Our summer swim season has come & gone, this year, Ezra & Tobin both joined the team-and loved it!  They had practice every morning from 9-10, and never once complained-although some mornings it took awhile to actually get into the pool.  Ezra, as you would expect was quite serious about it, and because he fell nicely into the 8 & under age group (and there aren’t an abundance of strong swimming 8 year old boys), he ended up swimming for “points” (not the exhibition heats) pretty quickly and even moved up to the B relay team by the end, which finished less than 2 seconds behind the A relay team in the final meet!  He improved his stroke a ton over the season and really figured out the backstroke, that was important to him because the team is weak in the younger boys backstroke ;-).

Here he is ready to dive in for a relay with Coach Ethan . . .

Marian “aged up” this year and unlike the boys, there are a ton of girls in her age group and so this year, she was competing against a lot of girls older than her.  She has also grown probably 6 inches since last summer and we think she is figuring out how to use those long limbs of hers!  She loves it even though she’s not finishing at the top, loves cheering on her team, loves the whole team atmosphere, all with a great attitude!  And, she also greatly improved her stroke (especially the breast stroke), is so comfortable in the water, and took off lots of seconds in the final meet.

And, Tobin . . . he wasn’t sure he could swim the length even though he could last year and he practiced (I use that term lightly) in the first lane by the wall.  So, he would swim a few strokes, grab the wall, take a breath break, and repeat.  It didn’t help that there were 25 barely swimming kids in his lane.  So, on the morning before the first meet, I wanted him to swim the length after his lesson, I knew he could but I wanted him to see that he could!  Ethan helped by telling him he’d race him (we give Ethan credit for getting Tobin to swim last year).  He jumped right off those blocks and easily swam the distance (25m).  The funny part came that night at the meet.  Most of the races for kids under 10 are just 25m, Tobin was swimming the 25m freestyle and 25m breast stroke.  He was VERY nervous, and told me “I forgot everything they [the coaches] told us”.  After I explained everything again, he was better.  There are a couple hundred kids running around, 50 races and probably over 100 heats so it is pretty intimidating!  He gets on the blocks for his 25m and takes off — REALLY fast, wins the race but turns and does another 25 back!  Everyone was yelling for him to stop but he couldn’t hear anything, when he pops out of the water, everyone clapped and I explained that he only needed to swim to the other side.  “I didn’t know, it WAS my first race you know”.  When the coaches needed another boy to swim the 50m, they knew Tobin could do it, so he got picked.

Tobin would mess around during practice, was very social, and had a lot of fun but was all business at the races!  While he didn’t get points for the team like Ezra, he was one of the younger kids competing and also greatly improved his times.  He will be great for the team next year!

Both sets of grandparents were able to see the kids swim — sorry Dick & Sandy, I didn’t have my camera at the meet you came to.  The kids loved having them watch . . .

and, buying the Kona ice

 

The last meet of the season was July 27th and it was our club’s turn to host the League Meet (all 5 teams compete).  The theme was Out of the world (thus the alien glasses)

During the regular dual meets, everyone gets a ribbon based on their finish in their heat with their time on it-they use them to see how they improve from meet to meet.  But in the league meet only the top 12 finishers in each event get ribbons.  Ezra came away with 3 ribbons for his 3 events and his B relay team got 6th place (getting points for his team).

It was an ALL day meet, and pretty exhausting but a lot of fun.  Our club came in 2nd place overall.

It was a great season, it was fun seeing the boys have so much fun with it:)

We had a great week with Alyssa & Kashton, they all just played & played!

We went to the zoo . . .

They were tickling Kash, trying to get him to smile, no one else is looking but I love his grin

We had some reading time most days

And, some before bed TV time

Went to our favorite village

 

I only had to keep track of 5, this poor mom has 12!

We had such a great week with them, my week comes in August 🙂

We headed to our church camp right after school got out, Tobin & Ezra both get to do the weekend camp for 2nd/3rd graders, Tobin’s first camp by himself (can’t believe he is a 2nd grader!)

We stopped at a state park on the way, another checked off the list

And, we dropped the boys off, Tobin was a little clingy but we got him playing and got out of sight fast.

We decided last year it would be fun to do a special weekend with just Marian, Aunt Faye & Uncle Al hosted us for the weekend at their condo right next to camp-they spoiled us!  And, we got to hang out a bit with Kelly’s cousin Kathie and her family, her son Jack was at camp also.

Uncle Al took the girls fishing the first night

There are so many things to do in this area that we never see because we never want to leave “camp” during our family week.  So Kelly, Marian & I did some exploring

We visited a lovely garden-my Mom would love this place

a beautiful lighthouse

The caretaker allows people to use the organ if they know how to play, I guess Kelly was the first in awhile to attempt-it was pretty cool sounding

Love this picture of another lighthouse-yes, I amped up the color & contrast;)

Some biking on an old railroad line that Kelly & I discovered last year, some hiking and chasing after butterflies (the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail)

Out to the big lake

And, back for more fishing, this time, she caught a small mouth bass (at least I think that’s what it was )

Back at camp the boys had a great time, Tobin was all smiles when we picked him up:)

Their counselor Noah

Tara & I decided to do a kid swap this year, I took Alyssa & Kashton home with me for the week and she would take our boys in August when Marian was at her week of camp

The three tired campers . . .

We stopped at another state park on the way home, they had a great visitor center and a nice hike around a lake

The boys had fun & we had a special weekend with Marian:)  I think we may try to do it next year with Ezra

 

I always joke that I want to homeschool my kids the last month of school because there is soooo much going on and honestly I’m just done with all the volunteering, all the projects, field trips and everything else that seems to get crammed into the end, Jen Hatmaker sums it up pretty well in this blog post  , I can probably even blame it on my blog being so far behind.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a volunteering fool the rest of the year, and I LOVE it; I’m just a little fried at the end:)

So, here is a collection of end of school year activities, minus some that either I didn’t feel like taking pictures at or I just didn’t attend, e.g. Marian’s water park field trip-all day in the heat with like 100 5th & 6th graders, I just had to pass on that one.

Field Day for Ezra & Tobin, I was at the sack races . . .

A trip to the zoo with Ezra

Sporting my new haircut

And, an end of the school year celebratory cake (thanks for the idea Trish)

 

We had our annual mom weekend Memorial Weekend, it was a great time with my sisters & Mom-I am blessed:)

We went to the beach this year

What is it about a post rising out of the ground that makes us all want to be The Karate Kid?

We think Mom looks like Rocky . . .

Every year we get pedicures, quite colorful this year.  And, we always have the debate about who has the best feet . . . so take a vote, you can just pick a color (blue, yellow, pink or orange)

There was a beautiful sunset, it was chilly but worth it:)

Tara headed back north and Mom, Trish & I ended our trip as we started it, with these amazing Peanut Butter Bon Bon Sundaes!