New addition

While it seems that sometimes we can win for losing; we do have some very generous people in our lives. My aunt has chosen to up-grade her above-ground pool. In doing so, she generously decided to give us her old one. It needs some patching, but is otherwise fairly maintenance-free. Its an 18' x 4' -- so it should be quite large enough for physical therapy/exercise-type things, but small enough to be within a long-arms reach of the kids in their floaties.

The kids LOVE to be in the water - especially Rachel. Simon is a lot more cautious, but even he is learning to relax a bit. Their first real experience was this 4th of July weekend. In the photo to the left, Rachel is in the papasan float with the yellow vest. Simon is behind me in the 2 person ring float wearing his green vest. I think I'm going to try to get a float similar to the 2-person ring float in the photo because Simon liked it so well. It has leg holes on the one side for a child, while the other side is not quite closed for an adult to hold onto as well. Its a very good design!

One of my MILs has an above-ground pool similar to the one we just got. We swam in hers last night. Simon relaxed enough to wear his safety vest and sit in the papasan float by himself. Rachel quickly gets tired of being in the infant floaties (with her vest) and tries to dive in on her own. She requires quite a bit of handling! I look at it as some physical therapy for my arms and exercise to keep my bones healthy!