RAC Pool

We joined the RAC (Rochester Athletic Club) in March. My main reason for joining was so I could spend the summer at the pool with the boys! We did just that! Jay's been great about working out 5-6 days per week. I use it mainly for recreation, though I did go to water aerobics a lot this summer. The RAC is worth every penny. They drain the outdoor pool tomorrow. Sad. I already can't wait for next summer!

Gliding Guppies

Jack took the second level of 3-5 year old swimming lessons in July (Gliding Guppies). He really improved a lot from his first session in the spring to the end of this session. Some highlights included fully immersing himself underwater. Jumping into the deep end and swimming back to the wall. Swimming about 5 feet alone! He was the only boy in his class but that made for his teacher really liking him!

Jack passed Gliding Guppies and is now ready for the final level of preschool swimming lessons, Might Minnows!

Lake 2011

When I was a child, our family went "to the lake" every summer with our family and Grandma and Grandpa Rickert. I have fond memories of the lake and wanted those types of memories for my boys with their Grandma and Grandpa Rickert! So, last year we decided to pick a place and go for it. We went somewhere WAY up north and had a good time. There were things about Arcadia Lodge that we didn't like. Namely, it was in the middle of nowhere, with no groceries or shopping. The other major problem was that the cabins were way up on a hill and it was quite a hike down to the lake. I was crabby and pregnant, so it didn't make for great accommodations!

This year I talked Mom and Dad into going back to Breezy Point in Osage, MN where we used to go years ago! We checked out their website and realized they had done major renovations and upgrades but the quaintness of the place still existed, so we booked! We chose a modest cabin and hoped for the best. It ended up that the owners double booked that one, so we got upgraded to a huge cabin for the same price of the original booking! It was so nice! So began our trip. We decided that we had gone to Breezy Point for 10 straight years and we hadn't been in 20 years. That made for a lot of years of change---for the better!

Jay and Jack had a great time fishing like they did last year. And boy was the fishing much better!

The rest of us had good luck fishing too! In fact, I had the largest fish (bass) of the family!

Swimming was a highlight too. Mom said the beach was much nicer than it was 20 years ago!

Lollipop---Jay and I took Jack to Cars 2 in Park Rapids one of the nights we were there. Next to the movie theater, there was a candy store. In the candy store window there was a huge lollipop. Jack wanted it and we obliged! Grandma about had a cow. It became the joke of the week. The poor Rickert girls never got lollipops because they were "too messy"!

Luke started crawling and pulling himself up on furniture while we were at the lake, though I don't have a picture of the crawling!