No Wet, No Fun

What's a beach vacation without a little (or a lot of) water? Toward the beginning of the week, I was somewhat concerned that the kids would not get into the ocean. As the week wore on, though, the kids began to get more and more used to the it and started heading for it with very little coaxing. Here are some pictures of each kid's watery progression.

Olivia remembered the beach from last year, so she was quicker to get into the water. Early in the week, she would only go in to the point where the water came right above her ankles. Sometime during of the middle of the week, she began wanting to jump over the waves, so she had to go a little deeper. By the end of the week, she was body surfing- almost fully submerged in the water. She really did a good job- not only on the beach, but in the pool, too. She has been swimming with her dad some this summer in our pool, but she really made A LOT of progress while we were at the beach. Not only did she swim some without her swim ring, but she also started jumping off the side of the pool into the water. She is certainly not scared to go underwater anymore! The only problem that we are having now is that she is so excited about swimming that she smiles when she goes under and then water gets in her mouth. She doesn't seem to mind too much. She just spits the water out and tries again. We are hoping that she will be swimming on her own by next summer. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Olivia swimming in the pool because I dropped my camera in the ocean (and destroyed it) before she started swimming. I'm bummed about my camera, but really glad that my memory card was not harmed.

Owen was much more hesitant than Olivia about getting into the water (both ocean and pool). He would not go near the ocean for several days. If a drop of water even dared to land on him, he would get upset. It took a lot of time for him to even approach it. I don't know what it was that changed, but by Thrusday, he was ready to get wet. I guess he decided that he liked the ocean, because he kept going out deeper and deeper. By the end of the week, I was actually having to tell him to come back because he was out too far. Like the ocean, Owen did not want to get into the pool at first. He has not been in the pool at our house very much because he is always so fussy when we try to put him in it. I finally had to just grab him and make him get into the pool at the beach. He clung tight at first, but started to ease up later in the week. He never did get to the point where he would let go and rely on his swim ring. Oh well, I guess that gives us something to work on for next year.