Swim Meet

The kids had a swim meet on Wednesday and Mom was given the evening off from volunteering.  That made for some great photo opportunities.  

Will did a 100 meter relay where he was the 2nd swimmer.

They came in 2nd place.

Then he did his freestyle race, 25 meters.  

Kylie is the little queen of the team.  The big kids adore her and carry her around all the time.  She gets more high fives and waves than anyone at the pool.  Even Coach Michael carries her on his shoulders all the time.  

Will asked to try the 25 meter fly this time.  It is a very hard stroke to manage and he did so well until the very end when he was tired and missed a stroke and was disqualified.  I'm so proud of him, though, because tonight at practice, he said he'd try again next meet.  

There's Kylie with a different big kid.

Kylie did a freestyle race, too.  She ALMOST won her heat, by 1 second.  It was really close.

She also tried the breast stroke race this time around.  She was DQed in that one for using her arms the wrong way at one point, but she wants to do it again.  I'm so proud of them for trying new things and being part of this (undefeated), amazing team.  They have gained so many role models and positive interactions while learning and mastering an important skill and exercise.  Swim team has been wonderful for both kids.  

Kayaking Day

We had our first river outing with Team River Runner today.  Josh has been out on the river a whole bunch with one of the other guys from here, but we haven't done an outing as a family anywhere in a really long time.  The whole reason mom and the kids joined TRR in February was to try and reconnect with our own Wounded Warrior.  Josh was very hesitant to attend this group but now he seems to have found a healthy hobby again.  Hopefully, it stays something we can share.  

We all paddled 1.5 miles up river and saw a Bald Eagle, a blue heron and a turtle along the way.  Then we turned around and paddled/floated back.  The kids did really well for their first big outing, even though they got tired and got a tow for a ways.  

They are really the only small kids out there; even though there are more at the pool sessions, those kids aren't as ready to be on the river.  Will and Kylie are just little water rats.

4th of July

We held our annual 4th of July party last week.  I think it is actually the kids' favorite holiday; more so than Christmas because it is hot out and their friends all come over and they get to run around in the yard getting wet and having fun well into dark.  At dark, we break out a million glow sticks and watch the yard light up.  

And our neighbors put on an amazing show.  Right in our backyard.  Literally.

This year, some families agreed to chip in and bring back the waterslide from the baseball party.  The water slide guy is like "our guy" now, so he brought the slide at 10am on the 4th and didn't come back until the next day.  

Of course, Mr. Sports organized a bunch of games in the yard, too.