4 Stories: Swimming

So Leigh-Ann at Freckled Nest had an awesome idea to do a group blog thing. Every weekend she's going to pick a topic and we can write 4 stories about it. I am all up for that. I may however pick my own topics if I cant think of anything to write for her topics. She explains more about it here.

This week's topic is "Swimming".
 

Story 1: Pinecrest Lake

Back when I was small, around 5 or 6, we used to visit my grandparents who lived in Pinecrest. This is not terribly far from whistler. Whether it was summer or winter, I would want to visit the lake, to feed the ducks or to swim. 

I remember liking the water, I was not keen on going deeper than my knees or waist. Nope, not going to do that. I didn't know how to swim, so I was not going any deeper at all. My dad would play in the lake with us, and I remember him trying to take us out deeper, probably to teach us to swim. Every time he took me too deep, I would totally freak out. Maybe I should have trusted him more and I would have learned to swim earlier than age 10 ish.:(

Anyways, part of this story that my mom told us later in life was that the lake we went to had leeches. EWWWW! She might find a few on my sister and I and would pick them off when we weren't looking.

Story 2: Aunty Dar's Pool

Every summer the one thing I looked forward to almost as much as camp, was going to Aunty Dar's house. It was hot in Kamloops, and so therefore we would almost live in her pool. It didn't matter if we wore sunscreen, we would always be sunburned because we were in the water that long. In the earlier years (before I turned 10) we didn't know how to swim really, so we would hang in the shallow end of the pool. We came up with synchronized swimming routines that we would show off to the adults. I remember practicing with aria a lot, and it was lots of fun at the time. There were also incredible floaty toys to play with. We played whales and dolphins and used goggles to look under water.

Eventually when I did learn to swim, we would make use of the crazy deep part of the pool and jump off her diving board. The picture above was of Matthew, Chris (cousins), Me and Aria (in that order). 


Story 3: Birthday party


I learned to swim kinda at a friends birthday party. Her name was Cassie. She was the "new" girl in our grade 5 class. She invited all the girls in the class to her birthday party. Everyone got in the pool, and all the girls but me knew how to swim. They all got in and started for the deep end. I hung back all quiet and shy and it sucked. I was bored out of my mind. It was that day I worked up the courage to hang on to the pool wall and scootch myself over to the deep end. I was not going to be left out, and I thought that as long as I held onto the wall it would be ok. Turns out her pool wasn't too deep and I was with my friends and then realized I could go under water beside the pool wall and push myself back to the surface easily. I didn't tell my friends this, but I was so excited to not be afraid of doing this in the deep end that I eventually made it into the middle of the deep end of the pool. From then on, I was even more excited to go swimming. I am not that great of a swimmer, never took lessons, but the fear is gone. 

Story 4: Pool at the Trailer

My Grandparents owned a trailer at a summer trailer park near cultus lake. It had a shared pool. It was great to go and hang out, play in the over clorinated pool with my cousins. Cannon balls, diving for things at the bottom, hang upsidedown. It was great. Soo one thing I will never forget is my dad hoisting me up on his shoulders, and starting at the shallow end, he would walk across the pool until he was completely submerged and all you could see was me sitting just above the water. He held his breath for so long, and it was so much fun. Everyone at the pool would watch. He would also throw us in the air. The best thing was crouching on his knees and he would launch us backwards or forwards into the air. Fun times!