Putting girls into swimsuits: 10 minutes

Gathering towels, sunscreen, swim diapers, sandals, change of clothes, floatation devices, snacks, sippie cup, wallet, and keys: 30 minutes

Loading girls into the car: 5 minutes

Driving to the ambassador's residence for the pool party: 15 minutes

Hanging out in the parking lot because we arrived early: 20 minutes

Filling up the floatation devices with air: 5 minutes

TIME ACTUALLY SPENT IN THE POOL: 20 MINUTES

Drying off and changing the girls back into dry clothes: 20 minutes

Driving home: 15 minutes

ARRRGGGHH! Yes, this is my life as a mother of two youngsters. The average activity takes at least twice as long to gear up for than to actually enjoy. This particular outing was made worse by the fact that we were without Ben (who is on vacation...errr... I mean business).

As you can see, the girls had no desire to use their floatation devices intended for them, they simply insisted on using their own mother as their floatation device. This is why we were in the pool for only 20 minutes. And this was the exact position of the three of us for that entire time. It was actually a really long 20 minutes.