The week of July 23, the kids had their last week of swimming lessons. The weather was a bit iffy, so we ended up having a safety lesson in the gym next to the pool one day. Ryleigh volunteered for every demo.
Both kids made great progress this summer. I'm confident that next summer, Ryleigh will have the confidence to do the last couple of skills she needs to complete Level 2. And, I'm sure RJ will continue to improve, too. We just need to get to places with pools when the weather turns chilly.
The kids managed to talk me into Gator Pool on that Thursday. We hadn't been able to go to Gator all week because of the weather. I reluctantly said yes, even though we needed to go to gymnastics that afternoon. I'm so glad we went!
Not only did the kids have a good time, but I bumped into the Woodard Family. Miles and Jip were in Power School in Orlando from October 1997 to April 1998. Robin and I got to know each other when we were both visiting one weekend and the boys took us to a strawberry festival outside of Tampa. We ended up being stationed across Puget Sound from one another for 2001-2002 and then the Woodards were in Groton, CT while Jip was at MIT. Miles got out of the Navy shortly after that, but continued serving in the Reserves. We have stayed in touch through Christmas cards and Facebook. Miles came to Japan on a business trip while we were there and we got to take him to dinner. And, this time the kids and I just happened to catch them at Gator while Miles was in Norfolk for some Reserve time. I'm so glad I saw them and yelled at them after they came down the curly slide! It is truly a small Navy world.
Robin had to leave the day after we bumped into them to get kids back for start-of-school-year activities. Hopefully Miles' Reserve commitment will bring him again at another time when the family can join him. Until then, we will savor the pleasant visit we had when Miles came over for brunch the following Saturday. Hopefully Miles can squeeze us in again during a short Reserve commitment he has in the next few months.
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We celebrated RJ's birthday with a party with friends he seems to make everywhere we go. Not only did he have friends from school, but a friend from BrickHeadZ, a friend from Hip Hop, a friend from swimming lessons, and Ryleigh's best Kindergarten friend's older brother joined in the fun. We had the party at BrickHeadz, and I convinced the owner to let the kids have a Nerf battle as part of the party. They did some Lego stuff, ate quickly, and then shot each other for about 45 minutes. I think we sent every kid home exhausted. You are welcome, parents!
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The kids had their last week of camp the week of July 30. They loved being at BrickHeadZ all day, especially given that the week's theme was dinosaurs. We are so going to miss BrickHeadZ when they close their storefront in two weeks. We are going to do at least one more kids' night out and cross our fingers that we will be able to take advantage of the mobile BrickHeadZ concept they are working on. In the meantime, I'm gathering emails of some the college-aged staff to see if I can find ways for them to continue to inspire my kiddos.
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This week is another week of "Mom Camp." I hope to do a few things good for brains, maybe get crafty, maybe swim (if it would just stop raining!!), and just relax. Jip is in DC for a couple days for a meeting. We had to postpone a trip we had planned to Gettysburg, but hopefully we can do that some long weekend this fall.
As always, pics to come. Until next time, cheers!
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