poo happens

We're lucky to live in a neighborhood with three lovely swimming pools to choose from.  We rotate around all summer, they each have their pros and cons.  Sometimes during the summer, we just want to try out a different pool.

One of the parks and rec pools the next town over has a Volcano/Tiki themed pool.  Its actually a couple of different pools, with several slides, a playground in the pool and some other cool features.  Its also next to a mini-golf course.  We go there once or twice a summer, just to shake things up around here.  Today was our first journey there this season, and will probably be our last.

Everytime you go to these big public pools, the parking lots are full of camp buses.  Kids in all-day summer camps come from all over to go to these pools.  I have nothing against camps.  Kids with full time working parents need something constructive to do during the summer and there are some really awesome camps out there.

However, the problem with a  lot of the camps - the kids are so not supervised.  AT all. There are teenage counselors responsible for 10 or 12 kids a piece, and no one is watching any of them. Today we watched two small kids (two separate incidents) be pulled out of the deep end.  Clearly they couldn't swim at all, yet no one had been watching them or keeping them out of the pool, or at least keeping them in the shallow part.

I have so many problems with this whole scenario.  First of all, why would a parent ever let their child who can't swim go on a camp field trip to a POOL?  Ugh.  If its a pool day field trip, make other arrangements, take the day off to go with them so you know they are watched and safe, or ask the camp if the kids who don't know how to swim will be watched especially carefully.

Next, all of those bodies in the pool, no one is taking or enforcing bathroom breaks.  A loose turd is inevitable.   It happens every time. And today was no exception.  Thankfully we had been there a couple of hours before the poo incident and were highly ready to leave anyway.   We hightailed it out of there at the first mention of poop.

A few summers ago, my Mom and I took the boys to one of these waterparks.  It was packed out the wazoo, but we made the most of it, wrestling our turns for lazy river innertubes.  12 hours later we were all puking and diarrhea.  You put hundreds of kids in a pool and the likelihood of encountering some sort of plague is so much higher than at a more low key, less populated neighborhood pool. That whole rule about "don't enter the pool if you've been sick within the past few days" all goes out the window with the campers.

Also, these kids are not supervised and many of them are literally running wild. Which is of course, against the rules.  So the lifeguards, who are supposed to be watching the kids IN the pool water, are busy blowing their whistle every 5 seconds at the kids running across the pool deck.  Or blowing their whistle at the kids hanging on the ropes in the pool because they DON'T KNOW HOW TO SWIM.

We've been home for a few hours now but I can still hear the whistle blowing in my mind.  I wonder what the summer to summer lifeguard return rate is at these big public pools.  I'm guessing not very high.

The pool we went to today has a mini-golf course next to it.  We played after our picnic lunch.  It was sunny and really hot, so no one else was there.  That was the best part of the day.  That, and the ice cream we got at Friendly's after the poo in the pool incident.

But the pool itself.  Not fun.  Not even a little bit. Tomorrow we head to my Moms pool, which is always delightful and practically deserted.  Ahhhhhh!

The big bucket fills and dumps every few minutes.  My boys love this part.

Logan LOVES some mini-golf action.  If we turned our backyard into a half lazy river, half putt putt golf course, we'd never have to go anywhere again.

down at the fair, ya'll

Last night, we made our annual pilgrimage to the Loudoun County Fair.  It just wouldn't be summer without a trip to take in all the sights and smells only a county fair can bring.

We thought this sign was hilarious, right next to the cow barn.  Kinda makes you wonder just how fresh that meat sauce is.

Logan LOVES to play games.  The problem is cutting him off before he empties your wallet.   We probably spent $25 and got six tiny stuffed animals valued at about, oh, $.75 total?

We arrived in time to see part of the arial acrobatics.  Pretty impressive!

And of course, you can't have a county fair without animals.  We loved this bunny:

Logan made friends with a donkey.

And our neighbors daughters help care for these sheep, who were entered in the fair too.

The highlight of the night is always the demolitian derby.  Crashing, smoking cars right in front of you, while you munch on junk food and cheer them on.  We sat so close some of the rock spray came right up onto our blanket.

This was my favorite competing car, but he didn't last too long.

some live derby action!

purple gum tongues 

When the sun goes down and the lights come on, it really takes you back.

We wanted funnel cakes but they were $7 and I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on a plate of fried batter.   Then we came upon another food stand selling fresh fried mini-donuts, 12 in a bag for $4.   Bingo! Sprinkled with cinammon and sugar, they were delish!

If it wasn't so hot outside we'd  probably venture back again this week before it closes Friday. But we saw the sights, smelled the smells and got our fix until next summer.

two last swims

Some good swimming this morning at Dylan's last meet of the season.  He had his fastest freestyle time ever, by two seconds.  And came within a sliver of tying with his fastest backstroke ever.

Nice job, buddy!  We're very proud of you!

freestyle..

and backstroke...

good luck tomorrow!

The last swim meet of the season is tomorrow.   We celebrated the last practice today with a big breakfast spread for the team.

Tomorrow, Dylan swims 25M freestyle and 25M backstroke.  I found a great semi-casual/semi-competitive league for him to swim for year round, so once school starts he'll having swim practice on Sunday afternoons.  I'm glad to have found something to  keep him practicing, but not any more demanding that one practice a week.  Third grade is a big academic adjustment, and we also want to try for Cub Scouts this year, too.  Of course, if he could, he'd be in the pool everyday of his life.

Go Lightning! Good luck tomorrow!

blue belt!

After a little break from Dylan's swim meet, it was time to head over to Top Kick for Logan's belt test.  He was testing up to his Tiger Blue Belt, which is the last 'little kid' level.  He will now start going to the big boy classes (for 6 and up, even though he just turned 5) once a week, or perhaps twice if it goes really well.

He was very focused today, and showed off his skills. There were 8 kids graduating, and they all had a chance to show their various blocking and sparring skills, kicks and punches.

A special day was made even more special having Grandma and Grandpa there!

what an ending!

This morning was the last regular swim meet of the season.   Sometimes when my boys have played sports, I'm ready by the end for it to be over...time to move onto the next thing.  I'm honestly sad to see this swim season end.  Its been a great first swim team experience (and for all of us, since neither Andrew or I ever swam on a team as kids). We've met some great people, and Dylan is over the moon proud about his swimming skills and how much he's approved.  Its been great, and I highly suspect he could swim well into his teen years.

My Mom and Robby drove out super early this morning to watch the meet (and to watch Logan test for his blue belt in taekwondo later this morning, the next post will be all about that).  What we didn't know ahead of time was that Dylan would be randomly selected when we arrived this morning to swim an American flag down a lane during the National Anthem.  This is how they open each meet, and you can hear a pin drop, even when there are hundreds of people.   I got most of it recorded.  He's to the right of the screen, blue goggles.   A very, very cool moment.

he's in the middle

He swam in three events today: Freestyle, Backstroke and Breaststroke.  His freestyle was his fastest time ever, by a whole three seconds.  And he placed 5th in breaststroke for his age.  Awesome!!

This week, they have two 'fun' events for the swimmers and chances to win more ribbons.  One more week of morning practices and then I'm going to look for a  year round team for him to swim once a week or so.  Its been great!  He's met some new friends, and gotten to swim with some kids he's known for a few years.  Everyone has been so welcoming.  We finished the season with only one defeat, pretty incredible!

Way to go!

the diving duo

Today after swim team practice, we headed to Grandma's to spend the day together with her and cousins Josh and Maya.  It was a sort of cloudy and overcast day, but we've had this planned all week, and we weren't backing down.

It turned into a gorgeous, sunny day and we were poolside for four hours.  Ordering pizza, buying ice cream and frollicking in the water.  There's just no better way to spend a summer day than that.

I love my Moms' neighborhood pool because there's hardly anyone ever there, they let you use noodles in the pool (our pool won't let you).  Plus its huge and beautiful with tons of shade, and they sell ice cream for $1 at every break.

Another great benefit is they don't make kids pass a swim test to be able to go off the diving boards. At our pools, they're very strict and you must pass a rigorous test before you can go down slides or off diving boards.  Logan isn't quite there yet, although after todays' antics, he just might try this weekend.  He can doggie paddle but is much more timid around water and has never had the total confidence in the pool yet that Dylan seemed to have since he was very young.

We arrived at my Moms pool, greeted everyone, and Logan suddenly announced he was going off the diving board.  I was thinking "Really?" in my head, but out loud I said "Okay!".  I asked the lifeguard  if I could get in the deep end (11 feet) to help Logan once he jumped and they wouldn't let me (understandable). So, I stood on the side of the deep end and watched him climb up the dive ladder (its kind of a medium high dive) and march to the end of the board.  I'm holding my camera and looking around thinking 'If I have to jump in this pool quick, where am I gonna put this thing?"

Since he's been less confident in the water than what I was used with Dylan, my biggest fear was that he'd jump in, swallow a bunch of water, choke and never want to do it again.  Or, just sink right to the bottom.  And my big motive right now is to get him on Dylan's swim team next summer so we can have both of the boys doing a summer sport and getting lots of exercise.

Well as it turns out, I have nothing to worry about.  This is a video of his approximate 100th dive of the day.

And Dylan, who's been at this for years already.

pizza

picnic

pool  

 what else do you need?

 

oh yes, ice cream!

And a very sweet, fun, loving Grandma.

What a great day!

lightning!

Too bad you can't really see Dylan in these photos at his next to last regular swim meet of the season Wednesday night, but he was moving as fast as LIGHTNING, and won two personal best time ribbons.  GO Dylan GO!

The last 'regular' swim meet is tomorrow morning, and Grandma and Grandpa are coming to watch.  Next week are two 'for fun' swim team events and then it ends.  I'm really going to miss it.  I morphed into a crazy swim team mom this summer, sporting a visor everyday and painting my mini-van windows with phrases like "Eat My Bubbles!".  If only my old college friends could see me now...

one of his favorites

One of Logan's favorite gifts from his birthday.  Thanks K and B!  Its  huge and now resides in our family room.  You can't help but walk by it and run a few marbles thru it.

a party for sports lovers

Yesterday we celebrated Logan's birthday by throwing a big ole' party at his favorite local kids gym, a place called Jumping Jack Sports.  They have an awesome space that is part interactive sports arcade, part massive gymnasium full of things to climb, ride, jump on and throw.  Logan has taken sports classes there before, and Dylan took two skateboarding clinics.  Its a great local business and my kids love it.  He wanted to have a  sports challenge birthday party, and that was just the place to do it.

He invited his cousins and his friends from all parts of his world, some from preschool, t-ball, taekwondo, the neighborhood, and their older siblings.  My Mom and Robby came too, and  Robby got into the moonbounce and let the kids dogpile him with his bad back.  Now that's a good Grandpa!  It was A LOT of fun, and the staff did a great job playing games with the kids including dodgeball, football tackle, and having some relay races.

It was a great day.  It was fun to have a big party for Logan since we've usually only had smaller family parties for him in the past.  He very sweetly said from the back seat on the way home, "Mommy, thank you for letting me have my party there."

When we got home, he enjoyed opening every single present.  Today we've spent hours assembling Legos, a giant marble run, playing his new games, and shooting Nerf guns all over the house.  He now has six Angry Birds and a cool Angry Birds shirt (thanks to Grandma!), spy vision goggles, some Pokemon toys, a trick Gravedigger, and a whole of new stuff to keep him busy the rest of the summer.

What a fun day. And what a joy watching your youngest child turn into a little boy right in front of your eyes.

I'm glad you had such a great birthday, sweet buddy.

cousins!

buddies from t-ball and swimming

Logan and Dylan C, and my Logan and Dylan

getting ready to play!

happy jumper!

Maya!

Josh!

This is E, she lives four houses from us and she and Logan play together almost everyday.  They say they are married, and they're such great friends.

This is Logan's "other" wife K, with her big sister B. Such sweeties.

Logan and his best buddy Josh from preschool.

A and A, brothers, and some of our boys' very best friends.

Logan takes down the mat in a football tackle.

a motley crew

my sweet birthday boy