anyway) we have been swimming and swimming like crazy-at least 3-4 times a week.  We have an indoor pool at our apartment, so it's made it easy to go pretty much anytime of the day.  The first time we went the kids were really nervous and wouldn't leave the stairs, but they are now so excited about swimming and they love jumping off the sides, going under water, and floating around on these awesome "float boats" that Steve MADE for the girls. (All it takes is a noodle and a few feet of PVC pipe, pretty cool!)

(Please excuse the quality of the photos, they were all taken on my cell phone and with subjects that refuse to hold still)

Emma LOVES the pool so much, she's actually getting a little TOO comfortable.  She'll jump off the edge or the steps when you're not looking and go under water for a second...luckily we never leave her side, so it's easy to pull her right up, but she is getting fearless in the pool.

Besides just swimming in our own pool, we have enrolled Abi in swimming lessons through Dive Utah.  They have been great for her.  She went from not wanting to put her face in the water to loving looking at things through her goggles under the water.  We did one session of Level 1 and we are actually going to have her repeat it for two more weeks-she's really skittish with floating on her back and putting her face in the water while she's trying to swim forward-the two things you need to be able to do to move on to the next level.

She loves her lessons and her teacher.  Somedays she cries almost the whole time, but in the end she comes out all smiles and can't wait for the next day when she can come back for more lessons.

Here she is working on her back float-this is the "monkey" position...she was crying or whimpering at this point, but she did it like a trooper.

This is the "soldier" position-she's still not happy at this point either :)

But as a real shocker and twist to the plot, she absolutely LOVES jumping off of the diving board into her float boat (this is where we got the idea for our girls' float boats-they are awesome!)

I can't wait until Emma is old enough to take lessons, it's a lot of fun to watch Abi learn these skills and overcome her fears.  If anyone ever wants to go swimming, just give us a call, we'd love to have you come over and join us!!!