We're at the pool . . .

So my parents' new house has an in-ground pool. We like it. A lot. There's a good chance that if we're not home this summer, we're at the pool. We recently spent some time at my parents' house with my niece and nephew, Kyla and Casey. I can tell you that if there were a store where you could rent 11 and 14 year olds, we'd have a couple around almost all the time. Thanks to Kyla and Casey, for the first time in my parenting life, I experienced the phrase "relaxing by the pool".

Grant is becoming quite a good swimmer. He absolutely loves the water, the splashier the better. Our days with a life jacket are numbered . . . right now the jacket serves to encourage the above noted parental "relaxing by the pool".

Sophia loves to swim but is a little more timid in the water, preferring not to get her face wet. Though she does insist that when she grows up she wants to be a mermaid. Inevitably when we go to the pool Sophia insists that everyone "play mermaid" with her. She doesn't yet buy into the idea that mermaids get their faces wet in the water.

This is the 11 year old we would rent by the day if we could. He is a great entertainer for the kiddos.

I'd take this kid, too. Kyla is the real swimmer in the family. I have a feeling that as summer goes on she will be teaching our kids a thing or two in the water.