So this week Friday was the last day of swimming lessons for the kids. They have gotten much more comfortable in the water, but they are still a bit unsure of it. However Dimple Dell has this really fun looking park in the zero-entry kiddie pool area so I thought it would be both fun and a good experience to go swimming there. Their open plunge, or splash & swim, starts at 3:00 in the afternoon and is $5.50 for an adult, $4.00 for each of my older kids, and $2.00 for my baby. That's $15.50 for all of us. That is more than my budget and I don't think we'd get that much out of our swimming time anyhow.
But then I discovered their "tot time" Monday through Friday from 11 am to 12 pm. It's for ages 5 and under and is only $2.50 for an adult and $1.50 per kid. That made it only $7.00 for us. True Spencer is 6, but I figured he was close enough. So Tessa's lesson ended at 10:30 and then I dried her off and changed her into a dry swimsuit so she wouldn't get too cold. We then got the rest of us changed and hung around until 11. I'm a bit paranoid and made Tessa and Clara wear life jackets. Clara hated not being able to move so when I was just sitting around I took it off and she had a blast splashing and kicking. But I put it back on when I would go moving around. I made Tessa leave hers on cuz she's so little. It had its good and bad. Good was when the lazy river right next to the kids playground started pulling her away from the playground so her feet weren't touching. Bad was that as soon as her feet couldn't touch it would tip her horizontal and she would roll to her stomach with her face in the water and she couldn't lift it out with the bulky jacket.
During tot time they don't run the large waterslide that Spencer was so excited to try (although I'm sure he would have chickened out anyhow). They also turned off the water spraying parts of the playground, which also disappointed Spencer. But it was great for the little ones. The bigger kids both had fun on the slide and Spencer had a blast all over the water where he could walk by himself. It was the most fun in water I've seen Spencer have. The kids also liked the lazy river as I would hold Clara laying down in her life jacket with her head resting on the back part, hold Tessa on my hip, and have Spencer hang around my neck as he still couldn't touch the bottom. They loved having me pull them around over and over. I tried to go against the river for a little exercise but it rushed water onto the part Clara was laying on so I just went the "lazy" way. Then at 11:45 Spencer scooted over to his final swimming lesson while the girls and I showered, dried off, and changed our clothes.
It was fun to go swimming together and it wasn't very crowded. Forty-five minutes was plenty long for the girls, although Spencer would have loved to stay longer and do more. It was also a fun way to end swimming lessons. I'm not going to enroll them again at Dimple Dell as it's too much of a hassle to go for one and then go back a little later for the next. I'll put them in another session in summer in an outdoor pool where they can both have class at the same time. Maybe next winter while Spencer's in school I'll take the girls to Dimple Dell for tot time again. I didn't take pictures while we were swimming as I only have two arms, but here are some pictures I took during their lessons.
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