Lazy River

Today we made the trek out to Helen to go to the small water park there.  It was a big hit last summer and we were looking forward to returning.

The park did not disappoint!  It was lots of fun.

The favorite thing to do there is the Lazy River.  The boys love hopping from tube to tube.  Even I can get in and enjoy myself!

They hit the slides a few times too, of course.

That's Sam and Benny, racing to see who gets to the bottom first.  Sam is on the right, Benny on the left.  For the record, Benny came in first!!

Sam heads down at lightning speed.

The day was scorching hot and there was not an ounce of shade anywhere.  It was lovely to cool off this way.

As always, judging by the smiles,

We will be back!

And of course, any ride down the slide requires an enthusiastic blow-by-blow recount, usually before you get out of the pool.

All in all, a fun day.  And plenty more to come!

The Next Door Neighbor's Pool

Last week we went to visit Gram and Grandad.  We had lunch, played poker (yes, poker) and visited a bit.

They have a next door neighbor with a lovely pool, and he had just opened it up for the summer.  He mentioned to Dad that as always, the kids were welcome to swim in it.

Well, naturally, the boys had to take him up on his offer.  Though we had not brought bathing suits, they were prepared to just swim in their shorts.

Grandad dug out floaties and boogie boards from the garage (because all good grandparents have these things on hand, you know, and all good grandparents are ready to sit by a hot pool in the sun at a moment's notice,) and we took the boys next door.  They jumped in right away, as it was another one of our HOT hot days.

There was a lot of splashing and jumping, which is the best part.  At the community pool, you're not allowed to do those things.  Here--anything goes!

Benny even did a crazy back flip that had me convinced for a moment that he was going to smack his head on the side of the pool. 

Then it was into some spare clothes while the shorts dried, and a game of Words With Friends on Gram's I-Pad.  A few snacks and games later, the clothes were dried and we were on our way home.

We love visiting Gram and Grandad!

Swimmin'

Yesterday we went to our local indoor pool.  The boys used to love this place--we'd spend hours here.  They've begun to outgrow it, though, and last year we didn't go at all.  So I was glad when they asked to go yesterday.  It helped that it was 93 and steamy outside!

The boys jumped right in.  I don't think the water was very cool, but it was wet!

We saw a dragonfly hovering persistently around our towels.  Sam asked me to get a picture of it.

They ran into some friends who had a giant raft.  After a half hour of swimming and paddling around, everyone was done and ready to go.  It was a nice break for the afternoon.

We'll be back!

Summer Days

We are well into our third week of summer and the days are drifting by fairly quickly.  But wow, is it HOT and steamy already.  Consequently, we are not spending a lot of time outdoors.  I havent blogged much because we're not doing anything terribly blogworthy.

In the last few days we've celebrated Marty's birthday, our anniversary, and we've played lots of video games.  We watch TV.  We fix meals and snacks together.  There's a lot of extra cleaning and meal prep with everyone home, and yet everyone is always hungry and the house is always a mess. Explain to me how that works?

Then there's the routine doctor's visits for allergy shots, grocery shopping, and errand running, as well.

Yesterday we had to run three long errands.  At the last minute I stuck on an extra one.  Sam groaned from the backseat of the car and said, "Mom, that's only going to add more time to all this boring running around."  Then he added, only half-jokingly, "You need to plan these things out in advance, so I know when to complain." 

Yesterday we ventured outdoors to smack around the badmidton set we got at Walmart. 

We last about fifteen minutes both times we went out.  That was it for athletic activity for the day.

We've also got a game of Monopoly going. And going. And going.  It stays out and we play a few rounds each day. Lucy came along and flopped on it a couple of days ago and wiped out everyone's properties.

Oh well, even kitties need to do a little Monopoly in their spare time!

And now back to our summer programming.