52 Week project - Week 28 - Water

If you want to learn to swim jump into the water. On dry land no frame of mind is ever going to help you.  - Bruce Lee

  
Water

Since November, I think everyone in the family has been excited about the pool at Michael and Jasmine's house and we have all been eagerly awaiting the "Opening Weekend".  We are very appreciative that they have had us over a bunch of times to go swimming - the kids have absolutely loved it and it is amazing how much better they have gotten swimming since the start of the summer. 

Right after their honeymoon, Michael and Jasmine had their pool opened and we were lucky enough to be there to witness Michael's first cannonball into his new pool. 

 We told the boys that they had to wait to go in because Michael (or Jasmine) should have been the first one in and as soon as Michel hit the water, so did the kids.

 Even though we told them they would not be allowed to go off the diving board, Michael said it would be ok which made Ryan and Dylan's day

Since the first day, the boys continue to love jumping off the diving board and they must have already gone off it a hundred times this summer. 

 

 It is clear that Michael has also done his fair share of cannonballs since the summer started because his form has definitely improved as well.

When they are not busy jumping off the board, the boys keep themselves busy playing another popular game: Timber.   
"Timber" is Dylan's favorite and he will do it over and over again.

 By the time we head home after a day at Michael and Jasmine's, the boys are usually so wiped out that they fall asleep before we are even off Michael's street.

 

Thanks so much Mike and Jasmine for letting us come over for swimming fun.  I can't believe that summer is almost over and I also can't believe that you have any water left in the pool considering how much water my boys have swallowed this summer.  xoxo

52 Week Project - Week 30 - Fun

On our way back from Atlantic City after July 4th, we decided to keep the FUN going so we took the boys to Hurricane Harbor at Six Flags Great Adventure.  We didn't tell the kids what we were doing until we pulled in to the parking lot and when they saw the rides, they went totally crazy! (too bad they were too little to go on a lot of them).

Clearly, nobody wanted to stop for pictures because they were all too excited to go inside the park and check things out. 

Having never been there before, we weren't quite sure what the kids could do and after about 20 minutes of roaming around, sweating, and getting roped in to renting rafts we didn't need (and which we promptly returned), we finally found the kids area and the rest of the day was wonderful.

The best part of the theme park for little ones is Discovery Bay.   It is a huge water play area, filled with buckets that dump on the kids, water slides that are age appropriate, waterfalls, a pirate ship and more.
As soon as he saw the pirate ship, Dylan took off and was on the slide before Ryan even made it to the back of the ship (Dylan is in the white shirt)

Behind the pirate ship, was the activity lagoon - in the lagoon there where were water jets and sprayers to shoot people down below, a huge bucket that dumped on passing people and some larger slides. Adults are not allowed on the slides so I went with the kids on the line and Jay met them at the bottom.  The line was really long (goes all the way past the orange slide on the left) but the boys quickly realized that if they climbed the net on the opposite side, they could cut the whole line, and neither boy had a problem sneaking themselves in. (Dylan is on the left top of the net, Ryan is on the right both wearing white shirts)




The boys were terrific at sticking together and Ryan made sure that nobody cut Dylan. (although i am pretty sure that Dylan held his own because he went on a few times without Ryan and got through the line really fast)
The next 2 make me laugh so hard.  The first is Ryan yelling at a boy to stop trying to cut the line even though Ryan just cut the boy, and the next is Dylan laughing about it.  HAHAHAHA!

Both slides empty in to very shallow water, and while we were nervous to let Dylan go the first time, he declared that the slide was awesome and ran right back up the net.   I would guess that they went on the slide at least 20 times in the first hour.

Not far from Discovery Bay was the Blue Lagoon Wave Pool.   The kids were dying to go in and it was the first time this summer that they really tried to swim without swimmies, mainly because we didn't have any with us. The water would be calm for 10 minutes and then the horns would blare and for 10 minutes, there would be rolling waves that reached all the way to the shallow end.  I was so proud of both of them because even though the waves were close to knocking them over, they kept swimming

 

(i seem to be having an issue with the videos)

As the day went on, Dylan started to get sleepy and we discovered there was one big slide that Ryan was tall enough to go on, so while I walked around with Dylan, Ryan and Jay went on!


While they were on the ride, I met a supervisor and asked if it would be possible to do a parent swap so Ryan would get 2 chances to go on, once with Jay and once with me.  The manager agreed and he even escorted us almost to the front of the line so we did not have to wait too long.  Ryan was so happy that he finally got to go on one of the big kid watersides.

I thought that we would only go for a few hours but we ended up staying until the park closed and Ryan was so disappointed when we had to go.


Everyone agreed that we had a REALLY fun day and we all said that we hope to go back again next year - by then, there will definitely be way more rides for the boys to go on.

52 Week Project - Week 29 - Barbecue

Neil and Eric invited us out to their house in Sag Harbor back on July 21st for a Barbecue and we were very happy to go out, especially since Aunt MaryAnn and Uncle Kenneth were up for a visit and Marteze was heading out also.   Ryan and Dylan were so excited when we got out there and they couldn't wait to go swimming and show off their much improved from last summer swimming skills.  I am pretty sure Dylan striped his clothes off before we even made it to the backyard.

 Not sure how much time the boys really spent swimming but they sure had fun in the pool, shooting their guns, jumping on the raft and doing cannonballs.  At one point after everyone dried off and changed out of their suits, Dylan jumped on the raft, fully clothed and with no swimmies.  When we got him out and he got in trouble for going in the water with no swimmies, he declared "I didn't go in the water, I was on the raft" oy

 I really love family get-togethers although there were a bunch of people that couldn't make this one and they were definitely missed! Chef Eric made a wonderful lunch for everyone and we all sat around and talked, laughed, enjoyed the wonderful weather and just hung out.

One of the highlights of the day was playing Catch Phrase.  For as long as I can remember, my family played games when we got together - board games, guessing games, games in the car etc.  Neil mentioned that he didn't have any games so Jay and I brought one out.   I remember being a kid at Uncle Kenneth and Aunt MaryAnn's house and playing Pictionary.  They even head a full size easel and pad and I don't think anyone in the family will forget the "nuts on a half-shell" debacle between Grandma and Uncle Ken.   For this group, Catch Phrase was perfect and most people quickly got the hang of it...

We were all quickly cracking up and it was decided that Grandma and Neil are not allowed to ever be on the same team since all they do is crack up laughing.

 
We had such a wonderful time spending the day with the family and some of us didn't want the fun to end so we headed in to town to see what was going on....to be continued....