WInter blahs melting away

Well, it has been a while since I posted anything. We got back from Key West, and settled back into the winter stupor. Getting up in the dark, heading to school or work, then coming home in the dark. Wearing gloves any time I stepped outside. Sleeping in sweatshirts, even under a comforter and blanket. Ugh.
We tried to keep the memory of Key West alive by going to family swim night at least once a week at the Kalamazoo Valley Orthopedic Pool—a pool designed for people rehabbing from injuries and suffering from arthritis, so it is heated to at least 89 degrees. Let me say this is the only reason we have been swimming so much lately. Its awesome. The last time we tried to go swimming at a non-heated pool, the boys were shivering so bad we didn't even stay half an hour!
The pool also offers swim lessons, cheaper than the YMCA, so we signed the boys up. Since they are old enough to not have me in the pool with them for lessons, I am having the first glimpse of what it will be like to chauffeur kids to all their activities. We get up on Saturday morning, pack off to swim lessons, and I sit there with all the other parents and wait for a half an hour. Pretty soon this will turn into soccer practice, and T-ball, and climbing camp. I guess my job will be to find the balance between exposing them to lots of activities and having them (and me) be overscheduled.
Right now I am just happy to have them go outside and play. We are currently experiencing SUN, something not seen in these parts for a long time. It is also going to hit almost 60 today, practically a heat wave! Rachael went through the house this morning, saying, "It's too dark in here," as she pulled up the blinds on every window. I can't tell you how fabulous it is to able to be in the house and not have to turn on any lights. With the arrival of warmer weather comes the possibilities of spring—all the bike riding, gardening, grilling and playing we can cram into the slowly lengthening days. It's enough to wake up this hibernating mama bear.

Better late than never

I realized last night that I uploaded this to youtube, but never posted it. Will try to get the rest of our pics up this weekend!

Swiming videos

As requested by Grandpa Barry, here is some video evidence of the boys' new swimming ability. It is amazing how fast they have picked up this skill!

Guess who knows how to swim now?

You guessed it, in less than a week, the boys have progressed from swimming with swimmies to diving underwater and picking things up off the bottom with no assistance! Connor is still a little more comfortable with at least one swimmie in his hand, but Riley can swim about half the length of our pool underwater; I can't believe it! He loves when we drop him into the water and push him down to the bottom so he can retrieve these little torpedo things we have for the pool. About a week before we came here, Aaron and I took the boys to the pool at Western, the first time they had been swimming since the summer. They grabbed onto our necks and wouldn't let us go. What a difference a week in Key West makes!
Will try to capture some pictures of it tomorrow!

Connor, out cold after a long day, with Chloe and Ma Hua, who belongs to Jungle, the fishing boat captain. (I know I've massacred the spelling; forgive me Jungle!) We had Jungle and Grandma Candis' friends Claudio, Brenda and Heinz for dinner Friday night.

Fishing for real

While I guess I can't really complain about the weather here when it was -8 this morning in Kalamazoo, Key West is experiencing somewhat of a cold snap. Which wouldn't be so bad, except I didn't really pack for a Key West cold snap. I didn't even pack a sweatshirt, or, as I realized, a windbreaker, which would have been really useful. It has been about mid 60s here for the past few days, which isn't so bad in the house, but we went out on the fishing boat yesterday and I froze my butt off. I didn't think about how windy it would be, and boy was I sorry! We went out on a boat belonging to Grandma Candis' friends Dave and Beth, and their captain took us out for a few hours to take the boys fishing for real. They have been using their Spongebob Squarepants fishing poles to "fish" off the dock in back of the house, but without hooks or bait, they weren't really going to catch anything. So we went out on the boat, Jungle, the captain, set up a few poles, and within a few minutes, Riley had caught his first fish ever! It was a little pinfish, about 4 or 5 inches long, but he was so excited. Connor took a little longer, but eventually he came up with a few as well. The total was 6 for Riley, including one he reeled in all by himself when no one was looking, 4 for Connor, and one for Mommy (whoo hoo!). It was so fun to watch the boys actually catching stuff! It made the cold blustery trip and my frozen fingers totally worth it.
Jungle was nice enough to give us some hooks and a little squid for bait, so this morning we fished off the dock for real. I couldn't believe it, but the Spongebob pole is capable of actually reeling in a fish, because I caught another pinfish this morning. I guess I am catching up to the boys!
Later this morning the sun finally came back out and things started to warm up. Hopefully this means the cold snap is ending, both down here and up in Kalamazoo!

Connor and Riley are part fish!

So we arrived yesterday after a pleasantly uneventful flight, the biggest drama was the fact that I had forgotten to pack Riley's car seat, but that was quickly remedied by Grandma Candis, who picked one up and met us at the airport with it. We had no sooner gotten in the door of the house after a 3 hour drive from the airport than the boys asked if we could go swimming in the pool. It was dark and a little cool outside, but the heated pool made up for it. (Thanks Grandpa Barry, for insisting on that!) This morning we woke up to a beautiful day, and the first thing the boys wanted to do was fish. Then swim. Then we took a walk, then they were so hot from the walk that they stripped down and jumped in the pool as soon as we got home. (See above photo) Two hours later, I had to make the boys get out of the pool for lunch. Then naps, grocery store, and you guessed it, MORE pool time. They are crazy about it! They completely wore themselves out today, to the point where we were playing a neverending game of UNO and Connor said that we should put the game away, so they could go to bed. Those words just don't come out of a four-year-old's mouth!

Fun Fun. Wish you were here.