Swimming, swimming, swimming

If you could use one word to describe our summer days this year it would be SWIMMING!
Hailee and Braden both took swimming lessons for the first time this year.















Hailee started out in Level 2 and breezed right through it. The next session she went to level 3 and wasn't very pleased with that. She begged me the entire time to put her back in level 2 because they play more games there and she didn't like all the "learning" that took place in level 3. She stuck with it through the end...tears and all. I was very proud of her for trying her best even though she didn't want to!















Hailee tried the diving board and wasn't a huge fan so she watched the rest of her class jump off.















Hailee's favorite part was probably playing in the pool after swimming lessons. She learned all kinds of new tricks and was very brave in jumping off the side in the deeper part of the pool. She practiced her front and back crawl and loved playing with new friends we met at the pool.















Hopefully we haven't scared her too bad for next year. I am proud of you, Hailee!















Braden, on the other hand was our little dare devil. He was in the preschool class both sessions because of his age but was ready to just take off in the pool! He wanted to jump off without the teacher but the rule of the class was that the teacher had to catch you. I think I heard a teacher everyday say, "Braden, you have to wait til I'm ready to catch you!"















His favorite game was "what's in the water, what's on the land". They named an animal in the water (Braden always said Shark) and they would have to swim to the side and jump out as fast as they could. Then they would name a land animal (Braden always said Lion) and would have to jump back in the pool.















He loved playing in the pool after swimming lessons and was so excited to show me all of his "tricks". Before anything he would do I would hear, "Mom, watch this cool trick." He is so dark! I think he wins the tanning contest in our family!















Braden was brave to go off the diving board once. He wasn't too sure about the deep water. So once was enough for him!















Bennett loved walking around while Hailee and Braden were swimming.















Unfortunately he discovered how much fun it is to swim. So mom spent most of swimming lessons chasing Bennett and trying to keep him from diving into the pool!















There were a few close calls but mom won and Bennett didn't appreciate it (hence the scrunched up mad face and arched back)! But they had a fun kiddie pool and that's where we ended up most days.