Friday Night Family Swim

Its been a few years since Jon & I have had a membership to our community rec center.  Before I was pregnant with Caleb, we were members for several years and worked out pretty regularly.  Our three "big" boys loved going to the kids play area.  We loved dropping them off there and working out together.  Since Caleb was born, we've been so focused on running that we haven't bothered renewing the membership.

2013 has brought some changes.  We still want to keep up with our running (we are signed up for a marathon in May 2013 after all) but we also wanted to do some other kinds of exercise like weight lifting, biking, and bootcamp classes.  Okay...I think I'm alone on the bootcamp class, there is pretty much no way Jon would do that with me (he does draw the line somewhere with my crazy plans for us). 

Now that our big boys are all much more self sufficient and able to do some swimming, we decided to not only join our rec center's fitness membership, but also to get an indoor pool membership to Waterworks.  If you haven't been to Waterworks, its kind of like a mini indoor waterpark.  It has a regular pool, as well as three slides, a diving board, a zero depth entry pool, a spray playground area, some toddler slides, and a mini lazy river. 

Since we have the pass, we are motivated to use it as much as we can because we want to get our money's worth and also because its winter here and our boys are STIR CRAZY!!!  We joined last Monday night at 9 pm and I took the boys swimming the next day at 10 am during the daily "tot swim" where they are open just for kids not in school for an hour.  Its nice because there are no big kids during that time and the nursery is open so I was able to check Caleb in there and have an easy hour with the big boys playing in the pool. 

Since we've got this new membership, we decided that we're going to implement Friday Night Family Swims this year as often as possible.  In general, we don't usually have plans on Friday nights.  I think its because we're all worn out from the week (maybe that's just me?!?).  So, its a great night to go swim together as a family.  I'm also hoping the consistency of swimming at least once a week will help the boys improve their skills.  You know me, I always have goals and plans for everything, its just how I am wired.  And if you know Jon, you'll know that he likes the plan to go at least once a week because the more times we go, the more value we're getting out of our pass. 

Its a lot of work to get out the door (packing suits, towels, dive sticks and then pajamas to change into) but it was worth it.  The boys loved it.  Tonight was Caleb's first time at the pool.  I forgot my camera so I couldn't catch his initial confusion with wading through the water almost as if he was a drunk man.  Eventually, he figured out how to keep his balance a little more gracefully.  A few minutes after that his adventurous spirit came through where he would teeter on the edge of the pool, climb into the base of the tube slide and generally try to go as deep into the water as possible without having his head go under. 

James and Andrew spent a lot of time riding the "big kid" slides.  There are two winding ones that empty out into a pool.  Then they went to the deep pool where there is a very steep slide and a diving board.  They took turns showing us different jumps and flips off the diving board.  The rest of us sat on the side and watched. 

My favorite part was how Caleb would sign and say "mo-more" each time they jumped off the diving board.  Even Aaron loves watching his big brothers.  Its pretty sweet.  Each time they came out of the water, James and Andrew would ask Aaron if he wanted them to do a specific jump or flip.  When he confirmed he did, they'd go and do it. 

We finished off the night with me soaking in the hot tub for a few minutes while Jon took all 4 boys in the big pool where they took turns jumping off the side of the pool and swimming to him while he held Caleb.  He's Super Dad for sure and he found out tonight that he's leaving for Germany in less than 24 hours and will be gone for 5-6 days, so I think he wants me to be as relaxed as possible before he goes. 

It was a sweet evening.  No complaints.  No fighting.  Good memories.  And we left for home with everyone in their pajamas, so it was straight to bed when we got home.  They were all asleep within minutes.  Turns out my children can get worn out.  Who knew?