Stow Aways: Summer Vay-Cay part 3

The post-getting home from a trip week is usually a downer. The kids are so used to having giant and repeating feasts of entertaining activities and lots of different people to do the entertaining. When the dust settles and the suitcases get put away and the laundry finally makes its way back to the bedrooms, things seem pretty darn boring and ordinary. Mom as the ONLY form and source of entertainment is just a plain let down.

Our first week back was filled with constant sibling fights and little patience from me as I wistfully and more faintly remembered those few days of sitting on a balmy beach with a tropical drink in one hand and a book in the other.

Still, on with summer since we have precious few weeks left before the dreaded school year.

Task#1 - teach those kids how to swim!!!

Last summer, we had the kids in a total of 3 sets of regular swimming lessons. At the end, neither one could come close to being safe in the water. We pulled out wads of cash and paid for private swim lessons for the rest of the summer hoping to pay for that miracle. Still, when school started, they were both non-swimmers (although improving from the private lessons.) I would still have to be in the pool with both of them hoping that one wouldn't drown while I grabbed or watched the other.

Somehow this month, good fortune brought us to Kami and her parents' back-yard pool for a 2 week session of swimming. They had lessons every single day for a whole hour. Unlike community lessons, the kids were in the pool for that ENTIRE time every day (not sitting on the side of the pool waiting for their 45 second turn with the instructor.)

At first, I couldn't see much structure to the lessons and was doubting that they were learning anything specific, although they were getting much braver in the pool. The structure got more solid each day within a fairly relaxed environment. But by golly, those kids could swim across the pool on the last day! Granted - Hattie is still wearing floaties to do it, but we are talking MAJOR improvements here. She wouldn't even get IN the water at the beginning of last summer, let alone put her face in. She would cling like a barnacle to her swim instructor and refuse to try any strokes. Grace could NOT figure out how to take a breath while swimming.

(About 1/2 way through these lessons, I forked out for snorkel masks for both kids so that they could swim "hands free" without trying to hold their noses all the time. Worked like a charm.

They have turned into fish!)

(all the kids from all the morning classes)

Now, both kids can get in the pool without me and I can rest more at ease knowing that they are much less likely to drown. It is such a relief. Check that off the list.

Task #2 - squeeze in as many activities as possible before that glorious sunshine starts dipping too far south again. Here are a couple so far:

our first Albuquerque Isotopes game:

SO MUCH FUN! For me, a non-baseball fan, this was just as much fun as seeing the Red-Sox at Fenway park. Actually, it was way more fun because I didn't have to drive an hour (or take the subway) into Boston, spend $30 to park, a couple hundred on tickets, and another hundred for 4 hot dogs, walk 20 minutes, sit in a hot/humid over-crowded stadium, and get home at midnight with kids who were way too tired, hours ago. Instead we parked for free in the lot right in front of the stadium, got there AT game time, didn't miss opening pitch, sat in great seats in the cool shade that were $8.50 face value (a friend actually gave us the tickets), watched the whole game, and were home by 10:30. I'll go again babe.

an impromptu trip to the aquarium and botanical gardens: when our session at Galloping Grace Youth Ranch was canceled due to rain (yep, these desert folk don't have proper wellies for ridin' in the mud), we made a quick decision to head down to the aquarium.

Grace came prepared with pencil and notebook to make some biological drawings (her two favorite things- art and science mixed into one.)

We spent a couple more hours walking in the botanical gardens. This is truly an oasis in the desert. It's one of the few places I've been in ABQ where you can feel lush and green and blooming all around you. The gardens are meticulously done and there are absolutely hundreds, maybe thousands of different kinds of plants, gorgeous sculptures, interesting fountains, and even a working farm that we had never found before. It reminded us a lot of Drumlin Farm back in MA.

this part of the garden was still set up for a wedding - what a gorgeous place to walk down the aisle under a canopy of trees (picture doesn't do it justice):