Freckles

Oh my, there are a lot of freckles on that face!

And right now, that freckly face is my face. Tokens of a summer's love.

I want you to know, I earned those little brown beauties, doing something that I absolutely love:

Teaching children how to swim.

Each summer since moving to Colorado, I've taught evening swim lessons--when Andrew gets home from work and can man our kids.

This year lessons lasted for six weeks, beginning June 27th until August 5th. That's when I taught exactly 39 kids and babies (and 6 of their parents) how to swim, ranging from beginning toddlers and preschoolers getting comfortable with putting their faces in the water, to advanced swim teamers trying to improve their technique. It was fun.

A Few Side Notes:

*If you would like to know more about swim lessons, please click on the link below.

*If you're interested in telling others about swim lessons, feel free grab this button for your

own blog!

It's easy...just copy the code on my sidebar where it says "Grab My Swim Blog Button" and paste it into an HTML/Java script in your blog design.

This year, my two kids were among that large bunch of swimmers!

Taylor swam with me during my first session in June, for his first-ever formal swim class. He was in Beginning swim lessons with three other 3 year-olds: Brynley and Samantha, who live in our neighborhood and attend our ward, and Cole, a boy from Roxborough whom we met this summer.

Taylor was a bit hesitant when asked to try some new water skills, but overall he really enjoyed the experience. Once his lessons were over, he seriously begged me for more swim lessons and wanted to sing the songs and play the games we had learned during class all the time--whether we were at the pool or not. Gotta love it.

So it's a given, since I completely agree with him that swimming totally rocks--I made sure to take him back to the pool on a regular basis. :)

During the second week in July, Russell and Andrew joined me on sunny evenings for my Parent/Toddler Aquatics class.

I think there were only two nights like that.

Holy cow! In the Denver area, almost every day in July had afternoon/evening rainstorms that could rival Seattle's rainfall. I'm telling you, it was really, really RAINY and chilly that month. I figured that baby Russell wouldn't particularly enjoy being in that environment, so I left him at home most of the time (while I froze my shanannigans off).

http://www.littletongov.org/weather/history.asp

See what I mean?! The rainy nights were rough.

But on the sunnier evenings...

...we played with toys,

we blew bubbles, we kicked, we splashed, sang songs and played games...

...it was tons of fun.

On one of the sunnier Parent/Toddler days, our good friends the Steadmans joined us in the pool. Glad they came.

The lovely Alison Steadman is not just a great friend, she's also my inspiration! That woman is a Super Mom, creative crafter, teacher extraordinaire, professional blogger, and gifted photographer. Almost all of the pictures on this post are her photography.

If you would like to see more of Alison's creative genius, click on the link below to view her crafting blog, "Oopsey Daisy" (but beware...you might get hooked!):

As much as I love teaching swimming, after six weeks of being in the pool for two hours every night--often in the rain, I think it'll be nice to have a break for a while.

Yes, this summer was full of work, and even more full of fun. And I am proud to show off the evidence: my abundant, hard-earned freckles. :)