Suitless at the Pool

While this could be a romantic little story about a weekend get-a-way with my husband, I am genuinely sorry to say -- it is not.

It is still Spring Break and I am continuing to try to fill up our days, so I decide a trip to the Sioux Center Aquatic Center would be just the thing. Cal needed to head to Iowa anyway to help lay tile in his brother-in-laws kitchen – so I thought the kids and I would just leave Sioux Falls a little later in the day and we could kill some time at the pool.

I knew that getting out of the house to head to Sioux Center would be no small task. It happens to be the Saturday before Easter and I still don’t have shoes for Paige’s Easter dress, or one chocolate bunny for the Easter baskets. So a little last minute shopping must occur. I also need to pack overnight bags for the 3 kids and myself and pack the swim bag. So I set up my mental clock of how much time I need to devote to every task in order to leave the house by 1:00. (This doesn’t sound like it should be too hard, but I’m still in my PJ’s at 10:00am – so I’m off to a late start.)

Paige, bless her soul, is my life-saver. I put quite a bit of responsibility on my 11-year-old and I give her a list of everything that needs to be packed and send her to task while I go buy the Easter basket goodies at Wal-Mart (perhaps my most hated destination on a Saturday morning – especially venturing into the “holiday” aisle the day before the holiday). I grab three of the last 6 chocolate bunnies on the shelf and try to free myself from the Wal-Mart madness.

When I return, Paige has EVERYTHING packed and sitting by the front door. What a girl!

We arrive at the pool right on schedule. While the morning has been hectic, I’m thinking I’ve got it together. We go into the family locker room and start pulling out towels and suits and I hear a gut-wrenching “Nooooooo”.

I turn around “What? What’s wrong?” Paige, with tears in her eyes “I forgot my suit! I was so busy packing for THEM, I forgot my suit.”

I must say – I was remarkably cool and sympathetic. While my first instinct was to say “Honestly! How do you possibly forget your swimsuit when the whole plan for the day is to go swimming?”, the thought didn’t turn into words – which is quite an accomplishment for me. Usually whatever I think comes out my mouth.

Rather, I say to my 5’5” 11-year-old daughter – “It’s O.K. You can wear my suit.” She looks at me like I’m a little nuts, but I say – “No really, just go try it on.” (For the first time in my life I’m a little happy that I am quite flat-chested. It is a little embarrassing to admit that my curves don’t much challenge those of a pre-teen figure.)

She puts it on, and with a strategically placed pony-tail holder around the neck strap – we are back in business. She decides to brave the pool in her mother’s suit – baggy bottoms and all.

Carter and Paige take off together – jumping off the board and going down the slides and remarkably the swim suit stays put! It is fun to see the two of them acting as friends.

Taryn is perfectly content to stay in the shallow pool and practice her newly discovered talent of doing back floats and tummy floats. She has a running dialogue going between herself and her imaginary swimming students.

I sit on the side and do nothing, for the first time in … I don’t remember the last time I did nothing. And I didn’t have to get wet!

Not a bad day after all!