2012: The Summer of the Pool

When Jeff returned home from town, one Wednesday earlier this summer, with a swimming pool in a box in the back of the van, I was skeptical.  Us?  A swimming pool?  Here?

I thought of all the reasons why it wasn't a good idea:

1. The danger factor.  Making sure that none of the boys went into it unsupervised and drowned was obviously going to be high on my priority list, so not only was I worried about them being safe, I was also wondering just how I was going to get anything done this summer if I had to constantly be watching them.

2. The sickness factor.  Swimming pools don't just maintain themselves.  Our neighbors had gotten a pool a couple of years ago and did not maintain the right chemical level...and then all their kids got sick with ear infections, etc.  I was not looking forward to that happening to us.

3. The maintenance factor.  What if the pool sprang a leak a week or two after we got it?  With four active boys around, it's hard to tell what kind of object might be launched into the wall of the pool and damage it.

4. The set-up factor.  Where were we going to put it?  Could we find a good enough spot?  We know someone who spent lots of money and even more time and energy putting up an even bigger, nicer pool than ours...and then the winds blew it to pieces.  Was the money and energy we (well, Jeff) were putting into it just going to be a waste?

I didn't voice all my thoughts at that moment, however, and the boys' abundance of enthusiasm more than made up for my lack of it.  They were so excited.  And while I was truly happy for them and enjoying the pleasure I saw on their faces, I still fretted inwardly.  Was it really a good idea to have a pool?

To his credit, Jeff was undaunted.  He had a vision for what he was hoping to achieve through having this pool, and he didn't let anything (especially not uneven ground!) stop him from accomplishing it.  True, he did try a few places first before he finally decided to set it up on the driveway, but it's all part of learning.  ;)  And one thing we learned was how a piece of ground that LOOKS level can be anything but!  Now we know.  :)

Jeff's efforts on behalf of The Pool Project didn't stop with setting it up.  He has done EVERYTHING this summer to maintain it in a healthy and clean way.  Even if I didn't already love him more than life itself and think he was the cat's meow, I would be totally impressed with how successful he's been in this endeavor.

Because of him, our summer has looked like this...

I have a lot of pictures to post, and (it's probably obvious, but I'll say it anyway) they are not all from the same day.  I intended to post some of these a month or two ago, but it never happened...so here they are now.  :)

Josiah and David, of course, took to the water like fish; the pool wasn't even close to being over their heads so they weren't intimidated in the least.  Tobin took a little longer to warm up to it, but he got so comfortable in it that he even began to duck under water (pictures coming soon of that).  Shav, on the other hand, was still pretty hesitant; and that's fine: if he wanted to hang out on the ladder, I didn't mind at all.  He did, however, get in further from time to time and even walk around in the pool a little bit.  Most of the time though he was on the ladder...

...watching what the other boys were doing and...

...filling a water blaster to shoot at them.  ;)

It was a blast (pun totally intended)--both for him...

...and for his big brothers who would squeal and laugh and try to dodge the water he was shooting at them.  :)

Think he was proud of himself?  :)

Here is how Tobin would get ready to...

...go underwater...

...and then come back up.  When it's his turn to take swimming lessons in a few years, I'm confident he'll zoom through the first level because he's gotten so comfortable in--and under--the water this summer.  (And that's a wonderful thing, as I well know, because when I was a little girl taking swimming lessons, I was afraid to put my face in the water.  As you might suspect, it's awfully hard to advance in swimming lessons if you can't even do that!) ;)

I loved watching this band of brothers in the pool these hot summer days.  :)

Our neighbor Gaby came to swim sometimes, too, and when her friend Megan was visiting Gaby, she would come along.  Gaby helped make some great big splashes one evening, so I could get some pictures of the light of the setting sun reflecting on the water drops.  :)

Once in a while, Jeff would get in, and the boys loved that, of course.  The first thing he would do was clean it; around and around with the net he would go, collecting debris which, despite the cover we got, would invariably get into the water.

Our version of synchronized swimming...  :)  Three boys lined up, watching the little guy get ready to "shoot" them.  :)

After Jeff would clean for a while, he would take Shav in his arms and help him have fun in the water.

Shav is a little koala.  :)

Of course, sometimes Jeff would grab a water blaster...

...and take some shots at the big boys.  :)

Sometimes Tobin and Shav would wear life jackets, even though we didn't require them to do so.  If they wanted to, it was fine with me!  :)

I only got in the pool once, and I had fun that one time.  But I also discovered that there are other ways to have fun involving the pool, but not being in the pool.  I'll remember times this summer when I...
~ retrieved a Winnie the Pooh ball for David who was shooting baskets with it from the pool (at the beginning of the summer, he hardly ever made a basket; but he got a lot better at it as time went by)
~ jumped rope on the driveway while keeping an eye on the boys in the pool
~ sat in a folding chair under the shade of the maple and nursed or held Moriah as the boys swam
~ played The Animal Game with Shav during his times of not wanting to be in the pool (I can't remember how that game started the first time we played it, but pretty soon Shav was asking for it every time I was out there watching the boys...in the game, we pretended that we were Adam, naming the animals...I would say something like "Oh, here comes an animal; it looks like a big brown cat, and it has a lot of hair around its head and neck and it...oh, my ears!...it just opened its mouth and out came a huge roar...what should we name this one?"  And Shav would laugh and say, "A lion!"  And then I might say, "Here comes another one...this one is much smaller than the lion, but it walks on four legs like it...it has beautiful black and white fur, but oh dear! my nose!...it smells awful!"  Shav would giggle and answer, "A skunk!"  And so forth...)

I'll also remember that I was wrong and Jeff was right.  Having a pool here this summer was a VERY good idea.  ;)

I don't know how many more times we'll get to use the pool this year.  For a while this summer, the boys were getting in the pool nearly every day; but then August turned cooler and rainy and their times of swimming became less frequent.  I'm hoping that some more hot and sunny days will be given to us before fall really begins, but we'll have to wait and see.

Regardless, I'm already looking forward to next summer when...

...(hopefully) our pool will bring many more hours of laughter, games, splashes, exercise, and FUN!!  :)