july the fourth

our sisters' weekend concluded with the husbands coming to meet us at my aunt and uncle's house for a fourth of july pool party. the weather was a little overcast, which i thought was perfect. we had a bbq and spent the rest of the time in or around the pool. mostly in.

my brother, ray

my dad is going to be doing some scuba diving soon, so he brought his gear to test out and randy decided to do a little scuba diving himself. he had a blast and swam around in the deep end for a long time. 

i have to admit that it made me a little nervous at first, seeing as he has never scuba dived before, but my family assured me he was doing just fine and he was moving around enough that i was finally put at ease.

 

audrey and matthew

austin jumping off the diving board

madeleine was such a fish the whole time we were there. she always likes the water, but usually gets out after an hour or so. this time though, she spent almost three hours in the pool, happy as a clam. she especially loved having my uncle, austin, throw her. 

diane spent plenty of time in the pool herself, but not as much as madeleine, which i'm okay with because she requires constant vigilance in the water. we called her greased lightening.

diane and diane

ray did some scuba diving himself. 

matthew

dad and elizabeth

 

about an hour before we left, madeleine discovered the diving board. the first couple times, my dad dropped her off, but after that, she did it all by herself. over and over. she would get on, run off the end without even hesitating, swim to the side, climb out, and go directly back to the diving board. no fear. 

if you scroll through these next ones fast enough, it's kind of like a stop motion film of her jumping in.

my brave little fish.

 

of course, diane decided she wanted to do it, too. even though she wanted to do it all by herself and kept trying to shove me away on the diving board, i dropped her in. she even did it a couple times.

stop motion #2:

we had a great time and after a long weekend by myself, i was very happy to be driving home with my family.