Swim, little fish, swim.

One of the highlights of the extended stay hotel that we stayed at while in Minnesota was that they had a pool.  I know for a lot of parents, a pool is practically a requirement when choosing hotels.  But for us, not so much.  See this is not something we have taken advantage of in the past.
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Mostly because Mrs. Packer (that would be me)forgets to pack the swimsuit and swim diapers for J#3.  There have been more than a few times where J#1 is equipped with swim trunks (since I told him to pack them), but then I failed to pack J#3's gear.  Oops!  That would be one of the reasons for my new packing list (more on that in a future post). 


But enough about my packing failures.  Back to the swimming. 

I was successful in remembering J#3's gear this trip.  See? You can tell he was thrilled about the fact.  Okay...so he could probably care less about that.  But he was pleased with the swimming experience.


But trust me, he didn't start out this way.  


My awesome sister-in-law Stacy, nephew Ben and niece Ellen joined us on a hot, hot Wednesday morning for a trip to our pool.  Why do I call it "our pool" you are wondering? 


Well, since we were the ONLY people there.  It was perfect.  Perfect for some posed photos. 

And perfect for a two-year-old who was a bit frightened of heading into the water. 

With Aunt Stacy cuddling and cooing J#4 into a morning nap, me and the kids tried coaxing J#3 into the pool.  

It started in the hallway (wish I had more photos of this).  Then we got into the main pool area.  We made it closer and closer to the stairs.  Finally I picked him up and brought him into the pool.  He got used to the water, with his arms and legs wrapped around me for a while.  

He got a bit more comfortable and we started throwing things back and forth with Ben and Ellen.  But J#3's legs never left me.  

Then Aunt Stacy was done with J#4, and with some superwoman swim skills, got J#3 to start "swimming".  

You can see from the photos...he was even kicking!  By the time we got ready to leave, he was ready to be on his own (not like I was going to let that happen) and jump in.  

He had to crawl around the side of the pool though.  Because whoever designed this pool thought it would be a good idea to use tile.  Yeah, not really.  Slippery!!!

After a few last fun photos...

We headed out for our post swimming carbo load.  To Perkins, of course.  Hard to believe they are going out of business in some states.

Although with the run of the place we had, maybe not so hard to believe? 

J#4 has to eat too, right?  She was a very considerate sister while we were at the pool though.  Slept the entire time, so we could focus on giving J#3 a great first pool experience. 

Now I am off to add swimsuit & swim diapers to the packing list for J#4...