water babies

I think it would be safe to say that we spent a lot of time in the water this summer. And when I say a lot, I mean that Emily had her swimsuit on pretty much every single day. We went boating, rode on the tube as a family, and let the waves lull Nattie to sleep.

The girls and cousin Matthew splashed in the waterfall in G&G's backyard, even though they weren't supposed to. :)

Grandpa bought Emmie and Nattie a wading pool to use out in the backyard. We mixed the freezing hose water with a few pitchers of hot tub (or "hop tub" as Emily says) water and the girls loved it! They would play in the kiddie pool all day long if I let them.

Yes, my two year old would take off her swimsuit and streak across the yard if I didn't watch her like a hawk. Awesome.
On special occasions Daddy would put on his suit and take the girls across the yard to the big pool. Emily was terrified at first, but by the end of the summer she was thrilled to swim in the big pool. Nattie is apparently a natural swimmer because she ate it up right from the start.

We even made it to the YMCA to swim for Nattie's and cousin Matthew's birthdays. As we were driving to the YMCA Emily kept asking if we were going swimming and I said yes. When we arrived she saw a building and said, "Mommy! Where beach go??" I had to explain to her that since we weren't at home we couldn't swim at the beach. To which she replied, "I play in the sand?" bah! Sorry again sweetheart, but there's no sand either. She was pretty distraught, but then Daddy showed up and took her down the slide and that made it all better.

We also soaked in the hot tub several times, but I don't have any pictures of that. Bottom line, we had a lovely summer filled with swimming! And even better, Emily is no longer afraid of the water. Yay!