Family Swim Day

These pictures have been sitting here for two weeks and I'm finally getting around to posting them. Sterling had a Saturday off two weeks ago (in surgery he has to work one weekend day, so we always pick Saturday so that he can go to church on Sunday and that has mostly worked out) and I realized it was pretty much the last full day that he would be able to spend with us before we left for Utah. So we made the most of it! 

We started out the morning at Home Depot making their windmill flower pots. The kids had a fabulous time. Then we made sandwiches and headed to the pool. I loved having Sterling there! And the kids LOVED showing off all their sweet skills to him. They are learning so much at swimming lessons. And, of course, it was nice to have someone else's strong arms to throw kids in the air repetitively. (I tried to get everyone to go to the beach and they all vetoed me and voted the pool. How disappointing that we live in Florida and my family chooses a pool!!!! To the kids credit--they can't swim underwater and strokes in the waves of the ocean.)

Molly the fish.

Diving rings are also really good teething rings.

Will is the funniest lately with his little toys that he is always dragging around. We got to the pool and he had one sheep, one horse, and one dog stuffed into his pockets. He floated them around on his boat all afternoon.

Ruth and Molly had a lot of fun holding their breath and sitting at the bottom of the pool with daddy.

Pool chairs are also really great boat ramps.

The pruniest little feet there ever were!!

I can't remember what we did the rest of the night--but I remember being happy it was so low-key. Oh I think Sterling and I watched the Saratov Approach, which somehow we had never seen before. After bathing and feeding the kids and Sterling giving them an extra long story time. We hadn't watched an entire movie together in a really long time, and as nail-biting as that movie was, it was still really nice. Oh surgery, how I loathe thee, and I cannot wait for the end. 

Sterling has been leaving at 430am and getting home around 8pm. That's not incredibly late--but its after I've got all the kids in bed and usually done all the dishes, so it feels very solo around here. We have been having major van issues---oh van, how I loathe thee, I love thee, but I loathe thee--and it's been pretty awful. I've been crawling out of bed at 429am and getting myself and four kids illegally into Sterling's little nissan sentra to drop Sterling off so that I can have the car to do things like take Will to school and take them to swimming lessons. It makes for pretty ornery kids (even when I convince them to go back to sleep at 6am when we get home) and a pretty ornery mom. We bought a more expensive van with lower miles with the intent and hope that it would last us not only through med school but through residency. We've had it one year. It has 65000 miles on it. It makes me sick. We've put way too much money into it, and they still don't know whats wrong with it. And I'm starting to get nervous because I am supposed to be driving it to Utah in four weeks. Some things in life are just rough and this has been one of them. And added to the already tough stress of Sterling being in surgery, it hasn't been fun. Sterling actually enjoys surgery--but he doesn't like the environment. He says surgeons have the worst mouths and nastiest attitudes of anyone he's ever worked with in medicine. And he spent several weeks at different locations and he just started his last four weeks at the VA hospital and he said its even worse. So fun for him. Also the test at the end is supposed to be pretty awesome. So he's stressed, and not enjoying his days as much, and I am dealing with not having a van, and it just isn't fun. 

On the upside, it's not raining today (yay for sunshine! The tropical summer storms have started and I would gladly leave until October because I do not like them at all.), and the kids have been having adorable end-of-year activities. I have all of our dental and well-child checkups planned so we will be good to head out for Utah, and we have UTAH to look forward to! ALL SUMMER LONG! (It is a bit of a downer, because Sterling will be here in Florida and I will miss him, but he's going to be so busy--I wouldn't have seen him much anyway.)Another upside-Sterling put new training wheels on Molly's bike and she is THRILLED (her old training wheels were falling apart and it made her ride very precarious). I *think* we're getting over the fever/colds that Will and Russ have had the last few days. And that is good!