A peaceful day

Remember our jellyfish last year?  We went swimming this morning, and there were hundreds of them!  They seemed to stay all in one area, out where the water was almost to my shoulders.  Even the very biggest ones are only about the size of an American quarter; they're little.  Asya was especially enthralled with this new kind of "baby."  When it was time to leave, I dragged her out of the water, with her protesting and trying to tell every single jellyfish goodbye.  Unfortunately, it looks like the whole web site on them that I read and linked to before is not working, but there's a Wikipedia article.

I was sorry I didn't take the camera this morning.  Last year I took our children down to the beach quite often, almost every day once it got really hot.  This year we're spending more time at our dacha than the beach, but I still wanted to get in a good bit of swimming.  I was just a little nervous about how to do it, now that I have three active little ones to keep up with.  I mean, I had three last year, but Asya wasn't very mobile, and Jaan and Raia were very cautious about the water.  All that has changed now!  However, this year is easier than ever.  Two sweet girls from church have started going with me.  They are sisters, 14 and 10 years old, who live right near us, and are ready whenever I call.  It's almost unreal how easy it is with them helping me.  This morning I spent most of my time just sitting on the blanket, watching everyone play happily, or swimming with one child at a time.  Hopefully we'll make this a Monday tradition.

Everyone is napping now, and then we're headed out to our dacha for the rest of the week.