Our Last Swimming Hoorah.

It was another splendid weekend! We met up with Dallas's family in Dubuque Saturday afternoon for swimming fun, pizza, good hotel times, and more swimming. It was a blast! I finally remembered my camera. Here's some photos, in no order. You would surely think I could arrange these like I wanted, huh. I am apparently not nearly as technically savvy as I would like to be. Anyway, here goes...

Maleah and Wesley. By Sunday morning, these two had the slides mastered. They could have gone up and done and up and done for hours. Oh wait, they did. It was so sweet. They would wait for each other at the bottom, get so excited when the other came shooting down, and run up to the top again. Continue this cycle over and over. It was great.

Grandpa has a bum shoulder he had surgery on, so he hasn't been able to hold the kids for months. I think he was more than happy to be the Charlie keeper this weekend.

Then there's this wonderful man. We had a rough overnight. Layla gets sick quite often during the night. We were hoping we would get through the night with no throw up, but no such luck. Hotel rooms are a challenge with three small children the way it is, but add some nasty vomit (I won't even begin to tell you what she had eaten...), and things get even more trying.
He was in the bathroom cleaning blankets and jammies. He even laid down in the bed that was still wet from throw up. Yes, nasty.
But here's what I love most about him: after cleaning up, getting everyone settled again, and retreating to our third sleeping position of the night (in separate beds, boooo), he said from across the room, "Marissa." "Yes?" "I love you." I just smiled. This time of our life is not easy. And we are not perfect. But we are perfect for each other. Even when we were dead tired and dealing with the ickiest of ickies.

Maleah has gotten to be very brave. My little rule follower was even breaking the rules! She told me she went down upside down. Her guilty conscious always gets the best of her. She had loads of fun on this slide, and it was so great to watch her gain confidence with every time down.

I love this picture of Layla's face! Layla is definitely the most spirited child of ours, but she's not always the crazy lady she's cracked up tot be. She loved the slides, but was equally as happy to sit and watch the world go by. She goes crazy at the idea of going to the "mimming cool" and putting her suit on. Then we get there and she's totally chill.

Thee slides.

Charlie got a little swimming action himself. He could have cared less what he was doing. He hardly made a peep and just went with the flow. It makes chasing his two big sisters much easier when he happily obliges to doing whatever.

The clan. The two oldest are only 4 years old. The littlest lady, Elena, isn't in the picture.

Pretty sure Maleah could do this every single weekend. Also pretty sure she thinks this is what we do every single weekend. She is a little fish. There is no doubt this girl absolutely loves swimming. Now we're all practiced up for summer.
Oh, doesn't summer and sunshine sound so nice!!