Unexpected fun at the pool

This morning after we got up and had breakfast and were ready to get dressed and start our day, I decided I wanted to wear my new necklace and earrings. My typical daily attire of t-shirt and shorts wouldn't be the right thing to wear with them, so I looked through my closet to find something else. I have many things hanging in my closet, but I never have anything to wear, go figure? Several things I have in the closet I remember buying when we lived in Memphis and that was over 10 years ago! Anyway, I have this striped, sleeveless, lightweight sweater-like top that I bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago for $2. I wore it alot when I first bought it, but I hadn't put it on yet this summer. I decided that's what I would wear, with just some navy shorts that I wear all the time (I've had these shorts since I lived at home with my parents!) Anyway, I got dressed, wet my hair down so I wouldn't have my typical bed-head that I usually cover up with a baseball cap, and put my new jewelry on. When I walked downstairs Emma says, "Mom, you look beautiful!" LOL! I guess that's a sign that I typically look like a slob in my t-shirts and shorts, when I wear something that's not really dressy at all, and Emma thinks I'm dressed to go to the prom! Yesterday afternoon when I changed my clothes to get ready to go out to eat supper with Kara, Emma says, when I walked down the stairs, "Wow Mom! Are you going to church?" LOL!

Later this morning, I had an email from a Mom of one of Emma's classmates from preschool. She said in the email that she couldn't find my number in the phone book, but wanted to know if Emma could go swimming with them at the Elks pool today. Emma hasn't seen her friend, Livia, since school got out, so I thought maybe that would be a fun thing for her to do, but I felt bad for Gage, so he and I went along as well. We haven't been to the Elks pool since it opened a couple of summers ago. It is always very crowded and they have a maximum capacity of people. I don't know what that number is, but after the maximum number of people go in, they close the pool down to anyone else, and when one person comes out, another person can go in. Jen, Livia's Mom, thought that meeting there at 2pm would be a good time, because the pool opens at 1pm and alot of times people with younger kids are leaving after an hour. When we got there, the pool was closed and Jen and Livia were first in line, we were a few families back. The first opening took 4 people, but there were no groups of 2 after Jen and Livia, so I sent Emma in with them while Gage and I waited outside. I was worried it could be a long wait, but it was maybe about 30 minutes or so that we waited to get in. Then at 4:30pm, they shut the pool completely down until 5:30 or so, then they reopen. Apparently if you just got in for the first session, you still have to go out and then pay to get back in! That stinks! They should have built the pool bigger! The kids had a great time; however. I lathered them up with sunscreen before we left home so I figured we would be good on sunscreen (even though I still took it with me) since we would only be out for 3 hours max. I started noticing Emma's shoulders pinking up, so I told her to come and let me put more sunscreen on and she refused. She got sunburned. This is about her 3rd one this summer. She is just more sensitive to the sun than Gage because I lathered them both up at the same time and he wasn't pink at all. I gave her the speech at bath time and told her that it was VERY important that we reapply sunscreen several times if we are going to be outside for long periods of time and told her about skin cancer, etc. etc. She says it doesn't hurt, but I'm thinking she needs to have one hurt, so she will not ever want to do that again. However, I'm not going to let her go out and get fried just so I can teach her a lesson.


Emma and Livia playing at the pool. There is an area that has lots of different streams of water being sprayed up from the concrete that the kids had a lot of fun playing in. This pool is neat because it's like a beach and is very shallow then gradually gets deeper and deeper. There is a dark blue line on the bottom of the pool where it starts to get deeper, so the younger kids know not to go any farther. The deepest part of the pool is only 5 ft anyway.

Livia, Emma and Gage hanging out at the pool!

Isn't Emma so cute with her new penguin goggles that she has on upside down? LOL!

We had a nice time at the pool. It was nice visiting with Jen. I haven't talked to her since school was out, except for a couple of times when I've seen her at Target or somewhere else. She manages the Victoria Secret in the mall, so I occasionally see her in there as I walk through the mall.

The kids had their swimming lessons at the YMCA from 12-12:30, then swam from 2:30-4:30! I would think they should be good and tired tonight! They got their report cards today at their lessons and Gage did pass. I thought Emma would too, but she didn't. When I told Gage he passed, Emma wanted to know if she did, and I hesitated to tell her because I didn't want her to be upset that he passed and she didn't. I said, "Nope Emma, you're still a Ray." She replied, "I like being a Ray because you don't have to do as much!" Great attitude! I'm thinking that it may be a waste of money to keep putting her in the lessons if she intends to never pass out of rays? I was glad that she wasn't upset though. If it had been the other way around, I would have expected a big scene, because Gage would NOT have been happy! Tomorrow is their last day for this session, then they start their last summer session Aug. 4-14.