Life in the day of Debby: Catching up...

Summer is over and it looks like Winter is creeping in a little bit at a time. It's well past time for me to catch up my blog.

I haven't written much lately, and I suppose that's pretty evident by the dates of previous posts. It's not so much that there hasn't been a lot to write about - I think it's more that I have no idea how to approach it all.

All of my kids and grandkids had opportunities this summer to visit at the beach. Ben and Ryann were with me the most since they needed a little supervision while mom and dad were at work, and frankly...I had that kind of time. We went through several sessions of swimming lessons and they have turned into strong swimmers. I'm really excited about that since they were both non-swimmers when we started our swim project last summer with one round of swim lessons. In fact ALL my grandkids had the opportunity to take swim lessons in Lincoln City and are all certified swimmers with the exception of Ceddy - but he'll certify next year I'm sure. We had one little...huh...incident at the pool during a free swim. All of the kids were there with me in the pool. Juliet is the youngest and very confident in the water (her other grandparents have a pool at home, so the girls have learned really well.) Ceddy saw Juliet and all the other kids jumping off the dive board and decided if they could do it (I mean, after all, Juliet is younger than he is!) then he certainly could do it.

Well. He couldn't do it. He jumped off the dive board with confidence and then just waited for the swimming to kick in. It did not. I was too far away to reach him quickly so I got the lifeguards attention and let him know that Ceddy was NOT a swimmer. He tried to get Ceddy to reach for the floatie which I guess is the first thing you do. He didn't get it, so the lifeguard had to jump in and save him.

I had a very detailed heart-to-heart with Ceddy after this all happened and we decided that he would never...ever...try that again...not until he has a swim teacher sign him off for it. He agreed that he almost died (he was very pragmatic about all this...) and vowed not to attempt it again. I should mention that Ceddy is seven years old, and very much lives in Ceddy-world most of the time. Ceddy-world is a place filled with super heroes and bad guys who can be dispatched with light sabers and sound effects. Ceddy rules Ceddy-world with an iron fist and a heart of gold.

Our beach summer was filled with sand, hikes, rock hunts, shopping, swimming, climbing wall challenges and Dairy Queen Blizzards. Someday soon I'll transcribe the notes my grands have left in my guest book. The guest book has turned into a diary of sorts, and the kids notes are priceless.

We also took family pictures this summer, which I'll post below.

William showing Ryann how to scale a wall...