Beach bash.

For Ryan's 12th annual pool party, he chose a beach theme, so out came the palm trees and coconuts!

I threw some rubber duckies in the pool before the party (they were left over from my ducky-themed bunco), never realizing they would be turned into grenades during the party! It was fun watching the kids chunk them back and forth across the pool.

Conspiring...

...and then attacking!

The adults found what shade they could to stay cool and (mostly) dry.

We commented that in the 12 straight years that we've been having these pool parties, our pool seems to have shrunk! These big kids take up more room than the little ones did back in the day!

It's become a tradition for us to serve Utz cheese balls, and this year, one partier discovered that they are delicious when dipped in the chocolate fountain (a.k.a., the chocolate volcano).

When it was time to cut the cake,

...we had a kitchen full of friends and family!

He's been 12 for three days, and I still can't believe it.

Several of the guys took a look around Brett's collection, and at one point, Brett got to show them his book. Pretty cool!

Present time!

Ryan was surprised to get a dock for his iPod. He was so tickled with all of his gifts! At one point, I think he had dollar signs for eyes.

So another crazy swimming party is in the books. Since our house is for sale, this may be our last one of these parties here, so we really tried to soak it all in. Have we really had 12 of these parties? That's a lot of cheese balls!

Just another Saturday at Chez Dub.

After so much traveling, it was nice to be back in our own house!

Ryan played Mario Kart,

Katie checked out the Disney Channel,

and Brett worked on his book.

Later that afternoon, we took a pool break.

And oh, yeah... Did I mention we now have a dog? No?

Meet Frisco!

In the swim.

The kids may have jumped in earlier this spring, but today was our first real "family swim."


Since Brett was swimming, too, the kids had a chance to swurf. Swurfing is a combination of swimming and surfing: Dad swims while the kids surf!

Step 1: Dad takes a deep breath while the kid grabs his shoulders.

Step 2: Kid plants his feet while Dad dives.

Step 3: Kid begins to stand upright—valiantly avoiding
cracking up—while Dad continues descent.

Step 4: And we're SWURFING!

So while Brett was turning himself into a human surfboard, I was busily fulfilling my primary pool duties:

Insert joke here about all that hot air...

Polar bears.

It's a record! April 8 is the earliest we've ever used our pool, which indicates that (a) we have a couple of real polar bears among us, and (b) these may be our last few months in this house so we want to get as much pool time in as we can.

Ryan and Katie were eager to take advantage of the warm temps, so Brett spent the last few weeks getting the pool ready for swimmers. The kids were kind enough to wait for me to get home from work, but once I did, it was time to dive in.

Well, Katie dove in, at least. Ryan took a little longer to take the plunge.

Katie jumped and jumped and jumped...

...while Ryan weighed his options.
Should he go in one step at a time? Should he just jump?

Katie offered to just push him in!

He opted to jump off the last step.

Brrr!

We adults and the kitties enjoyed the nice sunshine
but stayed far away from the chilly water!

Let the record show that Ryan and Katie swam outside on April 8, 2008, when the water temperature was a ridiculous 70 degrees!