1. We are big Stargate SG1 and Atlantis fans. We've discovered that looking up, from under water, at the water coming off the slide looks just like when the Stargate engages. Also, putting your face through the "sheet" of water coming out of the waterports is like the scene where they first walk through the Stargate. We've had a lot of fun with this and our imagination. I know...we're totally geeks.

2. We've made up various rules for retrieving diving sticks and rings and other pool toy objects. The most strenuous is retrieving them one at a time and having to place them on the porch which requires getting completely out of the pool. Now that one will provide your exercise!

3. We love playing with the Toypedoes. They really glide under water. We assign points based on which step you can get it to land on.

4. We made a see-saw out of noodles.

5. We just have a tremendous amount of fun playing "keep-away" with a $.96 inflatable beach ball. Great cheap fun.

6. The most relaxing thing in the world is to simply put on a mask and snorkle and just float around the pool face down. We had abalone shell added to our PebbleTec and we pretend we are treasure hunters and have found an underwater land full of diamonds. Again, I know we're weird, but it's fun.

I'm glad you started this post. I can't wait to see what others do as well.

Some of my family's favorites.

Light up tyopedos at night with the pool lights off.

Catching a thrown football while jumping off the rock.

Throwing wiffle balls into the waterfall...the opening where the water comes from.

Wiffle ball inside the pool, football in the pool, toypedo soccer (not sure how they play this one).

Dibble-Dabble...friends taught us this one. My kids like it when they have a group of friends over. One player swims to the bottom of the deep end and places a golf tee on the bottom, then they surface quickly. Everyone waits for the tee to surface and then jumps off the side to try and retrieve it. You can only retrieve it on a jump. Otherwise you swim to the side and jump again. You yell dibble-dabble when you see the tee. Silly game...they play with multiple tees when more players. This was more challenging in our old pool which had a 10 ft deep end. ALso have to be careful that people don't jump in on each other.

There's no end to the fun they devise.
Judy

My hubby and kids go out at night, turn the pool lights off and play Marco Polo.

Quote: "We've discovered that looking up, from under water, at the water coming off the slide looks just like when the Stargate engages."

Sure enough, I tried that tonight and see what you mean!! Cool! I guess now I know how they came up with that effect for the show :-)

We do the ring & diving stick games too, one of the versions is to throw them all in and see how many we can scoop up with one breath. It sounds a little too exhausting to haul them out to the porch one at a time though, LOL!

Quote: "Light up toypedos at night with the pool lights off."

They make light up ones?? Ooooh, new toys we'll have to add to the list!

I like that Marco Polo idea too!

A game the kids came up with tonight was to swim to the pool light whenever it turned red (it's an LED and it's set to rotate colors). The colors come up randomly and red comes up the most infrequently and it only stays red briefly, so you've got to be quick. Every time someone touched it while red they got 100 points. It got a little crazy, there were 5 kids all hanging out down there underwater waiting for it to turn red, haha!

"OK, so swimming with kids gets you involved in all kind of silly, crazy activities :-) Here are a few that we've discovered (best appreciated with goggles on):"

Tresw, do you mean beer goggles?

Our pool is filling up right now as I type. Will post pics in a few hours.

We have 2 games....we have a set of dive rockets. They are about 3 inches long made of rubber that sink. We put on our goggles and stand on the side of the pool opposite of the steps. We gave our steps point values with the lowest step being worth the most (because it is harder to hit). You throw the rocket across the pool and try to land it on the steps. After each throw you look under water to see how you did. A little side rule to our game is the dog is in play. Also if I am playing with my son the winner gets a Dr Pepper. If I am playing with friends....the loser gets out to get the next round of beers.

The other game is for when your pool is actually being built. Once they have poured the gunite shell you have the holes on the bottom of your pool. My son had this bouncy super ball the size of a softball. We would stand in the deep end and roll the ball up the slope and try to hit one of the small weep holes...if you missed the ball would rule down and eventually come to rest in one of the holes in the deep end. We have points to different holes based on difficulty. So we made use of the pool while we wished it had water in it!