When I was "discovered" earlier this summer (2000) by my now new nudist friends, Ann and Jim, they said they would call me sometime soon to get together again. Well true to their word, it wasn’t long before I heard from them. This write-up is about the great afternoon that we spent together. It included them, their two children, and me. Here’s the way it happened.

About two weeks after our initial, unplanned, surprise meeting back in August out in the place in the country where I often go nude sunning and hiking, I came home one day to find I had a message from Ann inviting me to a picnic with them on Sunday afternoon. I called her back right away to find out more, but I already knew that I would find a way to go no matter what. I heard a cheerful, "Hello?" on the line. It was Ann.

"Hi," I said. "It’s Sunny. I got your message."

"Oh, hi!" Ann said. "How’ve you been?"

We exchanged pleasantries and then Ann said, "Jim and the kids and I are going out to Jim’s parent’s place on Sunday after church and wondered if you’d like to go along. Before you say yes, you should know that Jim’s parents are vacationing in Europe and we’re going out to just tidy things up and mow for them. They’ve been gone about a month and we’ve been going out each weekend to look after things. Anyway, they have a pool and a nice fairly private backyard and we always go out, get our work done as quick as we can and then spend the rest of the day in the pool and cooking hamburgers on the grill and stuff like that. So, we’d like for you to come along, if you’d like. I think it’d be fun."

I couldn’t say yes fast enough. "Yes, that does sound like fun. I’d love to go! What can I bring?"

Ann said, "Nothing. We’ll have all the food we need. Just show up at our place about 1:00 and we’ll go. Oh, and another thing you don’t need to bring is a swimsuit. But you probably already knew that!"

"Yeah, I could have guessed. OK, see you then," I said.

Sunday rolled around and I arrived at their place at the agreed upon time. They were still getting things ready to go. First thing, I got to meet the kids, Mark who is four and Sarah who is two. They were really sweet and so friendly to me. I helped out with the preparations wherever I could and before long we were all in their mini-van and on our way.

In about twenty minutes we pulled into the long driveway of Jim’s parent’s home. It is a beautiful house on five or six acres in a rural setting. The house sets back off of the road a little way leaving a large front yard. There are neighbors on both sides, but at a nice distance - not close like you find in town. We all climbed out of the van, Jim opened one of the garage doors, and we each (including the kids) proceeded to carry things into the house.

The house was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside. After we had brought everything in, I helped Ann put the things that needed to be kept cold into the refrigerator as Jim headed out the back door to get started with chores.

After we finished that task, I asked Ann, "OK, now what can I do to help?"

She answered, "Well, we really didn’t bring you out here to make you work, but if you’re serious, what would really help me out the most is if you would keep the kids busy. I think Jim is cleaning the pool. Maybe you could take them outside and wash down the deck and patio furniture. Then when Jim is done, you can get in the pool."

"OK," I said. "Sounds easy enough."

"Thanks," Ann said. "I can get the house dusted and vacuumed in no time at all without the kids underfoot."

So we headed out the back door to the pool with the kids leading the way and showing me around. The backyard area behind the house was as beautiful as the rest of the home. We came out onto a large deck with stairs that led down to a large open patio area. At the end of the patio was the pool with a pool house off to one side. There was beautiful landscaping all around. The landscaping and some privacy fencing was designed to provide privacy from the neighbors to the sides for the patio and pool area. Beyond the pool was a spacious open yard with no neighboring houses to the back. It was quite beautiful - an ideal setting.

Jim was busy cleaning the pool. As we reached the pool, Mark said, "Hi, Daddy." And then he said to me, "We put our things over here," as he led me over to the pool house. Sarah was holding my hand and as we walked by Jim, she said, "Hi, Daddy" in such a cute way.

When we reached the pool house, Mark started undressing. There were two rows of clothes hooks on the outer wall of the pool house: one row over the other. He pointed at the lower row and said, "Grandpa put these up just for me and Sarah. You can use the ones up there for big people."

I smiled and said, "OK, thank you." I looked up at Jim and he was smiling at the kids, too. He was clearly proud of his children.

Jim seemed to know the question I had on my mind, because he said, "It’s OK to be nude. I’m still dressed because I’ve got to go mow when I get this done, but normally we’re always nude out here."

Mark was doing fine undressing, but Sarah was struggling. She had managed to get her top pulled over her head, but couldn’t get her head through, so I helped her get undressed. Then while she hung up her own clothes on her own clothes hooks (she wanted to do it herself, of course), I got undressed.

Once I had everything off and my clothes were hung up to the kids’ satisfaction, Mark showed me where the broom and dustpan were in the pool house. Apparently the kids had helped with cleaning the patio and deck before, so that’s what we proceeded to do. I noticed that Jim had gotten undressed, also. I think he did that just to make me feel more comfortable by demonstrating to me that it really is OK to be nude here. He and Ann are so considerate.

As you may recall from the previous story about Ann and Jim, Jim’s parents are nudists, too, so they had designed their home and this patio and pool area for nude use.

So the kids and I started sweeping up what few leaves there were around the pool and patio. They both looked for the leaves and took turns holding the dustpan while I swept the leaves into it. Doing it their way was a slow process, but they were having fun with it, which made it more of a game than a chore. Then the three of us used the water hose to rinse down the patio furniture and the patio. There were several incidents of "accidental" sprayings of each other during this process to the delight and squeals of laughter of both kids. We all got wet, but we didn’t care. We were having fun. Ann came out for a second to see what was going on and I had to grab the hose away from Mark before he sprayed her. She was nude, too, but didn’t want to get wet since she wasn’t done in the house yet.

"So what do we do next?" I asked Ann. The kids immediately yelled that we should jump in the pool.

Ann said, "Everything looks fine out here. Jim’s done cleaning the pool. Go ahead and jump in."

The kids yelled their approval at that, but I stopped them before they took off. Since I was going to be responsible for their safety, I wanted to explain Sunny’s pool rules to them before they jumped in.

But before I did that, I asked Ann, "Do you need any help in the house with anything before we start playing?"

"Nope," she said as she turned around to go back in. "The cleaning is going really fast inside thanks to you keeping the kids busy out here. Carry on."

I had my little talk with the kids about rules. Then they showed me where all their pool toys were kept and we got everything out. Sarah wanted her "floaties" put on, so I did that. Then the three of us proceeded into the pool. Mark jumped in with a big splash. I jumped in (we were in the shallow end, so I didn’t dive) and then Sarah jumped into my arms and I let her gently into the water. The cool water felt really good on this warm, sunny afternoon and the kids were shouting with delight.

Mark proved to be a pretty good swimmer for his age. He swam back and forth across the shallow end a couple of times just to show off for me while I kept close tabs on Sarah. We eventually all started playing together. They asked me to blow up a beach ball and we tried playing catch with it, but mostly we just batted it around. There were quite a few wild throws and slaps that sent the ball out of the pool. When that happened we took turns climbing up out of the pool to retrieve the ball. There were a couple of times that the ball went a little too high, was caught by the wind and wound up over the privacy fence and into the yard. When that happened, I would set Sarah and Mark out of the pool, and we would all three go retrieve the ball. This ball retrieval took place a couple of times before Jim came over and said that we shouldn’t go out in the yard nude because it would be possible for the neighbors to see us if they were out in their yard. I said I was sorry and Jim said that no harm was done, but that we should be dressed if we go out there again. I said that I understood and after he went back to his mowing, I told the kids that we mustn’t be so wild. Guess we accidentally crossed the line from nudist to streaker there a couple of times.

Then Mark wanted to show us that he could swim in the deep end so I allowed him to swim to the other end of the pool. I followed along behind him with Sarah (in her "floaties") in tow. Mark swam for a little while and then wanted to show me how he could dive. Sarah and I continued to bob up and down while Mark did a few cannon-ball dives off the side of the pool (there was no diving board). Then he and Sarah wanted to see me dive. So I set Sarah out of the pool, climbed out myself (don’t think we ever used the ladder or steps), and I sat Sarah in a chair about ten feet back from the pool and told her she had to stay there if she wanted to see me dive. I’m not the world’s greatest diver, but I did a couple of simple forward dives that both kids clapped and cheered for. Then I did a couple of backward dives – not very graceful, but the kids were entertained. Then Mark asked me to do a cannon ball, so I did a couple of those. Lots of laughter.

By now, Sarah was getting restless and wanting to get out of her chair so I set her at the edge of the pool while I went on to teach Mark how to do a forward dive. He caught on pretty fast after only a few belly flops (ouch!) and was delighted with his new ability.

I decided to let Mark keep diving while I took Sarah back into shallower water to work with her on her swimming. Mark had proved himself to be a competent swimmer at least for the size of this pool (small) and I knew that I could get to him from anywhere in the pool within seconds. (Those of you who have read my earlier stories already know that I’m a lifeguard.) I took Sarah’s floaties off and spent the next little while teaching her to swim. I did this while facing in the direction of Mark so that I could keep an eye on him at all times, too. We made a little progress on Sarah’s swimming, but she eventually grew tired so we ended the lessons and just went back to playing. Mark grew tired of diving and joined us, also.

We were playing like this in the shallow end when Ann came out and announced that she had finished her work and that we’d better watch out. She walked right down to the deep end and immediately dove in. She swam underwater down to our end and started tickling the kids’ feet underwater. They screamed with surprise and were laughing hysterically when their mom suddenly surfaced in front of them. The kids were excited to have her in the pool playing with them. Mark wanted her to watch him dive and Sarah wanted her to watch her (Sarah) swim (I had to help with that).

The four of us played in the pool like that for a little longer before Ann announced that it was nap time for the kids. This was not a popular announcement, but the kids are in the habit of obeying their mother, so the plan was carried out. We got the kids out of the pool and laid them each down on their own fully reclined chaise lounge on the patio in the shade. Sarah asked me to lay down with her, but before I could answer, Ann said that Sarah needed to lay down and go right to sleep by herself. That was the best idea as I probably would have been the first one asleep (out late the night before; had a date; fun!).

The kids must have been pretty tired as they went right to sleep. Ann motioned for me to follow her and we went back to the pool. We set down on the steps in the water and just leaned back and enjoyed the feeling of the water and the beautiful sunshine as we started talking.

I told her, "I feel bad that we’re here in the pool enjoying ourselves and Jim is out there mowing in the heat. Shouldn’t we be helping him somehow?"

"Don’t worry about Jim," Ann said. "He loves it out there on the tractor mower. He can’t wait ‘til we get a place like this of our own. We’ve already purchased the land. We’re planning to build on it within the next two or three years. It’ll be a little longer than that though before we can put in a pool like all this."

And with that Ann changed the subject and we were off on discussions about anything and everything. We moved from time to time and from place to place in and around the pool and patio area all the while keeping an eye on the sleeping children. She asked all kinds of questions about me and I basically told her my whole life story. She seemed interested to hear everything. And she in turn told me all kinds of things about her and Jim. She is so open and honest and trusting, and doesn’t hold anything back. But with that comes a lot of details you don’t expect to hear about. Whew! She told it all. I hope I at least appeared to handle it gracefully and didn’t look as embarrassed as I really felt!

We had been talking like this for about an hour I’d guess when we noticed Jim driving back across the yard toward the shed where the tractor mower is kept. He had finally finished mowing the whole yard. In a few more minutes, the tractor had been stored and he came up to the pool house. He undressed, and showered off in the outdoor shower. The shower didn’t take long and then he walked over to the edge of the pool and dove right in.

"That’s more like it!" he said when he surfaced.

Meanwhile, Ann had gone into the house and returned with a big glass (plastic) of iced tea for him. He swam to the steps and set down on a lower one so that he was in the water nearly up to his shoulders. Ann handed him the iced tea and then set down on the steps behind and above him with her legs on either side of him. He leaned back against her and gulped down the whole glass of iced tea. Ann massaged his shoulders and told him how great the yard looked. I sat next to them and complimented him on the yard, also. Maybe Ann was feeling a little guilty after all about us relaxing while Jim worked so hard. At any rate, he seemed to enjoy the attention. They really are very attentive and affectionate and considerate of each other all the time like that.

About that time Mark woke up from his nap and came over to join us. When he saw his dad, he immediately wanted to show him his new dives so Jim told him to go ahead. While this was going on, Ann asked me if I would go wake up Sarah so that she could play some more, too. I walked over to where Sarah was sleeping and stroked her curly brown hair trying to gently wake her. She was really zonked out and it took a little while for her to wake up. When she woke up, we walked back to the pool together holding hands as she squinted at the bright sunlight and rubbed her eyes with her other hand. When Sarah saw Mark diving, she wanted to show her dad how she could swim so she and I got in and I helped her to swim. Jim and Ann looked on with pride and joy as their children "performed" for them.

I was struck by how relaxed and natural it was for this family to be playing and relaxing together nude like this. Granted, they are a nudist family, but still, the whole situation just seemed so perfect. It was like it shouldn’t be any other way. There appeared to be no barriers between the parents and the children – there was just openness and honesty and togetherness. I felt privileged to be there witnessing it – like maybe I was being educated on how family life should be whenever I get married and start a family. Don’t’ get me wrong - I grew up in a very loving and caring family much like this. My parents set an example that I will be proud to follow with my own husband and kids someday. The only thing I will likely do differently is to add nudism. But all that is probably a long ways off in the future for me.

It wasn’t long before Jim and Ann were out in the pool with the kids and me and we all played together for quite a while. Mark had us all taking turns diving with him and Sarah had us all taking turns helping her swim. It was great fun. Eventually somebody said something about being hungry (it wasn’t me although I was thinking it). That seemed to be Ann’s cue to take charge.

"Jim, you keep the kids busy," she said. "Sunny, if you wouldn’t mind helping me, I’d appreciate it."

Ann and I got out and headed toward the house. We dried off so we that we wouldn’t drip all over the clean house, but we didn’t get dressed. We went to the kitchen and Ann gave me instructions and then went back outside with the hamburgers to get them started on the gas grill. I started the things that Ann asked me to do and when she came back in, we worked together, got everything ready, and took it outside. I set the table and set everything out while Ann checked the hamburgers and did a couple more things.

It wasn’t too much longer before Ann called everyone to the table to eat. There were no arguments with that. Five hungry people sat down to a great late-afternoon meal. Food tastes so good when it’s prepared and eaten outdoors like that. We had a great time.

After everyone was finished eating, the kids wanted to get back in the pool. I asked Jim and Ann if they had any rules regarding how soon the kids swam after they ate. They said they didn’t, so I agreed to take the kids back in the water, but we had to stay in the shallow end for awhile. They agreed and the three of us returned to the pool. Jim and Ann stayed at the table for awhile and then I noticed that they had walked over to the far end of the pool area and were looking out across the yard. They were holding hands and talking and pointing out across the acreage. I assume they were probably talking about the place they hope to build in a few years. The kids and I continued our little games in the pool.

Pretty soon, Jim and Ann came back to our end of the pool and announced that we would need to get ready to go home soon, so we should play now. Jim and Ann sat down on the edge of the pool with their legs in the water and watched us. All too soon, the word was given that it was time to get ready to go. Up the steps and onto the pool deck we went. I helped Ann clear the table and take everything back in the house while Jim and the kids put away the pool toys and put everything back in order around the pool and on the patio. Ann and I worked together to pack up everything that needed to go back home and to clean up the kitchen.

When we were done, I headed back outside to get dressed (Ann’s clothes were still in the house where she had left them). By the time I got there, Jim and the kids had finished their chores and had dressed and were heading inside. I took my time walking to the pool house to get dressed so that I could just enjoy the surroundings a little longer. It seemed so serene and quiet after having been out there with the children all afternoon. The sun was getting low in the sky, casting long shadows across the pool deck. I took my clothes from the clothes hooks, but instead of getting dressed immediately, I took them over to the end of the pool where I could look out over the yard one more time. I laid my clothes down and just took in the awesome beauty looking out over the acreage of the newly mowed yard. I could understand why Jim and Ann wanted their own place like this so badly. I slowly finished dressing and went back in the house to join the others.

When I got back in the house, they were already taking things to the mini van. I pitched in to help. Jim and Ann went back through the house one more time to make sure everything was squared away and that all the doors were locked. Then we piled into the van and went home.

When we got back to Jim and Ann’s place, we all helped unload and I helped put things away even though they told me I didn’t need to help.

When things were put away, I said, "Well, I’d better be going. I’ve got some serious studying to do before class tomorrow morning."

"We remember those days, don’t we Jim," Ann said.

"Thank you so much for taking me with you today," I said sincerely. "I had such a great time. And your kids are so sweet."

"I hope you weren’t too bored," Jim said.

"Oh, I wasn’t bored at all," I said knowing that he was kidding. "It’s been a wonderful Sunday afternoon."

"We enjoyed having you with us," Ann said stepping forward and giving me a hug. "You’re a nice person and we all like you."

Then each of the kids gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and made me promise to come see them again real soon.

Jim was next on the hug list, so I gave him a quick hug and said thanks and good-bye. Then Ann grabbed me one more time and we gave each other a firm hug as she said that we would do something again together before too long. I told her I would look forward to it.

That night whenever my mind happened to wander while studying, I couldn’t help but think how wonderful the afternoon had been with Jim and Ann and their kids. It was so relaxed and there seemed to be this sense of security that was present. I don’t know how much the fact that they are a nudist family has to do with any of that. They act the same way all the time whether nude or clothed, but somehow when we’re all nude together – I don’t know how to explain it very well, but there is this special peace and sense of confidence and belonging that is present. I’ll have to think on this a little more and maybe talk to Ann about it. She is so insightful on life issues. I really admire and look up to her.

Another observation: kids are such natural nudists. I know that sounds funny, but to them, living life openly and free of clothing is the normal, natural, preferable way to be whenever practical and possible. They really set the example that we should all follow.

I feel privileged and grateful to have been invited to spend the afternoon with such a wonderful family. I’ll never forget it.