Water babies...

Why is it that some women can spend an afternoon swimming in clorine water, or dirty lake water, or even in and out of the shower and come out looking like a million buckaroos...

No, silly...thats not me!  Its the most "family friendly" google image I could find of a woman getting out of the water...all the rest are itsy bitsy teeny weeny bikinis and boobs.  Yup...so instead you get the hair fling.

Anywho...I have not nor will I ever come out of the pool looking like anything other than a drowned rat.

Its true.  So, instead we took underwater photos...mostly because I love the bubbles from being underwater...

Bella is a SWIMMER!  She loves the water and with water wings on takes off across the pool and wants nothing to do with me helping her out.

She doesn't really go under the water yet so this was the best shot of her that I could get...her little doggy paddle legs going 100 miles per hour...

Eric is a little afraid of the water...it took a lot of coaxing to get him to stick his head under the water...but then he tried it over and over again...by the end of the month he stayed with us he was actually swimming!

Yours truly...well, lets just say its not a pretty sight, but I have to embrace the "drowned rat" persona and forget about the "hair flip" diva when it comes to swimming...and I like swimming way too much to not do it just because of the drowned rat persona...

And then there is John...who we took multiple video of too...but for today we'll just show a couple of the underwater photos...

Whoops...lets try that again...the bubbles masked his face completely...

Much better...

Rock on with your bad self, amore mio.

All this was compliments of the Hotel Merloni in El Grande Uniti, Italy. 

We can't WAIT to go back...

Just keep swimming...

Bella and I decided we were going SWIMMING!  So, we asked our neighbor and her daughter to join us and headed out to the Weiden Schwimmbad to spend a few hours in the pool. 

Here is what I LOVE about German swimming pools.

1.  Kids don't pay until they are 6 years old.

2.  There are always multiple pools (lap pool, kids pool, non-swimmer pool, wave pool, lazy river pool, pools with waterfalls, hottubs, etc.)

3. They have fun slides...like the enclosed tube slides as well as regular slides.

4.  They are just the right temperature.

5.  They have chairs deckside that you can lounge in and even tan under sunlights if you want.

6.  They are always connected to a spa.

Its like a bigAmerican waterpark only its not crowded beyond belief because just about every good sized town has one.  I love it so much that I think the USA should adopt the German schwimmbad plan.

Anywho...we took a few photos from our fun few hours at the pool that I can't resist posting...The other two in the photos are our neighbor, Kim and her daughter Alyssa. 

Alyssa just turned 4 and her and Bella have become good friends...In fact they regularly call each other "best friends" (which I love because these two girls are so cute together!)

    

Awww...Bella's first "best friend."

Kristall...with a K

My stuffed up nose and chest congestion has mostly gone the way of the kleenex...so today we decided to pack up our swimsuits and hit the beach.  Thats right...a giant indoor waterpark in Nurnberg called Kristall Palm Beach.

It rocked...

John, Madmad and Bella with the giant Crystal...except they say Kristall...I don't know if that's how you say it in German or if they are just being "cool" with their spelling - like Fat vs Phat or Cool vs Kool  or Ye Ole' Tavern vs The Tavern.  ha ha ha

Maddie immediately needed to drink from the healing waters of the stone dragon water fountain...  Actually, I think she just likes to stick out her tongue. 

Wave pools, waterslides, kiddie pool, lazy river....while the rain pounded down outside we spent our time playing in the water.

Unfortunately I never got any wave pool photos...  Cameras have become items of opportunity for me these days...  So, basically what I'm saying is that it wasn't until Bella and I went to the kiddie pool while Maddie and John went down the waterslides that I thought about getting it out of the bag.  *sigh* So...I did get some cute ones of Bella girl playing in the kiddie pool.  :)

And then when John and Maddie came back we made sure to get a photo under the giant mushroom because hey....who DOESN'T want a photo with a giant mushroom.

Ha ha...I just looked at the above photo and realized you can't even see that it IS a giant mushroom. 

Regardless...I jumped in for one last family photo.

We packed our stuff up and went into the changing rooms.  **Cultural difference note** - the changing rooms were not gender-separated.  They had little individual rooms you could use to change in, but there were little old ladies and little old men running around in their underwear.  We made sure to alert Maddie to the possibility beforehand so she was prepared and we didn't have to remind her to stop staring. 

And then....the sadness hit.

LET ME BACK IN THE POOL!

Luckily it was quickly fixed with fruit snacks.  All hail the Kellogg fruit snack gods. 

Thanks Kristall with a K Palm Beach for a fun day at the beach.