The things we do for family

The Virginia cousins are in for their traditional summer visit with their grandparents(my aunt and uncle). As is always the case, my children and my other cousin's children are summoned to the house to partake in yummy foods and various activities of fun with family. The traditional board game playing and water balloon fights took place yesterday, resulting in exhausted children and earlier bedtimes which made for happy parents. Today was swimming over at the neighbors' pool. Because I am a pretty strong swimmer, go ahead and laugh at that as you picture me in your head, but I am, I usually get in there with the kids. The other dads were working and my cousin's wife was taking care of the youngers and the new baby. My uncle is, by his own admission, not a great swimmer...so it was me. It took me a while to get in there. The water was only slightly warmer the slushy stuff in those bags they put on your ankle when you sprain it. The youngers thought it was fun to splash me, which only put their name on my list for later. Various games were playing involving the diving board and one jumping off and trying to catch others swimming across the pool. My 6 year old cousin B asked me to be the next person to be on the diving board and chase people. THe older kids laughed, thinking there was no way I could ever catch them. Oh you sweet, innocent young people. I caught two people without any problem. As I emerged from the pool, mouths were wide open with a little bit of new found respect. In a way, I felt like I in a drop the mic and walk off situation saying, "Cousin Jenny-out", with the mic being a pool noodle, but I didn't. I got back on the diving board to the cousins chanting "CannonBALL! cannonBALL!". I was not quite ready to pull that kind of excitement out of my bag of tricks, so I dove in and swam to the other end of the pool. Again their underestimations were unfortunate for them. Lastly, cousin B started the "CannonBALL! CannonBALL!" chanting again. How could I not? The kids were all pleased with the finishing splash and then we prepared to leave. Just as I said in an earlier post, I don't get in my swimsuit in front of just anybody. You do a lot for family that you might not do for others. Just don't ever doubt swimming ability due to size...or I'll have to drop the pool noodle on you too.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad