Swimming Lessons

The youth at church did a fundraiser in April. We were out of town with the Karners at the time. Gary Oddou called Derrick Karner from the auction to ask whether Mel and Derrick wanted to buy ten swimming lessons that were being auctioned by Tracy Zundel. Mel and Derrick were interested, but Jim swooped in and bought them (through Gary). I am so glad we did.

Right about when we were starting the lessons, JoAnn's daughter stumbled upon a Frozen swimsuit, which she was excited to bequeath to Ever. Ever had been begging for a Frozen swimsuit since seeing Betsy in one some time ago, so it made all her dreams come true:

On day 1 of the swimming lessons, Ever didn't want to get out of the car. Then she didn't want to get in the water, and she certainly didn't want to put her head under water. Tracy is amazing, though. She's been teaching for 18 years, and she does a great job. The biggest challenge is her three kids under the age of four. They are wild (especially the youngest boy), and they are the most tactile kids I've ever seen. They are ALL over Wren and me as we hang out by the pool. Either that or they are in the pool climbing all over Tracy while she's trying to teach. Despite that obstacle, Ever was swimming short distances (like across the hot tub) by lesson 3. After several lessons, her progress stalled, and she started treading water and doggy paddling more than swimming with her head down. Tracy thinks she picked that up from Ella Rondo, whom we brought to one of her lessons. At this point, she needs to spend more fun time in the water to build her confidence, but she's pretty water-safe now - at least in the Zundels' pool. (We took her to Nanny and Papa's the weekend before last and she was kind of panicky in their pool and didn't swim much.) She even got adventurous and wanted to jump off the little bridge that goes over the Zundels' pool. I was so proud. 

Here is a compilation of the videos I took. All the first footage is from lesson 3. It features Luc Oddou, who took lessons earlier in the summer and came to swim for fun during a couple of Ever's lessons.