A Small Break

I am taking a small break from frantically cleaning and cooking to sit down and take a deep breath.  Whew!  We are going camping this weekend, back up to Glendo Wyoming.  The word "camping" used to mean roughing it when my friends and cooking over fire.  Well with two kids and a boat in tow, camping has taken on a whole new light.  I have been cooking since I got up this morning to make three home cooked meals a day for my family for three days while taking into account that we will either be on the water or on dirt.  The prep work has been enormous.  Here's the GIANT tent (it's 10'x16') Joe picked up for us, since we have to fit us and the girls and Ty in there to sleep.

I did take one additional break today to take the girls to swimming lessons.  Tyler behaved exactly as you would expect a two year old on her very first ever swimming lesson with just the teacher and not me in there.  Shy at first and then when she figured out that it was just a game, she was fine.  Although she always has that DiFabio "I am smiling" look on her face when in a challenging situation.  And then there's Austin...sigh...I am not sure if I screwed up or if Joe did (I vote Joe because I am bias) but while we at the lake a few weekends ago I took Austin in the lake with me and was trying to show her that her life vest would hold her up and not to be scared so we could work on treading water.  So I held her at arms length by her life vest and was telling her to run in place (which in my defense she had just worked on THE DAY BEFORE in swimming class).  Well Austin panicked and lost her cotton picking mind, screaming and hyperventilating and what not.  I was trying to get her to calm down and see that I still was holding on to her and there was nothing to be scared of and Joe reached over the boat and drug her back in.  Now I am not sure if I scared her into therapy or if Joe gave her an easy way to quit, but guess who now acts like that at swimming lessons too.  It is completely humiliating to see a kid that everyone there knows who used to be able to swim from the teacher to the wall now stomp up and down and throw things at her Mom...all the while I try not to actually eat her face off.  Currently my jaw is actually sore from gritting my teeth today.  After the last failures I decided today that I would be the "nice Mom" and comfort her, but no she threw a fit until the teacher allowed her to just hang out in a floaty ring and watch her sister with the teacher.  Sigh  Sometime I wish that it wasn't a big deal to me that she learned how to swim because after today's behavior she doesn't deserve to go back, but I can't just yank her out and say well then fine. Did I mention that swimming lessons are over a dollar a minute, so it cost me $70 for both of them today only to now have a headache. :-(

Here's the only super cute picture today from lessons, especially since Tyler has her "DiFabio Smile" on.