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NaomiBianca613

Ottawa Mom taking down this city, one adventure at a time!

The Aqualife Academy at Brookstreet Hotel.

August 31, 2018

I have always been a believer that swimming is an essential life skill. I had very little swimming lessons when I was a child and as such can pretty much only do the doggy paddle now LOL. As soon as Jax was born, I decided I wanted him in swim as soon as he could, and had him in the water just shy of 3 months old at the City of Ottawa swim lessons. I did the same for Hudson. If you have ever experienced these type of classes, it’s not that they learn how to swim… they are of course, just babies. But the purpose is to get them comfortable in the water. You can expect to mostly be floating around in the pool, singing songs and splashing around with the odd head dunk. But I do feel strongly that it’s important.

Crazy how time flies and now I don’t even have to go into the pool with Jax. At the age of 3, it’s no longer parent and tot, thank god! Now I’m a proud spectator on the pool deck. Now that he is a big boy learning more skills, we felt it was the perfect time to step it up a notch with his swim lessons. And so, we decided to try semi private lessons with The Aqualife Swim Academy. I had heard so many amazing stories from various mom groups on Facebook and from a few friends.  Many moms went on to say that their children who previously struggled in the City of Ottawa classes actually excelled after only a few classes with Aqualife, and passed with flying colours.

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Mr. Serious awaiting his lesson.

We couldn’t wait to start and decided on the Brookstreet Hotel location since we like the facilities and it was close to home. There are about five other hotels that they operate out of as well. Classes range from parent and tot right up to adult swim lessons. We decided to start at 3 years old with the semi private… the idea is that when Hudson turns 3 the two of them will be able to take the same semi private class together. Perfect!

Jax was super pumped for his first class, as were we. He takes his swim lessons very seriously and he literally doesn’t say a peep during the lessons. It’s actually pretty hilarious given he is normally very chatty. Not the Jax I know, but he’s focused which is great. He is showing greater confidence in all aspects of the lesson such as dunking his head for more and more time each week, jumping of the edge of the pool that he wouldn’t do before and he even floated on his back on his own during the last class. I couldn’t believe it when she let go. Suffice to say, we are super happy already with these classes. AND, we’ve only completed four so far! I can’t believe the immediate progress.

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Front kicks with the Barbell.  Seriously not cracking a smile, look at that face!

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Back floats, instructor about to let go!

Another reason why we chose Brookstreet over the other Kanata location is that we could also pay the entrance fee to swim before and/or after and make a day of it. Your entry gets you access to the indoor saltwater pool where the lessons are held, the kiddie pool with a little slide structure and a teeter totter and hot tub. There is also an outdoor pool, wading pool, hot tub and a sauna. Bonus: you are also able to use the gym facilities with your pass! They offer summer and yearly memberships in addition to just drop ins. We love it!

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Jax enjoying the mini slides.

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Teeter totter with his bud.

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Now who is serious!?

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There’s that smile!

Today we went with our friends for a fun day of swimming followed by a nice patio lunch at Perspectives, their onsite restaurant. We started out indoors in the kid pool which is cool because they can run around and go down the mini slides, as well as on the teeter totter which they seemed to love. Then they frolicked around in the indoor pool and practiced jumps. We were getting hungry, but decided to play around the outdoor pool and let the lunch rush pass before heading in. We were really trying to soak it all in while we still have some nice summer days! The food was wonderful and the waiter was excellent, I forget his name, but I’m going to write an email to applaud his customer service (something which I find lacking these days, so bravo to the staff there).

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Looks like a good conversation.

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Beautiful pond beside the outdoor pool area.

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Enjoying the outdoor pool before lunch.

After lunch, we burned off some more energy running through the grounds beside the outdoor pool and playing on some of the small structures they have. We wrapped it up in the outdoor entrance where they have some neat little musical structures. After a super fun day, we ended with popsicles from the Brookstreet’s little café open in the front with a Starbucks and all sorts of snacks.

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Depending on the weather over the next month, we might try to squeeze at least one more day in before the summer ends. I do recall from last year, that they don’t have a set closing date for the pool and keep it open if the weather continues to be warm, regardless of the date. Fingers crossed for an extended Ottawa summer!

For more info on Aqualife, visit their website at www.theaqualife.ca, and for more information on Brookstreet click here.

Have you heard of Aqualife Academy? I never had before and am super curious to hear your experiences with lessons. Obviously, I highly recommend it.

Is there any other activity you want to see me cover? I’m happy to hear it, and up to trying just about anything! Leave me a message, happy to hear from you!

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Comments

  1. Crystal Russell says

    September 1, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    Looks like so much fun!

    Reply
    • naomibianca613 says

      September 1, 2018 at 11:53 pm

      It was! Thanks for reading 🙂

      Reply

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Instagram post 2140102712024699386_8305490817 Is anyone else loving Fall for all the awesome activities? Surprisingly, we had not been to @millersfarmmarket before this past weekend and boy have we been missing out! Such a fun time taking the wagon to pick out our pumpkins in the patch!  So many goodies to buy in their store too. We ended up with pies and treats as well as our pumpkins. The boys had a blast. We can’t wait til next weekend to get our Fall on again!
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Instagram post 2135840827502994268_8305490817 Today mark’s Jax’s 9th day of school. He’s coming around quicker than I thought! Still very quiet but he’s becoming more comfortable with each day and is making buddies. It helps that his bff (shown here) is in Grade 1 at his school and they get to see each other every day after school when I pick him up for shenanigans like tree climbing and wrestling (yup...wrestling) at the school park. Love this picture that her mom and my good friend captured of the two of them the other day! ❤️
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Instagram post 2130854188884033891_8305490817 New blog post is up all about Jax’s first day/week at school. Bittersweet. Link in BIO!
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Instagram post 2125555965260792608_8305490817 And just like that, the first day of Junior kindergarten has arrived! Jax did so well! No tears and just excitement. I did ok and managed to hide the tears until it was time to walk away. So proud of my big boy. I’m so excited to pick him up and hear all about his first day!
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How did everyone else’s first day go?!
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