Our usual swimming hole is off limits to us this summer due to petty town politics, so we are on the hunt for a new “home” for the summer. Today we went to a large “recreation center” that has a pond, pool, playground, disc golf, canoeing, a big snack bar, camping, and more! All for a pretty hefty price too!
Swimming in the lake.
It was fun, but maybe a few too many amenities. The kids argued about where to go first, pond or pool, and when to switch, and when to get ice cream, etc. It gave them a chance to work on their negotiation skills. :) Mostly though we had a great time!
Eve packed our picnic lunch. It was delish!
Lex, smiling with a mouthful of food. :) They are so good to humor me and my camera.
The kids thought I should take a picture of myself as well. :)
After we swam in the lake for awhile and then had a yummy picnic lunch, prepared by Eve, we headed over to the pool for some diving board fun! I went off the board a few times and let Eve “teach” me the proper way to dive. She was super excited to teach me. At one point Lex yelled “Mom, you look awesome going off the diving board!” Later he commented to Eve, “I’m so happy we got mom to jump off the diving board with us!” It didn’t take much convincing at all, but I’m super happy that they had fun and want me to have fun with them.
The diving boards were FUN!
This was supposed to be a picture of both of them jumping, but I wasn’t quite fast enough, so instead it’s Lex jumping and a big Eve splash!
After swimming and diving in the pool for awhile we headed to the snack bar for ice cream, then back to the lake. I bought a little kid sand toy set at BJs a few weeks ago and surprised the kids with it today. It was made for little kids, but my kids had a great time with it anyway. Everyone loves sand toys, especially my kids who usually are stuck with yogurt containers and other things from the recycling bin.
Back to the lake for some sand time.
Somehow I managed to sit in a chair and read a book for almost an HOUR! All by myself while the kids played and swam. It was pretty excellent.
Then we packed up and headed to karate. Unfortunately during the packing/changing/leaving process the kids decided they were just too tired for karate. I told them that while they are at karate I had to go grocery shopping, but they both chose to come to the store instead of go to karate. They were really tired!
We got the shopping done and headed home for dinner. A good day was had by all!
(… with one tiny downside. I bought new sunscreen this year, based on Consumer Reports ratings, and applied it correctly three times throughout the day… yet both kids got sunburns. :( Not horrible, but more than they should have considering my diligence with the process. I’m thinking I should go back to the Aveeno I’ve always used in the past.)