Swim Team 2016

My guppies

We have been extremely busy since April, which is why I've totally slacked on blogging.  Most of the busy-ness was swim team.  Brian and I both joined the board of the neighborhood swim team, and it took over our life!
Brian became an official so he got to be the mean man that disqualifies little kids.  Plus he had to wear the dorky "Officials" outfit and old man white shoes.  I'm so proud of him, lol.  I did have to draw the line when he tried to add an awful looking sun hat to his get-up.  "Is that your husband."  "Nope, not mine, I have no idea who he is."  Kidding, kidding.

There's my official man

  He also became vice president and worked really hard for the team and the kids.  I was just as bad.  I was the secretary so I got to be the annoying mom who bombarded parents' emails and FB feed with swim team news 50 times a day.  Seriously, though, we had a great time helping lead the team.  Our neighborhood almost didn't have a team this year so it was hard work getting it back up and running.  It was A LOT of time and energy but it was worth it for the sake of the neighborhood.    We were exhausted by the end, though, and glad that it's over until next year.

Halle, Arden, and Jack all swam this year.  Some tidbits on them...
JACK
Jack only made it across the pool one time the whole season at a meet, but hey, he's four.  The one time he was successful was due to the major bribing of cotton candy and ice cream.  This is Jack his first week of swim practice with Coach Lauren.  He loved his junior coaches: Lauren, Sterling, Austin, and Nicolas.

The junior coaches and other older kids really took to Jack and Jack practically turned into the team mascot.  He was passed around from kid to kid and they would play with him, give him piggy back rides, and always ask for him to come sit with them.  The older boys thought he was the coolest.  I spent a lot of time running around at meets, so at least I knew that he was being watched by someone.  One time I was sitting down at the meet because I didn't have anything to do at the time.  I made him sit with me under the tent.  After about five minutes of being there he says to me, "I want you to go time or go be busy."  What he really wanted was for me to take my eye off of him so he could go run with his friends.
He received one of the funny awards from the coaches.  He got a superman backpack since he declared himself Super Jack and always flexed his muscles

He also got a $150 gift card to a local swim shop for being the boy who raised the most money for Wacky Olympics.  Thanks Papa Mike, Gigi, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Adam!

At this particular swim meet another swimmer took to babysitting him the whole meet, all on her own.  He loves older women, and the fact that she had a teddy bear.

And he loves younger women.  There was a 45 minute gap between Arden's practice and Jack's practice.  During this time Jack played with his friend, Emerson, on the playground.  This is them walking from the pool to the park. 

Hanging at the ready bench with some of his boys: Sutton, Kaiser, and Kyle.

ARDEN; Arden did so well this year and had some exceptional improvements.  She learned to do butterfly and breaststroke.  In addition to that, she started swimming the 100 yard IM!  She made All-Stars in fly, and had the opportunity to swim in the progressive relay at Ponderosa.  This was her third year on swim team.  I just love this kid and the energy she brings.

she received the "high point" award for 7/8 girls.

A big part of swim team is the camaraderie.  One of Arden's best friends also joined swim team this year.  They had so much fun swimming relays together and the weekend sleepovers before swim meets.

That pose though.  Could it be any more perfect?  Miss Long and Lean on the cover of a sport magazine.  

you turn your back for two seconds and your daughter is all tatted up.  What's even better is the next day when she wears a dress for church and her legs are still covered in Sharpie "Eat My Bubbles.".

Arden was invited to be on the progressive relay team at Ponderosa!  She is the little one there in the gold cap.  For progressive relay, you have five swimmers: one 7/8, one 9/10 one 11/12, one 13/14, and one 15/up girl.  They totally got smoked, but it was a good experience for Arden.

HALLE

This was a great season for Halle.  She made Ponderosa again and was 0.4 seconds away from breaking the pool record for fly.  She still has next year to do it since it is a 13/14 girls record and next year she'll be 14.  I know she'll do it!  

She made some friends and got to know the coaches pretty well.  She likes year-round swimming, but I think she really enjoys summer league because it keeps the fun in swimming, and is not so serious.  There's lots of social events and you get to hang out with the kids in the neighborhood.

You would think swimming is a pretty safe sport (well, you know, other than  drowning)  but actually Halle has been injured a few times.  Here she had pulled her shoulder muscle.  This is a candid shot taken by our team photographer of her in pain trying to massage it out before her race.  At least she didn't chip four front teeth by running into the wall.  Yeah, that happened to another one of our swimmers.

off the starting block.  I love these action shots because they're hilarious

My kid racking up the points at Summer Thunder

She helped mentor two younger girls on the swim team and helped Arden and Jack with their strokes.  She made some new friends and had a great season.  Since Halle is so quiet, she got a  princess whistle as a funny award from the coaches: princess because it's beautiful just like her beautiful strokes (have you seen this kid swim?  She's like a mermaid in the water.)  And a whistle so she can be loud.  Ha!

The kids pumped up for Divisionals!  Our team, which almost didn't make it this year, placed 2nd at Divisionals!

a great part of swim team is hanging out with your family.  They do love each other.  But then again, this sweetness lasted 2.5 seconds before the bickering started again.  That's what pictures are for: to capture the rare moments of peace and pretend in your head that it's always like that.

This is a perfect illustration of an indoor swim meet: waiting around for hours for your next race.  Playing cards on an empty pizza box in a crowded cafeteria in camp chairs that have molded to your butt.  In fact, my butt fell asleep just now thinking about it.  Good stuff.

chants and cheers before the meet.  Our team has great team spirit.

My girls showing off their ribbons.  They both got high point girl for their age group.

They are dressed up for our fundraiser, The Wacky Olympics.

Arden and Brian hanging out at Awards night watching the slide show.  She loves her daddy and lately is always sitting by him.  I keep mistaking Arden for Halle in this picture.  And she looks like me here too!

Brian and I had to work a few shifts at Summer Thunder.  We chose the best job ever, putting labels on medals.  You get the best seat (and by seat I mean you get to SIT.... in the AC!)  in the house to watch all the races, and the job is super easy.  We feel like we deserve some medals too.  Real winners right here folks.