Aker Aquatics

This afternoon, we were invited to the Aker's house (Aunt Missy's Mom & Dad's house) to go swimming.  John wanted to go swimming as soon as we got there, but he waited until Uncle T could watch him.  Once Uncle T was ready, John ;jumped right into the pool to show Uncle T all his new swimming moves.  And that's when it began.  That's all John did for the rest of the day.  He jumped into the pool, swam to the side, climbed out and jumped back in.  I gave him one rule, to watch out for Gillian and Grandma Aker.  He was very careful to not jump on top of anyone, but no one was safe from his splashes. 

Uncle T asked "How about you jump off the diving board?"  John said "No Way!  I'm not jumping off the diving board!"  But he continued to jump off the side of the pool.  Uncle T convinced him to move along the side of the pool closer and closer to the deep end.  Uncle T asked him again "How about you jump off the diving board?"  John again said "No Way!  I'm not doing it!"  But Daddy talked to him.  I'm not sure what was said but before we realized it, John was standing on the diving board.

And he loved it.  He loved it so much, he did it again. 

Since he wasn't afraid of the diving board anymore, Uncle T asked "Why don't you go down the slide?"  John said "Well it's not wet."  Uncle T said "I'll get it wet.  Don't worry about that.  Are you going to go down the slide?"  John surprised all of us and went over to the slide.  I honestly thought that he would chicken out when he climbed the ladder, but he didn't. 

He only went down the slide once, but he must have jumped off the diving board a dozen or more times.  Gillian swam the entire time.  Well, I take that back.  She would get out of the pool occasionally make me take off her lifejacket so that she could grab a quick snack and then want to jump back in.  We tried to get her to jump off the side, but that didn't work.  Maybe next time. 

Pool Day

On Friday, Daddy took us to Crystal Springs. Crystal Springs is a family water park run by East Brunswick parks and recreation. Crystal Springs has a kiddie pool, a lazy river, three water slides, a lap pool and a shallow recreation pool.

We got there early on Friday morning and found some chairs under a big umbrella. We walked around and decided to go on the lazy river first. John had his own tube, but Gillian rode with me. Gillian was hilarious. She loved the tube and also tried to splash me and Aunt Betty! The boys went around once and were done. Betty and I wanted another ride. So we handed off Gilly and headed back around. When we found Daddy and the kids, Gillian was in tears. She wanted to go down the kiddie slide, but wasn't allowed to wear her life vest. She felt like she was in trouble and after that was afraid to go back down the slide. 

We headed back to the shallow recreation pool (also the pool right by our chairs). The kids swam. And we got to see all of John's new swimming skills he learned at camp. John was afraid to put his head under water at the beginning of the summer. He is now swimming underwater! I'm impressed. 

After swimming a little while, John wanted to try out the lily pads. They have a pool that has a cargo net overhead that the kids grab while trying to walk on floating lily pads. John had a hard time but he completed it! Gillian was not too happy. She was too small to try the lily pads. After that we checked out the water slides. You needed to be a minimum of 48 inches. John is 48 and Gillian is 42. Once again, she was not happy to find out that she couldn't go on the slide. We waited for the boys to come down. Unfortunately they came down the steps and not the slide. The attendant said that John was too short. It's a little frustrating, but Gillian was melting down. So it was easier that both could not go on the slides. 

We went back to the lazy river and this time Gillian rode with Aunt Betty. John was ahead of Daddy and I. And when we finally caught up, we found out that he made friends with the family on the tubes in front of us. He cracks me up. 

We again went back to our pool and the kids went in and out of the water.   

We went back to the kiddie pool and Gillian finally went down the slide!

 

It was a great day at the pool!

Beach day

Today we started our stay-cation with a day at the beach. Gillian was super excited. In the car on our way there, Gillian said "It's the beach day!" 

It was a little breezy when we arrived and the waves were really big. The kids immediately put their feet in the water and said to us "You need to get wet!" We told them not yet. They continued to run in and out of the waves. Gillian gave up after a little bit, but John didn't stop. A lifeguard came over and said that the rip current was really bad today and if he wanted to go swimming it had to be in front of the lifeguard tower. 

John gave up on the water and decided to bury my feet.  He worked really hard on burying my feet. I broke free and then buried John's feet (and most of his legs).

Gillian, meanwhile, entertained herself by looking for rocks and making "cupcakes" and singing songs. 

We ended up walking over to go swimming in front of the lifeguard stand. Aunt Betty held Gillian's hand and I held John. John is crazy. He wasn't afraid of any of the waves. He got knocked down a couple of times, but got back up again. He loved it. Gillian fell one time got her hair wet and I thought she was done. But she complained the rest of the time we were at the beach. "I want to go back in the water!" She is tougher than I thought. 

Overall it was a pretty great day at the beach. 

Beach boy

John went to the beach again today with Aunt Betty, Grandma and Grandpa. He is quite the beach bum. He loves to build castles, search for shells (or sand dollars) and just catch some rays. 

But his favorite thing has to be playing in the waves. He spends most of his time at the beach in the water. 

I can't wait to take him tomorrow and play in the sand with my beach boy. 

The zoo

John and Gillian went on an adventure to the Philly zoo today with Mimi and Poppy.  The kids told me little bits about their day. John told me "We saw like 7 turtles! And not little ones. Big ones!" Gillian said "Poppy hold me up to see the monkeys!" I asked "What was your favorite animal?" John said "The lion!" Gillian said "All of them!" Gillian also told me "We didn't see the llamas. Cause they spit!"

Here are some pictures of their adventure. 

The sand dollar

In the car this morning, John and I talked about going to the beach. He said "I hope I find a sand dollar." I said "That would be awesome. I never found a sand dollar at the beach." He said "I've seen them one time. You know, when the touch tank was at camp. Did you know that they are alive?" I said "No. I have never seen one that was alive." He said "You know what? If I found one at the beach, then I would just put it back in the ocean. Cause it's alive. I wouldn't want to keep it." He has such a big heart. Then he said "You know what? A sand dollar isn't money. You can't buy anything with it."

Trial class

Yesterday Daddy signed John up for trial Tae Kwon Do classes. John has expressed desire to take Karate classes. Daddy thought that this will help with John's concentration and listening skills. Today was his first class. He was very excited. 

I asked if he would smile in one picture. He said "No. This is serious. I need to be serious." I didn't get to watch his class today. Daddy said he did very well. But he needs to work on two things. One, listening to instructions. And two, not talking to his classmates. John agreed. He said "I need to listen better." He says he likes the class, so we will see if he likes it when he goes again on Wednesday.