Summer To Do: Swimming & Sparklers - Balancing Home

You know how there are places that seem to be the backdrop to your childhood? Places where so many memories were made. The soccer field and grandma and grandpa?s house are two of those places. My grandparents have twelve children. All, but two live within the same city and only one lives out of state. That isn?t a coincidence. That is how they were raised. FAMILY.

You can imagine when twelve children marry and have children and their children have children and we all stick around?it gets crazy. It also means that grandma and grandpa?s was THE place to be. I feel like I spent every day of summer in that pool. Swimming at grandma & grandpa?s (Quinn?s great grandma and grandpa) made the summer to do list- per Quinn?s request.

This is the pool I learned to swim in. This is the pool I learned to dive in. It is do or die when mom is holding a metal pole and telling you to clear it. That pool is just one part of a home. A home that has hosted countless gatherings, family holidays and memories and it is for sale. A little hard to see the heart and soul of a family up for sale, but it is time. The pool, the house?it is all too much for my grandparents to take care of. They need a break.

I am so glad we have this summer though. Chances for Quinn to create memories in that pool? (Eleanor wanted nothing to do with it).

Can you imagine my shock when he got in and he could touch the bottom? Man! They grow up fast. Quinn has requested swimming lessons and told us he was going to swim in the Olympics. You heard here first folks . Of course, it ended with shivers and purple lips and him claiming he wasn?t cold. I remember those days. Who really wants the fun to end?

And y?all know we did sparklers on the Fourth of July. Can check those off the list. Quinn loved them until the flame got to the end, then he would panic. I tried explaining to him that it wont go past a certain point and that was the handle. Kid just didn?t trust me.

We are chipping away at that summer to do list. Trying to squeeze as many memories as we can out of the magic of summer.

What are the backdrops to your childhood? Any other aspiring Olympians out there?

Source: http://www.balancinghome.com/2012/07/summer-to-do-swimming-sparklers.html

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