Been a total slacker!

Well, I have been a total slacker this summer. Not even one post! The next several posts will be a major catch up of all that's gone on during our busy summer!

We spent almost every morning at the pool for swim team and swimming lessons. I was hoping that Bryson would be able to swim the whole length of the pool by end of his lessons so that he could be on swim team next year, but he's not quite there yet. Part of the problem was that we weren't as blazing hot as usual during June, so the water was really cold. Oh well, he really enjoyed it anyway. Here are a few pictures of him at his lessons.

He can swim about 1/2 the length of the pool. We'll keep working.
Jacob did so much better swimming this year! I always love the shots of him at the beginning of his races - he really starts well. His favorite strokes this year were backstroke and freestyle. An hour of swim every morning helped to use up a little of his endless energy.



At championships Jacob got to swim in the medal heat for the freestyle relay and his team got 2nd place medals!



Maddy really improved this year as well. It's fun to watch her swim because it's the only activity that she's involved in where we can cheer her on during it. Her favorite stroke is the butterfly with backstroke as a close 2nd. Her goal this year was to finally get a blue ribbon and she actually got several! One butterfly race had 9-10 boys swimming their heat at the same time as the 9-10 girls and only 1 boy beat her, she beat the other 3 boys as well as all the girls! She was only timed against the girls, so that was one of her blue ribbons!

Getting ready for backstroke. Maddy was fast enough this year to swim in the medal heat for backstroke at championships. That means she was in the top 8. She came in 4th, just out of medal contention. Darn.

Maddy's coach made a mistake and didn't put her in the medal heat for butterfly (her favorite stroke) even though her time beat 4 of the girls in the event. One of the girls didn't show up, so they told her she would get to swim after all. She was soooo excited that attempting to jump over a little half-wall, she scraped up her leg. She didn't even care about her leg, she was so excited to be able to do butterfly.
Well... at the very last min. (Maddy was already lined up in front of her lane for the race) they told Maddy that she couldn't swim because the girl showed up. She was devastated, but tried to pull it together for her other races.

Maddy was also in the medley relay, swimming backstroke, and in the freestyle relay. Her team got 1st place medals for the medley relay and 3rd place medals for the freestyle relay!

Our team got 1st place out of all 8 teams at championships! Way to go!
Here are Maddy and Jacob posing with the team trophy. It's taller than Maddy!
I didn't have my camera w/ me, but at the closing swim team party, their coach gave all the kids little individual trophies. Maddy was so thrilled because since swimming is really her only sport, she never gets trophies like Jacob does. She has lots of ribbons, and now 2 medals, but never had a trophy until now.

All in all, swim this summer was GREAT!

Stay tuned for more of our summer happenings. ;)