A Promise Is A Promise But I Think I Should Have Broken It

When we were packing up for Frisco last week, I packed the swimsuits in preparation for a possible trip to the Frisco community pool depending on how the weekend went. We had so little time and so many other fun things planned that we just never got to the pool. The boys were devastated, particularly Luke. So I made them a promise that we would get to the local community pool at Cottonwood park this week sometime.

I had completely forgotten about the promise until the boys reminded me today. I was hoping Adam would be able to join us, since it's a challenge to keep track of all the boys on my own in a busy pool area, but he couldn't make it. Zach and Ben are both great swimmers so I wasn't worried about them, but Josh is a beginner and Luke can't swim at all. So I gave the boys some guidelines about how the outing would go...on threat of major consequences if the rules were not followed...and this afternoon we packed up our suits and towels and headed off to the pool. We had about an hour and 45 minutes of swimming fun ahead!

It is an awesome pool! There is a pool that has a zero entry, meaning there are no stairs and it just gradually gets deeper which is great for little Luke, and it has a wave machine! You read that correctly! A WAVE machine! Then there is a "lazy river" section with a whirlpool and a long slippery, twisty waterslide. Boy heaven!

Luke stayed right by my side the entire time playing with this little bag of plastic diving fish that he had brought along. I am grateful for a toddler that is not keen on running amok, or this outing would not have been possible. Period. Tommy just hung out in his car seat. He was happy as long as his binky was in his mouth and his toys were rotated every so often. Zach spent most of his time on the slide and in the whirlpool.

We were all having a great time.

About thirty minutes in came the scary moment that kind of ruined my experience there today. A lifeguard had to jump in to pull Josh out! I had gone with Luke to check on Tommy for two seconds, but that's all it took for Josh and Ben to decide that they were going to go to the lazy river. It's not terribly deep, but deep enough, and Josh just didn't realize how deep it was. Neither did I for that matter! I had told him to stay in the wave pool...grrr...but I think Ben told him he'd help him. Cool that Ben wanted to help, not cool that they weigh the same and Ben just can't help! I dashed over when I saw where they had gone. Ben was doing his best to help Josh along, but it just was too deep. Josh is at the point in his swimming abilities where he can keep himself afloat, but just barely, and so he looks a bit like he is drowning even though he's actually swimming, not a comfortable stage of swimming for a parent.

The scene I saw when I arrived at the lazy river of Josh doing his beginner swimming plus Ben trying to push him up and going under himself, along with the current that was making everything worse panicked me and a lifeguard simultaneously. The lifeguard jumped in, grabbed Josh and Ben in one big hold and pulled them to the side. PHEW! I think they would have been OK, they were inches from the side themselves, having realized they had bit off more than they could chew, but it still sends jolts in my heart to think about it. I really do think they were ultimately going to make it. But I guess I have to believe that they would have made it just fine, even if the lifeguard and I hadn't gotten there and seen them, because just thinking about any other outcome makes my stomach lurch!

From that point on Josh was required to stay right by me and go no further than the 2 feet deep line in the wave pool. He also had to thank the lifeguard. Ben stuck close by too. I told him he could try the lazy river again next time we went to the pool, but I was still just too nervous to let him out of the wave pool. He's a good kid and wasn't too upset about that. Everything went smoothly for the rest of our visit. Josh was great, the other boys too. But I was just on edge the rest of the time. Eek!!! I was glad when we had to leave the pool to get Ben to soccer. Promise fulfilled. Children safe and blissfully happy. Mom still terrified.

In retrospect this outing was probably not the most brilliant of all my ideas. Maybe not a qualifier for the Bad Idea Hall of Fame, but close enough.

All in all, the kids had a blast. It really is an awesome pool. We will definitely go again. But not until Adam can go along and I've had some time to stop feeling freaked out!