Jesse's Friday of fun

“I want to go swimming.”

My son’s request made me pause. Swimming? Where? I knew there were public pools here in Eugene and also in Springfield, but I wasn’t sure if visiting one for a day was even possible. I had recently been perusing a catalog for Splash!, a waterpark, and was upset to see that they charge an out-of-district fee for visitors. I thought that was really unfair for people who just wanted to have some fun in a pool! So I decided to ask friends if they knew of a more affordable place we could go to for Jesse to have some pool fun. Unfortunately, our friends weren’t sure, and also unsure about what was available at the Y.

So, I hit the Internet. I Googled local public pools and checked out what came up. One public pool did charge an out-of-district fee to get in, another one had some really bad reviews, and another one was closed. Fortunately, I did find one that DIDN’T charge an out-of-district fee and, better still, the one day pass was MUCH more affordable (under $5!). So I told Jesse we would go there. I had also discovered that they offered swimming lessons and ALSO at an affordable price! I have been trying to sign Jesse up for swimming lessons for years but I was always too late. By the time I looked up swimming lessons for him, they were always full.

Well, not THIS time! In fact, there were 4 spots left for the swimming class I wanted to sign him up for, so while we were there, I got him signed up. Yay!!! He is FINALLY going to learn how to swim! At age 9, I think it is high time he learned how to swim. (Sidenote: We don’t have our own swimming pool.)

So I drove Jesse out to the public pool today. Thankfully, I managed to get there without getting lost! (All that time I spent on Google Maps figuring out the route paid off LOL)

When we got there, I got Jesse registered, signed him up for swimming lessons, and paid for the one-day pass. Jesse was too nervous to go into the men’s shower room by himself so they told him he could just go on in to the swimming pool. He was so excited when he got into the pool! His face lit up and he said, “Wow!” He started swimming around and I stayed there at the side, watching him. There were two lifeguards on duty at all times but I kept an eye on him anyway. I advised him to use a floatie at all times, even though he was in the shallow area, and he had lots of fun with THAT! He also bought some goggles and he thought it was cool to see underwater. The first time he did it, he said “that’s cool” and “it’s awesome.” He really had a blast playing in the pool. He was only able to play in the pool for an hour, though, and he really DIDN’T want to get out of the pool! He was having too much fun! But I assured him we would come back sometime.

After he got out of the pool, he was more comfortable going into the showers with the other kids and he also changed clothes. After that, we went home, grabbed Trevor, then headed out for froyo at TCBY.

Then after Jesse finished eating his froyo, he went across the street to play at his friend’s house.

Now we’re ending the day camping out on the couch, eating gummy worms and watching the movie How to Eat Fried Worms.

Jesse sure had a fun day today and we are looking forward to doing more fun things tomorrow. His last day for Spring Break is on Monday so I’m hoping to squeeze in as many fun activities while I can.

Here are pictures I took at the pool. It’s an indoor pool, by the way.