Top Ten: Memories in the Water

This weekend we bought a pool. It's an 18' around, 4' deep, metal frame pool; the kind you can buy at Sam's Club or possibly even Wal-Mart. It was on sale for almost half price, and we got the last one on the shelf. My husband brought in a load of sand, my sister and I used it to level the section of the backyard we planned on setting it up at, and the three of us on Sunday set it up and started it filling. It was full by the next morning. So yesterday we went swimming, and I began to remember other fond memories of times spent in the water. These are my top ten :)

1. Number One on this list will always be the time I went to the beach in South Carolina with my husband. We were in our first year of marriage, and one day he just says "lets go for a drive." He took me to the beach, and while the sun was setting we walked along the shore, holding hands, and just admiring nature. It was amazing. We saw jellyfish, horseshoe crabs, tiny little crabs burrowing into the sand, and the water was so peaceful, the way the waves met the sand.

2. Going to the Guadalupe River. It's a morning full of playing Tetris to get everything to fit in the trunk of the car, then a four hour drive, then half an hour of trying to figure out how we fit everything in the car, pulling it all back out and setting up camp. Then it's nothing but floating on the crystal clear water, watching little fish swim by (occasionally feeling little fish nip at your toes), and sitting back relaxing. This year we took my sister and both our boys, and had some quality family time. The water was perfect.

3. When I was in middle school, I was hanging out with my cousin a lot. As a matter of fact, we were two parts of a trio of best friends, the third being her next door neighbor and a fellow classmate of mine. We used to spend hours in my cousins pool, and we played all sorts of games. We would see who could sit on the bottom the longest, we would see who could do handstands the longest, and who could walk across the bottom of the pool the farthest while doing a handstand. My favorite was the imaginary games. We would imagine we were mermaids, and we would swim with our ankles crossed to simulate fins. It was a lot of fun. :)

4. A few years back, my husband and I went to Florida to visit my family and we ended up going to the beach with two of my friends and two of my little sisters (on my dad's side). We took turns burying each other, we made a mermaid in the sand, and we walked out into the waves. By the time we left the beach, everyone was passed out in the back seat and half of us were sunburned--but we all had a good time.

5. I used to visit my grandma in Maryland every few years, and spend a couple of weeks out there during the summers. Her pool was always the first thing on my to-do list. I remember she would get out the video camera, and I would be in the pool in a giant black inner tube, and I would pop out the top of it, see the camera, and duck back in to hide. And she had one of those automatic vacuums, that would kind of walk itself around the bottom of the pool. I used to pretend the hose was a giant snake, and try to swim through it without touching it. Ah, the good old days... and how far an imagination could get you!

6. When my grandma moved, her pool was upgraded. She went from having an above-ground to an in-ground pool, and her new pool had a diving board. I remember SO many fun times in that pool... Some of the times were spent with family, drinking virgin margaritas, listening to the radio, and playing volleyball with the beach ball. Some of the times were spent learning how to to a backflip off the diving board. There was one time in particular that always makes me laugh... the time our second cousin flipped my brother off his pool float. My brother was so upset about it... but it was more funny than serious.

7. The apartments my mom used to live at had a swimming pool, and I remember so many times going swimming with the family. I used to play with my sisters in the shallow end, watching them learn to swim, and I used to give them piggy back rides through the deep end. I would let my sisters ride on my back above the water, and I would swim underwater from one ladder to the other. I got tired really fast, and it always made me extra cautious, since I wanted to make sure my sisters stayed safe, but sore legs later on was a good trade for happy sisters.

8. One of my favorite memories in the water was the first time I took my son swimming. We had gotten a cheap little pool, just big enough for us adults to sit in, but it must have seemed very big to my son (who until then had only been in the bathtub). He was scared at first, but then he realized it was just water... and he had a blast! He was splashing, kicking, laughing... I was so happy to see him love the water as much as I do. ♥

9. When we got our pool all set up and ready to go, and began swimming in it, there is a feeling of pride... of owning your own swimming pool and having set it up yourself. I was also thrilled that I was handy enough with a screwdriver and an instruction booklet to get the pump on myself and it runs perfectly. Swimming in my own pool... that is a memory I am proud of :)

10. This one isn't really a single memory, and it's not one shared with other people. But it is most certainly a fond memory of time spent in water... when you have two kids that seem to always need mommy for SOMETHING, there is precious little alone time, especially peaceful alone time. But when my husband distracts them or manages to get them to sleep before their usual bedtime, I get an hour to myself. An hour to lounge in a hot bubble bath, with a large cup of iced tea, my ipod playing quietly on the counter, a small snack and a good book. Just to lay back, relax, read, and enjoy being alone. Ah, good times.