Pool

DISCLAIMER: I totally messed up the alignment of my pictures when I uploaded them. So they layout is off but hopefully it's only for this post.

As we were preparing for our Florida vacation we soon realized reserving hotel rooms would be expensive and inconvenient. Using the same house rental agency that we used last year we were all able to stay in one six-bedroom house that had a screened in pool.

This pool had steps leading down into the shallow end and it went to 6 feet deep. There was also a hot tub adjacent to the pool but since we weren't going to pay for the heat it turned into a kiddie pool. The development also had a community people with a zero-entry pool that we used one day.

I don't mind swimming but I don't really see the point of it so I usually just hang out at the edge of the pool or play with the kids. Things were different this week. I went swimming almost every day and there were a few days I was in the pool multiple times in one day. It was so hot and humid that the pool was the only relief!

Brian is much better about the heat and the pool than me. He gets in the pool and plays with the kids for hours.

Jamison has not been a fan of the water at all this summer. After a week at this house, though, his attitude changed and he's convinced he knows how to swim.

Jamison fell into the pool twice. He often reminds of this by saying - I went under! - and no matter where we are or what we're doing we know exactly what he is talking about.

The kids loved watching Uncle Mark and Brian dive into the pool. Jamison loved it so much that he thought he could do it as well. I caught this moment on camera as he was about to dive in and Brian was rushing over to catch him before he sunk for a third time.

Ruthie, on the other hand, does know how to swim. She wore her floaty life jacket in the pool but I'm not sure it was necessary for her. She swam around for over an hour one afternoon - just in circles, with no goal in mind. Jamison thought she was amazing when he would throw in a ball and she would swim after it and bring it back to him. I think Kristen and Mark need to find a toddler water polo team in Nashville.

Maddie is a more finicky swimmer. Yes, she can dog paddle but it will only be on her terms and there better be an adult immediately next to her. She enjoyed the hot tub-turned-kiddie-pool. (Ignore her eye. She had a weird thing going on in which her eye swelled up only in the mornings)