We decided to celebrate Jacob's birthday by going swimming! After all the cold and snow we were ready for some warmer weather. The weather in Oak Hills had got warmer, but we had nowhere to swim. Each December, the week before Christmas I usually go to Palm Springs for the night, taking the two best behaved kids with me. Jacob has never been! So for his birthday he wanted to be one of the chosen ones. Staying at a hotel with all the kids requires two rooms now, so we decided to go to a motel in Desert Hot Springs, which allows all day use of their facilities which includes an "Olympic size" pool, a kiddy pool, and about 5 spas. It's a bit run down, but the price is right and you can guarantee very warm water.

Colin had refused to learn to swim all summer and kept his life-jacket on. He was in the kiddy pool, and obviously didn't need the jacket. I was busy swimming and turned round to find him jumping in the shallow end- 3 ft and swimming happily on his own. I was so happy that he finally did this because I knew he could. He was so pleased with himself too. He can swim further than this, and jump in deeper water, but this was all I recorded because I was busy swimming myself and lazing in the hot spas.