Swimming!

The kids just finished another year of swimming lessons and I am so impressed and proud of how well all my kids did. Clayton and Noah learned how to swim! It's taken Clayton a while to figure this out (swimming gives him a little bit of anxiety), but once he got it, he was off and swimming! Noah, on the other hand, was chomping at the bit to get in the water and swim (whether he knew how to or not), so he needed the instruction for sure! He is still a little reckless and needs practice but he's becoming quite the fish! Josie took swim lessons for the first time this year too! We did a mommy and me class together and she really took to the water. She is so comfortable in the water and I'm excited to see how well she does next year in swimming lessons all by herself!

I only took my camera with me one of the days. Since I was in the water with Josie, I didn't get any pictures of her swimming but trust me, she was just as cute in the water as she was out of it!
Waiting for her lesson to start.
Relaxing poolside after her lesson while we watch our boys swim.
Josie and her cute friend Jace. I love seeing these two together. They get so excited to see each other. When I was a little girl, my best friend was a boy named Mikey. I think that Jace is Josie's "Mikey".
I don't have too many pictures of the boys swimming. I did take video that I should post at some point, but I'm not sure how to do that (you'd think I'd learn, right?). So I need Justin to do that for me. However, I will say that I'm super proud of Clayton and Noah and I'm so excited that they finally know how to swim!
Clayton:

They all got a chance to jump off the diving board. I'm so proud of the boys for accepting this challenge. Hopefully next year, they'll be able to do it without the swim noodles!
He's so proud of himself! Rightfully so!
Noah:

I didn't get a picture of him jumping off the diving board, but I love his face in this picture. You can just tell that he loved it!

I'd told the boys that if they could learn to swim, we'd go to the store and buy them their own pair of goggles. This was just the incentive they needed. They worked so hard and definitely earned their goggles.
Clayton loves to pose like this for pictures now.
Noah's goggles look like lizard eyes. He was so excited about that that he didn't even care that they're pink (the rubber strap that goes around the back is hot pink).
I wasn't planning on getting any for Josie, but she saw these Dora ones and held on to them with her kung-fu death grip. I caved and let her have them and she is in love with them. She got very mad at me when it was time to put the goggles away and take them out only for swimming. I did manage to get this picture though. I love it!
I'm trying to take the kids swimming at least once a week (until I have the baby) so that they can practice. I'm hoping that next year they'll be good enough that they can start learning some different strokes. As for this year, I'm just glad that they have the basics. I'm glad that Noah has learned to (sort of) reign in his enthusiasm and that Clayton has learned that he doesn't have to be so afraid of the water. They both beg me daily to go swimming and I'm glad! I'm so proud of all three of my little fish!