Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Swim Ranch Year #4

We just completed our 4th year at Swim Ranch!  I probably started way early, but we love swim lessons and they learn so much, so it's worth it.  I started doing the water babies class with Adeline the summer before she turned 2, and she finally got to be in Lane 1 this year since she's four.  That means she swam without me!  Annabel did water babies for the 2nd year and loved it, again.

Their lessons were back to back, and since I had to be in the water with Annabel and needed Whitt to stay home, it took an entourage to accomplish lessons this year.  My mom and my cousin Kasey both came up.  My mom stayed home with Whitt every day and Kasey went with us to lessons to help me. I'm so grateful they were both here.  I really don't think I could have managed without them.  Since their lessons were at 11 & 12, I had to pack a lunch every day.  Kasey would make sure Adeline ate and went potty while I swam with Annabel and would do the same with Annabel while I watched Adeline.  Whew!  Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Adeline was the youngest in her class and was pretty timid the whole time, but especially on the first day.

That night, they had open swim for families to go and practice what they'd learned that first day.  Jon took Adeline to help her get a little more comfortable, and rewarded her with a sno-cone afterwards.

She also had her second piano lesson during the week...  I feel like all of a sudden she's so grown up!

Another night we went to swim at a neighbor's house so Adeline could practice jumping off the diving board.  She'd been too scared to do it in class that day, so we wanted to let her get comfortable with it before the next lesson.  She did great at the neighbor's house and jumped off their diving board about 20 times.  However, the next day at lessons she was still too scared to jump.

I love this sweet picture of my sometimes sweet girls.

Adeline and Kasey hanging out before lessons...

Whitt going for a stroller ride while we were gone...

On Thursday it was pouring down rain.  They canceled Annabel's water babies class, but we had to just hang out in the car to see if they'd still have Adeline's lesson.  Adeline had class for about 10 minutes in the rain, until it started lightning, so they sent us home.  No chance to try jumping that day.

And now we come to Friday, the last day of lessons....

Every single one of us went...my mom, Kasey, Adeline, Annabel, Jon, Whitt, TULIP, and myself.  Tulip went because we were all leaving straight from swim lessons to go to Texas.

Whitt was semi-happy for the first few minutes we were there.  The rest of the 2 hours, he screamed his head off.

Jon swam with Annabel that day.


She got her certificate!

And Adeline finally jumped off the diving board!!!  We were so excited!  I have no pictures, because we were all videoing it.  Oops!  I think Annabel was more proud of her than she was of herself.  As Adeline was walking out to the end of the board Annabel was saying, "Is she going to do it this time? I hope she jumps!  Oh!  She did it!!  Adewine jumped!!"  Precious.

And she earned 5 red flags and her certificate as well.  Go Adeline!



I just love Swim Ranch.  They do such a great job making swimming fun and exciting, all while teaching them a lot of survival and swim techniques.  I always leave each year feeling like it was money very well spent.

Throughout the week, something just clicked with Adeline and while we were in Texas over the weekend, she swam in my grandmother's pool with absolutely no life vest or buoy.  She even dove head first off the side of the pool and swam to the steps and climbed out with no flotation device.  I can't believe how much skill she gained in just one week.  Growing up so fast!

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