Zinn's visit

Today my dear friend Cathie Zinn brought 1/2 of her children by for a visit. We've known the Zinn's for years... back when they had 1 child. Now they have 6!!! They moved out to Athens around the same time we moved here (about 6 years ago). Now they live in Gwinnett. We miss them living right up the street!
Today we took all the kids to the pool. I got in with Ray (3 yrs), took his floaties off and asked him to swim to me. He is a wild man and absolutely adorable. He has no fear at all! He can't hear, but has no trouble communicating exactly what he wants. He's so smart and has a precious sense of humor. I sign a little and by the end of the day Ellie and Emma were even signing to him. I think we bonded when we started squirting each other with water guns. When we came back to the house and were having a snack, I offered Ray some cherries. He put his hand up and closed his eyes and scrunched up his little nose. That would be a YUK to the cherries. All the kid's were playing in the girls' room and Ray decided to be the doctor and I was his patient. He even wore the doctor's cap and mask.
Hannah played doctor with us too. She is a few years older than him. She's such a tough little thing. She's into karate and will absolutely not wear girly dresses or play with dolls. She's a little shy and I've been trying to get her to let me love on her for a few years now. I think I scored some points with her when I took her swimming in the deep end. She's just learning to swim, but has such a strong will that she swam all the way across the deepend coming up for air when she needed to, but not even grabbing for me or the side once! I think she even surprised herself.
Madison is the oldest of the three. She'll be 9 soon. She is the gymnastics queen. She's got talent oozing out her ears and is so smart. She's also taking Chinese dance. Her and Ellie got on the computer and played a few games. Before we knew it time ran out and the day ended way too quickly. I already miss them!