The Rest of Summer, in a Nutshell

Well, here I am back tracking and catching up once again. My summer posts are coming close to being done--just in time for most of you to be turning your heat on and wearing long sleeves. But those days are nowhere near for us, my friends. It's still summer as far as I'm concerned. So, this post pretty much sums up how we spent most of our time in the dog days of summer. I know this comes as no surprise, but summers in Louisiana are hot. And humid. And gross. And sticky. And you are miserable no matter what you are doing, whether it's getting gas, getting groceries, walking to the house from the car. It is just not fun. And I have done a whole lot of complaining about the summers here since we moved here in the thick of summer three years ago. I have used very strong words to describe my dislike for summers here.

BUT, I must say I think this summer I hit a turning point a little bit. Although the weather didn't change and I didn't necessarily like the weather any more, I do feel like I at least got somewhat used to what you do and don't do during the summer when you live here. My expectations fell in line this time, and therefore I wasn't disappointed by any attempts to do something "fun" that turned us into melted puddles of flesh. Instead, we just stayed home a lot, ran the required errands, and went swimming. Lots and lots of swimming. And I think when it's all said and done (granted, a 3 week getaway to Idaho--the land of perfect summers--did probably help my attitude a little bit this year), we'll go ahead and chalk it up as a "fun" summer.

Although, I was a little worried that it wasn't going to be that way when we first started hitting the pool early in May. I put Tyler's floaties on his arms just like always and put Sam in a baby float inner tube and headed out. Sam lasted about 30 seconds before he was freaking out and wanting out of the tube. I tried holding him and walking around the pool and playing, but he was like 'mom, this is soooo not fun'. He wanted to have every ounce of freedom possible, but that's nearly impossible when you're only 20 months old at a swimming pool. He was squirming, climbing out, running around, just being impossible to control. So, the first few times we went, we didn't stay long since I was quickly exhausted from chasing him around and (at times) scooping him up off the bottom of the pool. Yes, the boy was fearless, and I feared that we wouldn't be heading to the pool much at all this year (as long as I was by myself, anyways). He wanted nothing to do with any kind of restraint system whatsoever. So what was I to do???

These first pictures were taken back in May when we kicked off our pool season. Garrett was obviously with us this trip, otherwise there would have been no way under the sun that I would have been able to take pictures and save Sam from his impending death of drowning.
Looks safe, right?







"You mean you're actually going to try and stop me from jumping in the deep end, Mom? Get real, lady. I'm doing it whether you like it or not." Yeah, this is what I generally got from Sam for our first few outings. Fun (or not).

So, after trying everything I could think of, I thought maybe some arm floaties would work (I hadn't tried them before because I thought 20 months old was probably too young for them). But I put Tyler's on him and oh my goodness!, it was fabulous. He could swim with them and he swam all over the place and I didn't have to worry about him. I was SO glad!

So, eventually we also got Tyler a float suit (he called it a life vest), which also worked wonders for him. So by June, I was able to sit back, relax, and soak up some serious sun and hardly worry at all about the boys. It was fantastic! The boys were happy, I was happy, this was going to make summer a success! So, now the rest of these pictures were from the last week in August (almost three months to the day from when the first set of pictures were taken). And oh, how far we've come.



Here is Tyler's jump, in 3 pictures:


And here is Sam's jump, in 3 pictures: (he tries to imitate everything Tyler does, of course!)




The goggles might be on upside down, but they sure are cute on this little booger.



And now we're left with one week until our pools are closed for the season. And as much as I am sooooo ready for cooler temperatures and to start seeing a touch of fall, I have to say I am actually a little sad to see summer go this year. And I've never felt this way before. But it was a fun one and had a little bit of everything in it. So farewell, summer. I think you're growing on me. Although, Fall is really my first true love, but you're coming in a close second. See you next year!