swimming lessons, play dates, and more sickness

it felt good to get back to some normalcy on monday! ashford was healthy again and the kids did swimming lessons. they've both taken swimming lessons while we've lived here, but not very consistently. it's really important to me that they be strong swimmers (or at the very least know how to swim) in the event that they ever needed to save themselves in water. i would not say either of them know how to swim yet since we've done lessons sporadically, but they like being in the water and are eager to learn. i will keep signing them up and hope that over time they will become more skilled. there is a private pool a couple miles from our house that offers public lessons in the summer. azalea did it last summer, so i signed up both of them for (separate) classes this summer. unfortunately the only session that worked with our schedule was the last one of the summer and it was one week long instead of the normal two. 

they both enjoyed their classes (azalea was in level 3 and ashford was in a level 2). it ended up being pretty chilly in the mornings - cloudy with temps in the low 60's. they were shivering when they got out of the pool. there was also a lot of smoke in the air from wildfires last week.

we also had some fun play dates last week! 

on tuesday we met our friends beth, audrey, and eliza at "the dane" in ballard. it was my second time there and i love it! the atmosphere is fun, good food and drinks, and super kid-friendly! we ordered sandwiches for lunch and hung out on the patio while the kids played board games and toys. 



wednesday afternoon we met our friends casey, ella kate, and julie at green lake. green lake is only a couple miles from us, but we hardly ever go there (mostly because the parking sucks). it reminds me so much of the lakes in minneapolis. the kids played on the playground, but soon got bored and asked to head over to the beach. the beach near the playground is sort of strange. it has cement stairs going into the water. the kids only had clothes along (no swim suits) and asked if they could go in the water and i said yes as long as they understood we had no towels or dry clothes. so they went in, and then they were not pleased that they had no way to dry off ;) see how thick the smoke was? probably not the healthiest air to be breathing. 

thursday afternoon we went to azalea's friend tyler's house. we've known him since preschool and his mom and i are good friends. the kids all played together and michelle and i got to catch up. win-win. thursday night i also got to go out for a belated birthday celebration for vanessa. her birthday was last week and we were supposed to have brunch together, but ashford was sick. we went to "pie bar" in our neighborhood and enjoyed pie (duh) and wine. i hadn't been there in forever, it was a really nice night! i found out when i got home that azalea went to bed with a fever. greeeat. i guess it wasn't too surprising, but i had hoped that the rest of us wouldn't get it. 

friday the kids both had to stay home from their last swimming lesson because she was sick. i thought about having azalea come along to sit and watch ashford's, but her fever was high enough (101), where i felt like we should just stay home. she ended up sleeping most of the day away on the couch (which was so different than ashford when he was sick - ha!). 

ashford and i kept busy playing board games, legos, and making cookies. oh, and we all painted our toe nails in the afternoon :) we hung out with thatcher in the evening and then got the kids to bed early. 

saturday morning azalea woke up with no fever! but based on ashford's experience i knew we weren't out of the woods yet. ashford and i took a trip to mighty o donuts (he rode his balance bike) and thatcher and azalea stayed home. don't worry - we brought her back a donut ;) 

sure enough her fever returned in the afternoon. she didn't hardly sleep, but spent most of the day on the couch resting. thatcher and i took turns running errands in the afternoon. i watched a movie with the kids and we grilled dinner. it was a nice, relaxing family day.

sunday morning azalea woke up with a fever of 99. it went between 99 and 101 all day. i took a solo trip to goodwill in the morning and had (too much) success there :) 

in the afternoon, thatcher and ashford ran some errands together and azalea and i watched a movie. thatcher made ribs for dinner (so good!) and we hung out the rest of the night. 

both kids were supposed to have morning camps this week, as a make up from the week before last when ashford was sick, but we'll see if/when azalea is actually healthy enough to go to hers :( wish us luck!