Meanwhile, back at home . . .

The hikers left for their week of adventure climbing Mt. Whitney and we hit the pool . . . literally, all day every day. No joke. Me and the kids shared mom and dad's house with just Krista. We would wake up in the morning, eat breakfast while watching the Olympics and then go directly outside and jump in the water. The kids would come out for lunch and then go right back in until dinner, baths and bed time. I treated it like our very own California getaway resort. 

The Allred Resort and Spa.

Jessica was at the Skinner's house watching Laura and Brian's kids. They would all roll in about 10 or 11am to join us for our day of swimming and lounging. The kids had a great time playing together and Jessica, Krista and I just hung out (along with running kids to the bathroom, sunscreening bodies, changing in and out of swim suits, making lunch, cleaning up, breaking up fights, putting naughty ones in time out, etc.)

Lunch served pool side.

Zachy "swimming"!

Blake and Brie lounging at the pool.

Alicia and the hooligans.

Ava and Lila, best buddies.

Ava transporting Zachy around the pool in her rickshaw.

Kate got over her aversion to water and loved it.

This girl really did learn to swim those two weeks in the pool. She is all over the deep end now. So happy! I keep paying for swimming lessons, but all it took was days in the pool to really learn.

We even had a night swimming party and let the kids stay up way too late swimming in the dark with the disco ball light mom left for them. 

Night swimmers.

Along with all the swimming, Auntie Jessica ran a regular kid's summer camp for all the cousins. She tie dyed shirts with them that turned out AWESOME.

We took them to Dewar's Ice Cream shop to eat ice cream BEFORE dinner!

We let them tattoo their entire bodies.

We let them eat Burger King kids meals for dinner. Which (don't tell Dad) then came up a little in the pool when swimming right after. Lila puked a little chocolate milk shake and Zachy puked his chicken nuggets. Now we know why we should wait 30 minutes to swim after eating, don't we kids?

We let them wrestle baby Kate. Obviously, she won.

And watch all the Olympics they wanted.

The outing that won us the most praise though was a little trip to John's Incredible Pizza. It was a fun day of playing games, riding rides and eating all you can eat pizza.

Kea and Davin hit the jack pot big time!

Turns out Jessica and I put on a pretty good time! It all came to a crashing end when we ended the week with kids with 104 degree temps., deep coughing, sore throats, ear infections, and green hair. Scott was back, so we packed up and headed home. 

My kids have asked me every single day since if we can please go back to Grandma and Grandpa's pool!