Memorable Memorial Day

Sunday Craig and Sonya opened their home up to the Altic, Cosby clans.

There was an awful lot of red hair in one location.  Just the way I like it :)

We arrived at about four and our kids swam until 8.  No kidding.  They each popped out for as brief a time as possible to eat and do their business.  Then they were right back in splashing and playing with the cousins.

Elijah is getting so big!  He jumped off the diving board first with a life vest.  The he decided to try it with a noodle, and by the end of the night he was jumping in completely on his own and swimming to the side!  He was so proud of himself.

All the little kids were decked out with life vests and different shaped floaty rings.  After a couple hours swimming encumbered by both, Anneliese decided to remove the ring and just swim with the vest like Graham.  Keep in mind all the adults are either in the pool or poolside.  She took two steps into the shallow end and began to float past where she could reach.  She panicked and started thrashing.  As she thrashed her face went under and she began to spin.

Jared was standing poolside fully dressed with wallet, phone, car keys etc.  As soon as he realized he couldn't reach her, he threw his phone into the gravel and stepped in to grab his panicked little girl.

Once Jared pulled her out, I held her until she calmed.  I took her in the house to change out of her suit and through tears she said, "My Daddy is so brave, he saved me with his shoes on."
Our pool in our neighborhood opened Thursday and I have taken the kids down each day.  Anneliese had been jumping to me from the side and I kept telling her how brave she was to jump.

Anita came to her later and asked her what happened.  Still through a trembling voice (she is a girl, and a quite dramatic one at that) she told Anita, "I couldn't get out,  I couldn't swim."  Grandma asked, "Well, what happened?"  As Jared walked up Anneliese looks up and Grandma and said, "My Daddy saved me."

My big strong hubby, who swore before she was born things would be no different with her than they are with boys, got all misty eyed.  It is absolutely precious to me to witness the relationship between that tiny girl and her brave Daddy.

I want to reiterate, we were all withing 5-10 feet from her and she had on a life vest and was safe, she just didn't think so for about 3 seconds.