Water Water Everywhere

Alright so I realize that I'm lame, since it's been like 2 months (and then I wonder why more people don't read my blog...) but I'll try to catch up. We had my sister Lindsay's high school graduation on the 16th of June, I finished school on the 17th, and we had my sister Becca's college graduation on the 20th. So it was a pretty busy week. It would have been even busier with a trip to Utah in the middle but my sister-in-law's wedding was postponed. We were already planning on going to Colorado the next weekend though so we went and had a super fun time with the Brinkerhoff family. That's where the water part starts. We are on the plane waiting to go to Colorado and we get delayed about 20 minutes because of weather there. Then we had to circle above Denver for about 40 minutes because of the rain and lightning. Once we landed, Lou Anne was waiting for us inside because after circling the airport for 40 minutes, she had to go to the bathroom. She also realized that she forgot her purse so Matt drove home and we listened to Michael Jackson in the car and Daniel started rocking out, bobbing his head in his carseat. It was so funny!

Then on Friday, Matt, Torrey, & TJ went golfing in the afternoon and it started pouring and apparently, they survived a tornado that was supposedly forming right above their heads. In their defense, TJ lived in the midwest so he knew what the signs were and there was a tornado warning in Devner - it just never touched down. While they were gone, we hung out at the house and the kids played outside. That was where Daniel discovered the joys of eating sand and dirt. Even when he gave the "Yuck, that's gross" face, he continued to eat it. It was pretty fun though watching him playing with all of his cousins and uncles. He also had a good time playing with Josh and Jackson, knocking down towers of Scentsy containers. The Nertz tournament was later that night and we had a blast yelling, and snacking, and pretty much everyone talking trash. We discovered that TJ and Taylor have similar hands and TJ broke out into the song from Friends that Joey sings when he finds his identical hand twin Vegas. Aww, good times.

Anyways, on Saturday we were all going to Water World and no one wanted to have us rained out so just about everyone was praying (seriously, like in their prayers) for good weather. It was funny - but then it was a perfect beautiful day all day long. So who says prayers aren't answered! We had a great time and Daniel loved being in the water! He played with Papa in the wave pool and he loved splashing. I loved how cute he looked in his little swim trunks and rashguard. Plus, we put sunscreen on his scalp too so his hair was being all spikey and it was adorable. We were able to take him on Voyage to the Center of the Earth too but he fell asleep in line. However, being all brainiacs like we are, Matt, Torrey, and I all got in one raft. None of us are small. Not even close. So after the first little drop, we got stuck. We were dragging on the bottom. Another raft ran into us and we still didn't move. Daniel woke up about then and it's pitch black and he started freaking out. Matt and Torrey were able to move us enough to get us going again and we didn't get stuck again. But that 30 minutes or so was the only nap Daniel took all day because he just wanted to play. We had a really good time with the exception of the fact that I didn't get as tan as I would have liked. Because I'm teaching summer school (we need the cash to travel to Denver for Christmas) we had to come home on Sunday but we had a really fun time.

Between the rash guard, super long trunks, and crocs I'm not sure he needed much sunscreen!

Now the next water part. We live at my mom's and she has a pool that doesn't have a gate or an alarm or anything. We were all older when we moved in so it wasn't a big deal. But now Daniel makes me worried, with how much he likes going outside and exploring everything. So I did a lot of research about swimming lessons for toddlers. Most places only had mommy and me classes and they were still not a great price. I was just afraid that playing in the water wouldn't really help if he fell in the water with no one around. Or maybe we'd be right there but he'd take in too much water before we could get him out. So I found this website called Infant Swimming Resource that teaches water survival skills. They teach them to hold their breath underwater, float, and at Daniel's age, how to "swim" to the side. They simulate falling in and they make their way to the surface, float, then flip over and swim for a few seconds, then flip back over and float to catch their breath, then do it again until they get to the side of the pool. Plus, they learn that when they are floating on their back, they "talk" to get someone's attention. Usually during lessons, he's crying because he's tired of doing it but when he does it at home, he just "talks" when he gets into a float. The last week of lessons they even do them in their clothes - one day in summer clothes and the next in winter clothes so they're prepared for everything. Plus it's only 10 minutes a day so it keeps them from getting over tired or taking in too much water. It's pretty expensive but any private lessons were about the same price and this seemed like exactly what I was looking for. He graduated Wednesday and he did amazing! We've seen other babies going through the float program and it's amazing what they can do even at 6 months. It's hard work so it's hard to watch him get upset sometimes but it's worth every penny seeing how Daniel is able to take care of himself in the water. Here's some video - this was at the end of his lesson so he was tired, which is why she had to help at the end but that was also when he had over a week left and he just started learning to put everything together so he's doing everything perfectly now.

Then on the 4th of July, we were debating on whether to drive down to San Diego and watch fireworks in the harbor from my aunt's house. The drive isn't that big a deal and it would have been fun but we wouldn't have been done until 10:30 and then we would have had to come home and we didn't want to put Daniel down so late. So we decided to just go swimming in the backyard, grill on the Foreman, and go to the air force base to watch fireworks. Nothing like celebrating the country's independence like being on a US Air Force Base!