Swimming at the Massillon Rec

On one of the days during Hanley's spring break from school last week, we decided to take the kids swimming. We like the Massillon Rec because it has a kiddie splash area with a slide for them. It's not exactly close, its about a 40 minute drive, but it's close to Jeanettes house so that's a plus.

This particular time, we made it into the swimming area just 5 minutes before they called for a swim break. The swim breaks are the last 10 minutes of every hour. Hanley is a bit more cooperative and understanding than Conrad is (obviously since she's much older and not currently in the terrible 2's). We chose a table with chairs inside the kiddie pool area to sit during the break. We were seated right where the water starts out at zero depth. Conrad didn't like that he had to stay out of the water and wasn't understanding why either. The kid just wouldn't listen and kept testing me so I took the kids outside of the fenced area around the kiddie pool.

At this point, we were standing in between the fence to the kiddie pool and the lazy river. The lazy river is about 4 feet deep and is directly outside of the lifeguards desk where they wait out the breaks.

Michael and I got to talking and Conrad walked over to the side of the lazy river. I grabbed his arm and told him no, and that he had to stay clos e, next to us. We were talking once again, and Conrad walked back over to the side of the lazy river pool. As I was walking over to grab him again, he stuck out one foot over the lazy river and dropped right down into the water.

WHAT!? NO WAY!!!

That boy basically jumped right into the water. I just could not believe it. Thankfully, he still had his life jacket on, but I jumped right in after him. Well, Michael says I jumped directly on top of him, but either way, I grabbed him by the life jacket and pulled him up out of the water. I wasn't even wet yet but it wasn't even a thought not to jump in.

When I pulled him out of the water, I was expecting him to be hysterical, or gasping for breath or something...NO, he was completely pleased with himself... I pulled him up out of the water and was wiping the water from his face and he never even cried. He was fine...

He was certainly being defiant and ornery, but I don't believe for a second that he knew how deep that water was. He thought he was just going to be stepping into zero depth water again. But, down and under the water he went! hahahahaha

All the lifeguards were wide-eyed and shocked and every other person and family watched what happened. I was so embarrassed but he was saved and once pulled out of the water, I picked him up and wouldn't let him back down until the break was over.

One of the other dads at the pool came up to Michael and said "oh, you have a brave one there, huh!?" and the response was "no, not normally THAT brave!" haha Oh well, things happen, life is an adventure; especially with this wild boy, and we try our best to tame him without breaking his spirit.