I Suck At Swimming

Today, Karen, my two year old daughter (Briana), my three month old daughter (Bridget), and I made the trek to the great white north known as Lowell. After all, there is a lot to like about Lowell (or so the Lowellians will have you believe). The plan for the day was to visit Karen's cousin (Karlene) and her husband (Tommy).

Since learning about the trip yesterday, Briana has been quite ecstatic. Every other word from Briana has been the word "swimming". Briana does not even know how to swim. The extent of her swimming is my holding her in the water and walking back and forth across the pool. So I guess you can say that I suck at swimming. Luckily for me, Karlene and Tommy happen to be great swimmers who own a pool which is quite handy after a few straight days of god awful heat. Needless to say, Briana was all about swimming in the pool today despite a particular mishap.

The mishap was reminiscent of my favorite sister-in-law's (Janine) visit to Karlene and Tommy's some time ago. Janine does not visit them too often, so it was definitely a long while ago.

During that time, my nephew (PJ) was pretty young and Janine had taken him into the pool. He wasn't a big fan of pools, probably because his father (PJ) is also not a big fan of swimming. To be honest, I don't even know if I could describe what happened. It all seemed like slow motion when PJ went under the water after being accidentally dropped by Janine. I think the oddest part was when after fishing PJ out of the water, everyone tried to pass off the incident as being intentional by clapping their hands and saying what a great job PJ did in going under the water. (To this day, I think PJ is still not a fan of swimming.)

It's only natural then, that Karen almost duplicate the task of her sister years later. Again, I'm not sure if I can describe it. I had Bridget in the pool. Karen was watching Briana in the pool, and by "watching" I mean she was standing next to her while being preoccupied with an insect in a bucket. Tommy was fiddling around with some swim goggles. I'm not sure what Karlene was doing. And then it happened. Briana went under the water. So much for watching Briana. In Karen's defense, she didn't drop Briana outright.

Interestingly enough, these incidents always seem to be in slow motion. Briana was actually pretty good though. She came out of the water just fine. In fact, she seemed unfazed by going under. Heck, she still loves swimming. If it were up to Briana, she would have stayed in the pool even when it rained and hailed in the late afternoon.

It was definitely an interesting visit to Karlene and Tommy's. One of the comical topics of discussion that came up was dining out with friends and how sometimes the amount does not always seem to add up correctly. You know who you are. Just kidding. As well, the discussion of changing the layout of their living room came up, and the life expectancy of couches. Apparently one of Karlene and Tommy's friends has a couch that is almost 20 years old. That couch has seen a lot of behinds.

All in all, it was a fun trip. I know Karlene has been waiting for a "Yum-O" review of her cooking, so I'll give her one. Karlene and Tommy were gracious enough to grill our lunches today, which was quite nice. The grilled chicken was delicious. So "yum-o"!