But the Water Doesn’t Look Deep Purple

Steam rises in the cold air from our swimming pool.

Check out this smoke on the water!

The sun aids the effect.

I know what song is stuck in the heads of those of you of a certain age.

You’re welcome!

Glive Gravity

Glen IV tosses Glen V high into the air in our pool yesterday.

What goes up . . .

Glive hopes his dad is sure-handed.

. . . must come . . .

Gotcha!

. . . down!

Pool Football

Jared begins a new round.

Float flipping wasn’t the only new sport introduced to our family’s swimming pool last Sunday. Say hello to pool football!

It starts with one boy out of the water tossing a football high in the air to two awaiting opponents. The object?

The brothers battle.

Grab the football first. This, of course, involves a lot of jumping and bumping. Boys gotta be boys.

Big bro wins this time.

But eventually someone is victorious. After each round (usually a best-of-five catches), the thrower rotates in, and another game starts.

My younger son holds on tight to gain a point on Jared.

There were plenty of thrills and spills during the lively contests. Sometimes you never knew who was going to end up with the ball.

Will Jared hang on?

Plus it wasn’t enough just to get your hands on the slippery object. The guys had to make sure to show they hit the water with the football still in hand.

Jared is triumphant.

Pay dirt!

Wet Dunks

My younger son is ready to air dunk!

The Summer Games have begun in our backyard pool. Usually that means that danger is the number one ingredient, because these made-up sports always involve males. I’ve told my two sons and their friends to be careful, avoid the pool edges, and please don’t get blood in the pool. So far, so good.

This summer my younger son and his pal Jared have been hanging out in the pool. Recently they made up a new game to quell the boredom: Pool dunking.

We have a poor man’s pool basketball goal that floats. So the kid and Jared decided it would be fun to take a running start with a small basketball and try to dunk it in the ever-moving, inflatable hoop before landing in the water.

This gives new meaning to the term “jump shot!”

Gotta love the wink!

Jared opted to go for style points on this dunk.

Hovering in the air

Looks like a certain two-pointer.

Note where the ball is

Score . . . and splashdown!

Looks like a perfect takeoff.

The kid decided to go for power.

Closing in

Did he mistime his leap?

Stretching it out

Not at all! It was a splashy two points.

I guess when you’re too short to dunk on a regulation 10-foot dry basketball hoop, the little version in the pool is a great way to boost your ego. Plus it wasn’t dangerous . . . for a change. My blood pressure appreciated that!

One-Word Wednesday

The kid shows off for the Olympus Stylus Tough waterproof camera in our pool.

Handstand!

Spoutin’ Off

Playing with the cold water filling the pool is fun.

My younger son made a startling discovery last week: The spout that adds water to our swimming pool is an amusing toy!

Hand up!

I’m glad, because I’m all about cheap fun.

Chest bumping the water

The two of us were enjoying some quality pool time together . . . well, us and the Olympus Stylus Tough waterproof camera. Water + good Nikon = sad photographer.

The kid and the spout were the stars of this unique water show. A jolly time was had by all!

My younger son enjoys the spray, while the Mister reads on the back patio.

Not that everyone actually noticed what was going on!

A Better Angle

My older son in mid-air as he flips into our swimming pool.

I thought I had gotten a pretty good photo of my #1 son flipping off the spa into our swimming pool, considering I was using my Nikon 105mm lens instead of something that would’ve given me a wider view.

And then I saw the shot my younger son took with the Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 point and shoot camera.

Gotta love that wide view afforded by the Olympus!

Wow! The kid put my superior equipment to shame, thanks to the better angle from in the pool. This is a great pic!

Younger shows older the photo.

Looks like his brother thinks so, too!

Flippin’ Fun

My older son prepares to climb on his brother’s shoulders.

In case you’ve wondered whether or not my sons have stopped trying to give me a heart attack this summer, check out these latest photos of their pool escapades.

#1 starts his front flip.

The good news? The boys decided to stop flipping off the spa. The bad news? Now they’re doing flips off each other.

In mid-air

Actually, only my #1 son is doing the acrobatics, because he’s lighter.

Crash landing in the water

It took a lot of coordination and timing to accomplish the flips. So many of the attempts were flops!

Ready for the backflip?

Starting the backflip

Preparing to flip over

Upside down!

The #1 son has landed!

What in the world will they think up next?!?

Medical update

My ENT finally called with the results of my needle biopsy. All is well! Here’s hoping that pesky lymph node behaves.

More Pool Danger

My older son hovers over the float he’s about to jump on.

In their apparently never-ending quest to make mom nervous, my sons (including my “third son,” Chase) continue to create new ways to make harmless pool toys hazardous.

Keeping it steady.

The theme of the summer of 2011? Pool Danger. Why is the “Theme From a ‘Summer Place'” (the Lettermen’s version) playing in my head?

Backbend time!

How naive I was to think that my sons would actually use the colorful float that we bought for its intended purpose: Lazing away on the cooling water.

The slow descent into the water

Oh, I figured they might fight over who got to lie on it. The diplomacy of taking turns is a lost art when it comes to teenage boys.

Chase struggles to keep his balance.

But, silly me, I didn’t think they’d actually try to surf on the inflatable. Especially when falling off means they could hit their heads on hard surfaces and horribly injure themselves.

No one falls into the water quite like Chase!

I guess being in the pool is risky business. Whatever happened to actually swimming?

Splash landing!

Looks like they get their swimming in when they fall off the float!

Chase watches his bro start to spin off the float.

Of course, my older son decided to take the old surf-the-float trick up a notch.

Rolling in the air

He figured he would add even more excitement to it by jumping off and doing a roll in the air.

What goes up must come down.

Yet another way to make the innocuous pool toy dangerous?!?

Big splash!

I think I need to look into waterproof helmets!

Man Overboard

My older son and “third son” Chase try to tip over my younger son.

It looks like I might get a lot of photo mileage out of our new pool float. As you may recall, I wrote about how this innocuous, round inflatable became an element of danger for my sons.

Now it’s Chase’s turn to try to stay on the float.

When they’re not busy standing on it and trying not to get knocked off by the big beach ball, they do their best to dump off the person who is lying on it.

Chase overboard!

As my sons demonstrate above!

Can my #2 son stay afloat?

When I envisioned the boys having hours of fun with the float, I thought it would be with them on the inflatable. Not trying to tip someone off it. Boys!

The strong #2 son flips over the other two.

I will admit that sometimes the way they fall off the float into the water is funny.

All that’s left to see are feet! (This photo cracks me up!)

Which definitely makes that photo mileage enjoyable!

Allergy update

It turns out that my younger son is allergic to lanolin, which is in all the products we had been advised to use to help his eczema all these years, and some fragrance additives. No wonder his medicine made him so itchy!