Swimming Lessons

(Photo taken May 27, text written by Eric April 16, but he took all three kids again on June 3!)

What's it like to take three kids swimming all alone?

One of the greatest perks to being a student at OSU is the chance I have to take my kids to campus now and again for some swim time. They love it! You would have thought that doing exercise for 1 to 2 hours wouldn't seem too appealing to my children, but they love every second in the 80 degree chlorine-saturated waters. We are usually water-logged and blue in the lips by the time we leave but we still keep coming back for more.

Well, today I tried an experiment taking all three of our kids swimming and for the most part it went fine. I just had to hold Henrik above the water the whole time so he wouldn't get cold. I felt bad that I couldn't splash and tread water with Mierae or Jolie, but they had a good time nonetheless. The hardest part was getting them to actually move to the changing rooms. At this point Henrik starting screaming, Jolie was off in la-la land and Mierae was using that time to practice selective hearing. Maybe it was the water in her ears, but I think I repeated my request to get shoes on about ten times.

Why do I make myself work so hard for my kids to have fun? Well, because I have joy in my posterity and I get joy in being with them, not necessarily in what we are doing.