Swim Lessons

The Trips were generously given swim lessons for their birthdays and it was awful until the last two sessions. Awful in the crying-so-hard-they-vomit way. Well, only Lizzy and Johnny threw up. Gracie is way too cool for that. She just sobbed. And the thing about it was that they talked about "Mr. Mark" all_the_time. Every day.

"Mr. Mark is nice."

"Mr. Mark helps keep kids safe."

"Mr. Mark teaches us to swim and be safe."

And Mr. Mark is nice and fabulous and wonderful and if you live in our area, I'm not going to give you his number because the guy knows what he's doing and is difficult to book. And get this - we found out he donates his earnings to a local children's hospital and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He's a retired teacher and lives solely off his retirement income.

And, of course, some pics from Swim Lessons 2010:

Lizzy, all grins and charm before Mr. Mark shows up.

Lizzy's countenance as soon as she would see Mark appear. All kinds of serious.

Never got a pic of a Johnny freak-out swim lesson. This is obviously before or after his. The thing is that he is the best swimmer of the three...goofball.

Gracie would cry off and on, but generally never got 100% worked up.

My big girl. Between lessons with an old friend (who was amazing with her) and Mark, the kid turned into a little fish this summer.

The kids' fav time - Mr. Mark always had candy afterward. Johnny would be sobbing hysterically and then be Mark's best buddy as soon as the Twizzlers would break out.

Mark and the Backyard Swim Gang. We combined lessons with another family and now I miss our Saturday evenings together.