And again with the pool...

Some more memories with Jon and Brian:

It looks like Brian is a contortionist here:

All four doing handstands:

Saturday night- after his haircut:

This morning:

he has a haircut too. 

You don't have to match if you are swimming in your backyard. 

Long eyelashes make you look cuter:

Sweetness:

Summer days are starting to all look the same.

My blog entries are probably starting to all look the same but its really all we have been doing here....swimming.


Dave continues to awe us with his "comfortable" contortions.


These guys just came back from shooting targets. I don't think I've ever seen them so happy.


Maura is getting braver and more skilled in the pool everyday! She picked out the snazzy frame for this picture.



Adam- up close and personal!

The small pod that I am responsible to care for:






Landon showing me his little shark and killer whale.


Maybe this week we'll have some variety for you :)

More quiet July days

Washing away the last of PEI. 

Blessing our piece of Earth with some red dirt. 

From standing on the side of the pool in full life-saving-regalia refusing to come in the water .......... to whipping around the pool with just his life jacket and NO noodle  in just one day. 

Same with her but she went directly to no life saving devices whatsoever. 

Adam~

Snack time, pool style. 

Snack time, Sapphire-style. 

First Day in the Pool

The water was delivered- 12,000 gallons. (wouldn't a small village in Africa love to get that?)

Curious onlookers gathered to watch :

and bragged they had the "best seats in the house"

Swim all day the next day.....

To confess, in all honesty, without pretense, just being real here...it was a stressful day. Towel mismanagement, confusion over the sound of fun vs. sound of fighting, confusion over towel ownership, water on the wood floors, water on the tile floors, wet bathing suits sitting on the couch, noodles dredged in the dirt then thrown into the pool, stuff like that. We saw immediately that we need  to learn the finer art of having a pool in the backyard. I think we identified our errors and are working towards an ongoing solution. I know, it's just a pool, not national healthcare.  

We ate outdoors because it was such a nice evening. The deck is quite full of constructionish stuff  but you  can't tell in these pics. 

The cooker, always the cooker.

Maura made name tags for us and scotch-taped them to the table cloth. Can you say CUTE????

Bread from that bakery in NJ- delivered to Gord by the owner. I love when that happens!

Molasses- how Canadian of us!

I sat here.

Showing me how much he loves molasses.  

BBQ-d Ribs.

Laughing at Dad:

Adam took this one of us:

Moving ahead with the Pool

Everyone pitched in and worked really hard on the pool. It was mostly boys that helped, but Maura was able to help as long as she had her sparkly sunglasses and Life's Good hat. 

How did he help you ask....I'll get back to you on that. 

On into the next day...

We later realized the hammer head on this medieval garden implement is loose and not actually firmly attached to the handle. Perfect. 

And on Thursday, we had were able to get the wall on- very laborious. Seriously, all of us gathered around with Gord saying "Ok, one two three PUSH" and it would move 2-3 inches. Laborious. 

It looks promising though!! And very close to the house. 

Dad and Gord put on some of the significant top things that hold everything down/on/together. They were very pleased with how it all went together for them. 

I am still working on figuring out how he *may* have helped. 

Everyone was dirty and sweating so Dad offered that we all eat some Chinese take-out. Then the next morning Dad and Mom R. left for Prince Edward Island with Adam, with Maria  following later in the day with Maura and David. 

Gord and I took Landon with us to Carraba's because it seemed like a fun thing to do on a Friday night with only one child. 

As we left home, a storm was starting to roll in. Really quickly, with low hairy clouds. As we turned into town, we were dodging large broken branches in the roadway, looking at these freaky clouds and realizing that something big had moved through town. I looked up the weather on my phone and was amazed to see that our town had a tornado warning. 

I think 1979 was the last time a tornado went through the state of CT. 

Friday happened to be the day that an EF1 tornado touched down in a town about 15 miles from here. We didn't have a tornado but the winds from the storm took down the pool walls on both ends.

Gord and I got the pool straightened up (call us if you ever need help with this- we are getting really good at it) and within an hour as I was washing the dishes, I heard the flapping of metal and looked out to see:

Not as bad as before but ARGGG, this was getting old. 

So on Saturday, Gord installed all these things to the top, if I remember from my pool-rich childhood, that piece is called the "coping"...funny little double meaning there :) and it has held firm. And it looks pretty.