Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Swimming

It's summer. It's Texas. It's HOT. Melting hot. So, we survive with lots and lots of swimming.

Back before Christmas, I shopped fitness centers, trying to find the right place to leave my blood, sweat and tears. A huge factor in this decision was whether or not pools were on site. The place I ended up joining (thanks to help from my grandmother and mother!) has huge indoor and outdoor pools, both of which have amazing, two-story high, water slides. The kids LOVE it.


We grab a few chairs, lay out our towels and dump our stuff (including the heavy swim bag full of pool toys that they rarely use) and then we spend the new couple of hours swimming.

Here's a picture of the outdoor slide, and lo and behold, that's Remy coming out the chute!




I used disposable, water-prppf cameras to take all the pictures in this post. I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, having never used them before, and the resulting quality isn't great, but they have kind of a neat look to them...and I wasn't about to get my beautiful new camera near the water.

Here's the outside slide in all it's glory. At the top you can choose to go down the covered tube or the open tube...it's really two slides with two chutes. I have to know in advance which one Remy's coming down, so I can be near where he exits at the bottom. He can swim well, he just get's a little nervous in the deep end sometimes.

Most of the pictures I took of Donny, Remy and fun Uncle Chris who was visiting from Austin were coming out of the slide...but often I only ended up with photos of big splashes! This is Uncle Chris's splash and that's a life guard to the right. They have one life guard at the top of the slide and one at the bottom, making sure one kid at a time goes down, everyone's safe, etc. There are usually six life guards in all at this pool. I'm impressed with their safety.


Here's Remy with fun Uncle Chris. Uncle Chris came to stay with us for about five days. He's one of my hubby's younger brothers. Bless his heart, he spent almost the entire visit playing with my boys. He's such a good sport. Donny and Remy look up to him and have such a great time hanging out with him. And, he gets extra points for being willing to have photos of him thrown on my blog. I usually ask family members before posting them. And see if they want nicknames, that sort of thing. :o)


Donny is threatening me with his super water shooter thingy. I got hit more times than I can remember that day at the pool until I threatened to kick him out of the pool if he hit me one more time. He stopped.


Both my boys have to have goggles on while swimming, and they have both taken to wearing rashguards (those water shirts that provide UV protection).


Then we went crazy and started taking underwater photos. I can't believe I'm posting a picture of me in my bathing suit. Thank goodness this is a blurry, fuzzy photo and not a close-up. Not super flattering, but we were having fun. It's me and Remy.

Here Donny being fun and nutty.


Donny has flippers on. He loves how much faster he can swim with them.



So, now you've seen where and how we spend most of our summer days.
Do you have a regular pool you go swimming in?

30 comments:

CrystalChick said...

And who says exercise is no fun??!! Looks like a pretty awesome health club! I can't say that we have anything like that here. We have water parks jammed full of inconsiderate people. We have gyms that don't include places for kids... but both?? WOW
Hi Uncle Chris. Welcome to Blogland.

Jennifer said...

this is sooo cool! we have nothing like this where i live... but then again we don't get melting hot weather as often as you do in TX.

I once used an underwater camera and it didn't come out great at all... under the water or above. Your pics came out really good. :)

i love the funny faces that Donny is making and I love the way Remy is holding his breath. :) too cute!!

U. Chris... YOU ROCK!! That is great. I bet it is a huge help to you... and a little bit of a break to have him around playing with the boys. :)

glad you all had a fun and happy day!! :)

xoxoxo

Krystyn @ Really, Are You Serious? said...

What an awesome pool! I'm jealous!

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

This is a health club?! Wow! We have a neighborhood pool that we go to. And we go to the county public pool. It looks a lot like yours - with two huge water slides, kids water play area with a small slide and buckets that dump water on you, and a lazy river area. What is cool about them is that we also have the same thing indoors. I need to do an entry about them because they are really cool.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Oh, and I have found with the disposable underwater cameras you have to be really careful about where you touch them because the sunscreen can easily film up the lense. And if there is a film of sunscreen in the pool, well, you can forget it. When we used them at the beach, the picture quality was a litte better...if I watched where my fingers went...

Anonymous said...

Holy CRAP, this is a HEALTH club? I'm so jealous! It looks like you guys all had a blast. :-) I LOVE the underwater shots!

moosh in indy. said...

Yeah we have a pool but it's not nearly as cool as THAT pool. They're really not kidding when you say everything is bigger in Texas.

Angie's Spot said...

Wow, everything really IS bigger in Texas! My neighborhood pool has a diving board and that's it. If that's what the pool looks like then I can't IMAGINE what the health club looks like! Enjoy that awesome facility. We're all jealous! :-)

Cristin said...

I think the pictures came out great! That place looks like a blast.. and uncle Chris is a cutie!

Unknown said...

I am soooo jealous. I think we are going to end up with only 2 weeks of summer (and that was when the kiddos were still in school)... feels like it will never be warm enough to swim.... But only a few more weeks & I can put my little fish into the water in warm ol' America... yippeee

Sandy Kessler said...

magnificent - this is why you have that special award and todays is a tak one sk

Jen said...

Let me get this straight, this place is like a gym? I would join to if it had a pool like that. I love the underwater pics. Looks like tons of fun.
I can't imagine living in Texas. It is so hot here that my son will not even go out side to play and he usually lives out there all summer. It is so humid here that my hair is curly and I have straight hair. Yuck! Summer and I have a love/hate relationship.

Amy said...

Is that a Lifetime? Love those pools but I always go as a guest. No gym membership for me, it's just wasted money ;-)

And thanks for always stopping by my place and saying hi! Sorry it took so long to get over here! Your kids are cutie pies!

Valarie Lea said...

Thats one big pool!!! I want to get a waterproof camera just for the pool and the beach. Cause I am not taken my Nikon down to the beach. :)

The CDM said...

I'm with Amy on the gym membership. There are too many free places to go to get the same stuff done. That is unless you need a fitness instructor or want to checkout eye candy.

crazy4danes said...

That's a fun way to beat the heat! It's been really hot here in Utah too! And I love the rash guards...they are awesome aren't they?!

Heather said...

It looks like SO much fun!!

Staci said...

love these shots, lifetime??? yeah i drove by there the other day......sadly i go to golds...hmmmpf

Rhea said...

Crystal Chick - I love this health club. It's huge and has so much space. Their child center is incredible.

Jennifer - It was a huge help having Uncle Chris here. I had a nice break from the kids. He was probably wiped out though.

Krystyn - The pools (both the indoor and outdoor ones) were a HUGE draw for me when I signed up.

Kat - Nice comment padding. hehe I want to hear more about your county pool with the buckets and lazy river. Sounds awesome!

April - We have a blast every time we go swim, for real.

Casey/Moosh in Indy - Everything is bigger AND BETTER in Texas. Kind of.

Rhea said...

Angie - This pool doesn't have a diving board, which is too bad, because my boys LOVE diving boards. They get to do that when they go with my mom to her country club pools.

Cristin - I was impressed how well the pictures came out, although some were fuzzy and had weird effects.

American in Norway/Tressa - I can't imagine only two weeks of summer. We have like six months of summer, I swear.

Sandy Kessler - Thanks again for my award. You're so awesome! I'm going to post about it tonight.

Jen - I have a love/hate relationship with summer also.

Amy - Thanks for stopping by! It is a Lifetime. I was using a personal trainer for a while, a nice Christmas gift from family.

Valarie - I got the cheap Walgreens disposable waterproof ones for this. Totally worth not damaging the nice cameras.

Complaint Department Manager - I'm deefinitely not there to check out the eye candy. And it has so many programs for kids. It really works great for me. :o)

Rhea said...

Crazy4Danes - Rash guards rock! They are just soo helpful. We still put on sunscreen everywhere that shows, but it cuts down on how much we have to use.

Heather - It is fun. The boys want to go every day. I can't do it EVERY day but we do go a lot. I'm getting a tan at least (through sunscreen).

Staci - Yep, Lifetime. We have a spa in our club as well as a cafe and kids programs and an amazing child center. I love that place.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

And you know what else is cool about the county pools here? Some are indoor. Even with the mongo water slides. I am really going to have to do a post on them...

Unknown said...

WOW Rhea, that's quite a place! My mum and I maybe travelling pretty close to you in about 2 weeks I noticed today, we may need a swim!LOL

Our tiny town actually has the largest outdoor artesian water pool in the state. But it ain't as fancy as that one!

BTW - you're a WINNER! Checkout my blog and email me please

the mama bird diaries said...

That looks like an enormous water park. Wow. What fun. And the under water pics are super cool.

Mama Dawg said...

Hey,

First time visit and first time commenting. I'm finally getting around to checking out the blogs of people that commented on my blog from the SITS day I had!

I love, love, love, water proof cameras. My daughter took one today to the pool to finish out the roll and then we're going to get them developed. I need to post some pics as well.

I've only read a couple of posts but so far, I'm enjoying your blog...a lot!

I'm going back to reading!

Maddness of Me said...

I lived in Texas for a year. The heat was just too much for me. I actually got sick. I like it hot, but that was something else.

So back to the north for me.

Anonymous said...

yes, but - alas - no slide. We belong to a swim club, and are even on the team. Hence, daily practices and meets 2x/week. Yikes! But, hey, it beats the heat. And people bring margaritas!Love the goggle pics.

Utter Basketcase said...

Oh my heck! That water looks gorgeous! I'd give anything to have a dip!!! Looks like SOOOOOO Much fun!!! xx

Andrea said...

Hi! Just getting around to reading this.....

I used to live in Lewisville, TX(until 94) and they NEVER had a place likle that!?! No fair :).

Fantastic place and fun reading.

Jules said...

Wow! This looks like so much fun. Love the underwater pictures. Nice job.