Fish and Seals

Noelle joined swim team this year. It was sort of a last minute decision - so last minute that we didn't even get her a suit for the team. She took one set of swim lessons last year for two weeks but otherwise has worked just with mom and dad and been a pool rat for a few years. At the beginning of the season Noelle struggled a bit to get from one side of the pool to the other. In time trials she was just over a minute for both her free and her backstroke for the length of the pool. She was loving it though and worked hard throughout the season. By the end of the 6 weeks she wasn't quite a superstar but had a series of ribbons and trophies to her name.

Noelle is tall and at 5 has a swimmer's body. Who knows if that will last but it certainly was to her advantage this year! Noelle made divisionals for 6 and under girls because of her hard work this summer. Out of the 24 best girls 6 and under of the six teams in our division, Noelle got 13th in freestyle. In fact she was only 1 of 2 girls that were still 5 selected. In backstroke she did even better; she was 6th overall, and the top 5 year old by far. Her official times were 38.63 in freestyle (38.21 was her fastest at the last regular meet) and 36.93 (35.78 was her fastest). We aren't going to do full-time winter swim but I know Noelle loves being a seal and swimming her heart out so we probably are looking at that some time in the not so distant future!

Here are some meet highlights. It did pour during 3 of our 6 meets!

Team cheers!

Proud brother in the rain

Post swim all smiles

Down time with her BFF Veronica. They did lots of relays together this summer and got 3rd at divisionals which equaled a special trophy!

Kellen isn't quite ready to be a seal but he is also coming in to his own at the pool this year and is quite the little fish. He is fearless! Last week he jumped in to the 5 feet unassisted and swam back to the wall which scared the daylights out of me and earned some pool time out but I was secretly pretty proud of how well he did and how comfortable he is in the water. Kellen did 2 rounds of group lessons and has his second private lesson coming up later this week. He can swim on his front pretty well and can float for a few seconds on his back. He is actually sort of famous as a woman came up to me when I was at the track last week to ask if I was the one who went to the pool who has the little blonde boy that swims so well. He really wants to be on swim team next year at age 4 and his swim instructor thinks he actually will be ready if he keeps swimming before then! Here he is before my trip to Cali in the diving well.

During round two of group lessons. He can use his arms now!

So proud of little ones!

Friends, Food, and Fireworks

We love Catonsville, especially on the 4th. Whenever we start to think about moving south somewhat seriously, I remember how much I love this holiday in our town and the fun, friends, and traditions that follow each year.

This year the 4th started with pouring rain and cool temperatures in the low 70's. Thankfully by lunch the rain cleared and we headed to the Knights for our first round of friends and food. We hung out about an hour or so and then we ran up Frederick Ave just in time to take our place on the curb in the reserved area Bryan and the guys staked out in late June. Yes, we are those people that put chairs out.

 

The parade was great as always and the friends were even better. We had quite the crew of little cuties!

After the parade we adjourned for playtime and a BBQ dinner with friends. It was lovely to let  the kids play, the moms chat, and the dads to hang out on the deck, grill, and drink beer.

After the dinner we had dessert and got all prepped for fireworks with our glow sticks. The fireworks were lovely, the traffic afterwards wasn't, and we ended the night exhausted but happy to live in the 21228.

Happy Fourth!