Awards Banquet

We attended our swim team awards banquet last night. It was a really nice evening. Both girls got trophies!

Madeline was awarded the third place point winner for her age group. She was so excited, and I was excited for her. She has worked so hard. So many of the kids on her team have been participating on swim team since they were three and four years old and swim and compete all winter long. Madeline could not even do a legal breaststroke until last summer. She was finished with third grade before she knew what butterfly was. Now, she loves to swim individual medleys, and insisted on staying to the end of every B meet, often past 9 o'clock in the evening, to swim one.  I am really proud of her hard work.

Sophie should get a giant trophy for the amount of time she has spent supporting her big sister at swim and dive meets, as well as for her own daily swims. Sophie loves her sleeping in time and her down time, so I was so pleased to see her swimming most days. Hour long practices are strenuous, especially for a seven year old. Way to go Sophie!!

Both girls have met so many friends in our neighborhood through swim team, which was my original goal in having them participate. I am so happy for both girls!

Around Town: Mount Vernon

We visited Mount Vernon one afternoon last week. Kent took off work early to join us. It was beautiful and educational. We are looking forward to going back since we weren't able to see all of the grounds before closing time. We were able to tour the house and the museums, but missed the tomb, the gardens, and the animals.

Around Town: Great Falls

We finally made it to Great Falls. It's been on my list of things to see for three years. Every time we tried to go in the past, it was so crowded and the traffic to get into the park was overwhelming. This attempt was successful. We walked around the park and saw some gorgeous views of the falls.

Divisionals

Madeline was so excited to swim two events at divisionals today! She swam in the 50 meter backstroke, and in the second heat. This is the first year she has been seeded in the fastest heat at divisionals! She swam a personal best time, too. I am not sure of her overall place out of 12 swimmers because I couldn't see the posted times.

Madeline also swam in the 100 meter IM event. Again, another personal best time! Such a great way to end the summer swim season.  Although she was first in her heat, there was another heat after hers. There were 12 swimmers in this event; I think she may have placed 6th or 7th. You can see the video below this picture. Just click on the link. (Lane 4, white cap)

Maddie swimming 100 IM Divisionals 2014

Dancing Queen

Sophie is enjoying a tap, jazz, and ballet class this summer. She really loves it, and I think we'll stick with it this fall. I love putting her hair in a bun each Thursday evening. So cute!!

Camp

After dive and swim practices this week, Madeline participated in a jump rope boot camp organized by her jump rope coaches. The new kids and the alumni were able to bond, have fun, and learn some new moves. The hosting mom graciously loaned out her sport court and backyard pool to round out the mornings of jump rope.

Blast from the Past!

Last week, my childhood friend, Melissa, contacted me. She was in the area to visit family, and we were able to have dinner together and catch up. We were friends during elementary school, middle school, and high school, but lost contact after that. We hadn't seen each other in over twenty years. It was great catching up!! Can you recognize us in the photo below (sixth grade!!):

Melissa is in the front row, center, and I am in the back row, far right. So much fun catching up!

Summer Fun!

When we're not swimming or diving, we are squeezing in some other forms of summertime fun. We met Grandma and Jim for ice-cream at one of my favorite places one afternoon.

Last week, we took the kids to their first concert, Crosby, Stills, and Nash at Wolf trap. We had lawn seats and umbrellas due to the storms that evening.

On one hot sweltering day, we met up with friends and a local water park to cool off.

We spent July Fourth hanging around our neighborhood. We bought some small fireworks for the driveway, grilled burgers, went to our pool's annual party, and had the neighborhood kids over to run around in the yard. It is hard to believe we're only two weeks into our summer break!

Relay Carnival

Yesterday was the divisional relay carnival. Each pool in our division sends relay groups to compete. This year, Maddie was selected to swim for the 9-10 girls. She was so excited. I volunteered to host the group. I had the girls over for 4 hours. My job was to make sure they stayed inside, were well rested, and ate only healthy foods. The girls were so good; my job was super easy.

Each girls is swimming her stroke for the medley in the picture below, Maddie is the backstroker.

The girls were fantastic at the meet. They placed first out of six in both of their relays: 100 medley and 100 freestyle. Our pool won the meet and got a huge trophy!! The kids took pictures with the trophy and the coaches. Since it was 9:30 pm, my phone couldn't get a good photo of that, but I am happy I took these cute ones earlier in the day.  Go sharks!!

Summer Time!

For our first official weekend of summer vacation, we joined Kent's side of the family at Capon Springs in West Virginia. It was such a unique place, think Dirty Dancing/Family style summer camp. Think shuffle board, hiking, swimming, front porches, rocking chairs, creek wading, and special time with family. The pool is filled with spring water and meals are served family style. There are no televisions or telephones in the rooms. We had a lovely time!!