swim lessons

at the end of last summer i bought a groupon for swim lessons for the kids for this summer. well, the company that did the groupon ended up letting us down. they changed their locations and wouldn't take or return calls. i got a few cryptic emails returned from them (i.e. 'when would you like to take lesson?') but couldn't ever actually talk to a person. after trying for a few weeks, i asked groupon for a refund. i guess others were having the same problems, so they refunded my $$ quickly. i was very pleased with goupons customer service. BUT that created the problem of needing to find swim lessons elsewhere. we have a few swim schools in the area, but lessons were looking at being about $100 per kid. yikes! i had kinda decided on the YMCA, since their lesson were only $50 per kid- still expensive, but i really wanted to get them in lessons before the summer ended. i finally asked a few sisters in the ward, and was directed to the Marana High School pool, that is less than 10 minutes up the road. they offer swim lessons through Pima County Parks and Rec and it's only $20 a kid! wonderful. we signed them right up and are in the last session for the season. we will be going for 30 minutes M-Th for two weeks. Jenna went to bed last night saying, "I'm so excited for swim lessons!" and was pulling me outta bed this morning to get them breakfast so that we could hurry and go.
needless to say, we were a little early for their 9:15 lesson. both kids are in the same Level 1 class- which i hope will be good for Adam. it's suppose to be for 3 and up, but they said we could try it out. thankfully, there is only one other little girl in their class.

it was fun to watch them- Jenna giggles nonstop and Adam *tries* to listen and do what he's told.

they started out just sitting in the shade talking about safety issues, and practicing a few moves outta the water. Jenna was a great listener while Adam was being a two-year-old boy, as seen in the photo below.

i didn't want to distract them, so i went to sit where the other parents were watching. i laughed out loud at the collective gasp from the parents as Adam jumped in when the teacher was working with the other girl. she was quick and luckily Adam wasn't phased by the quick dip at all. i claimed him as mine and just shook my head. they both had a great time and did fairly well with their big swimmer arms. Jenna was quick to ask about the water slide- i guess they get to go on the last day of class.

 

after a quick shower, they were ready for their snacks that we packed for after class- capri sun and fruit snacks. happy kids. 

 i saw this tutorial for a surfer's poncho and was anxious to give it a try. i found these huge towels at kohls for $4 and spent about an hour altering them. i didn't make a pocket for the front... but they worked wonderfully and are pretty cute. they were still a little long for both kids (i might just stitch them up a bit for the time being) which is good cause then they can use them for a few years.

 day one of swim lessons- success!