Swim Meet & Friends

Leah playing with toys between events

Bay swimming his 25 Freestyle all by himself!

Bay & friend Nelle...very silly

Eric & friend Nathan visiting for the week

We had some friends visit from California this week, and the kids got to catch up with their good friends as well during the day. We had a cook-out for them one night with a bunch of families over for swimming and combined birthday party and visiting...it was lots of fun...the kids got to play all together, and the grown-ups got to catch up (now that i think of it, did we ever get to actually talk to each other???) I think we counted 18 children and 8 adults!

As for the rest of our summer, we have 1 more week of swim team, and then we will get a break from that before school starts. I am getting ready to teach some swim lessons in our pool, which is exciting...one of my favorite things to do.

The garden is overflowing and ready to become a lot of work with harvesting and canning pretty soon, the tomatoes are loading down the cages and the corn has tassled. If we can just take care of that pesky groundhog who is taking bites out of everything!!!

Swim Meet News!


We had a swim meet this week and Bay has really been practicing hard to get ready to swim all by himself! All weekend at home and at practice this week he has really gotten the hang of swimming and doesn't need any sort of flotation to help him out at all anymore. He was chasing Eric around our pool this weekend, and at practice was jumping off the starting block and swimming the whole length of the pool, in addition to going off the diving board and swimming to the side! We are so proud of him and what a fish he has become, so we were excited when he told his coaches that he wanted to swim in the next meet all by himself.

Unfortunately, our next meet was not at our home pool, and the strange pool intimidated him a little, we think. Anyways, one of his coaches told him she'd get in with him, but wouldn't hold onto him, and he thought that would be just fine. As you can see in the video, after he dove in, he stopped on the lane line to make sure she was with him, and then swam the whole 25 meters, only stopping one time to rest! It is so amazing how much he has learned in swimming this summer!

Eric, also did a great job at the meet. He continues to take time off of his strokes, and although butterfly is certainly his best stroke (lots of 1st place ribbons in that), he is working to improve all of them. He was very excited that his freestyle relay won their race at this past meet...they've been very close many times, but hadn't yet won the realy until now.

Enjoy the video and pics!

Happy 4th of July!!!

We had a super fun July 4th celebration here! It all started in the morning with a bike parade at the end of our street. The kids (and me) had fun decorating the bikes and wagon the day before, and then several other kids age 15 months to 12 yrs joined us the last 2/10 of a mile of our street to show off their National Pride! A kind neighbor at the end of the street provided refreshments for everyone. When we got to the end and were having refreshements, Eric said to me, "Mommy, when are we going to have the parade?" I think he had something more in mind! This was just the first year we did anything like this, and we think that perhaps next year we'll let the bigger kids start much further down the street and meet up with the younger ones closer to the end.

Later in the day we relaxed in the pool, and then had some friends over at Heather's parents' house for a cookout. We all piled onto the sailboat and went out to watch the fireworks from the water. It was a first time seeing the fireworks from the water for our friends Grace & Elliott, and I think they had a great time!

Overnight Sailing Trip

We just enjoyed a great weekend sailing trip with Heather's parents. We took the sailboat out for the weekend...a first for the kids. The weather looked perfect...windy and sunny...so we seized the opportunity and went! We sailed a bit on Saturday afternoon before cruising into a quiet nook in Mill Creek off of Solomon's Island to anchor for the night. We cooked dinner on the boat, then hit the bunks for the night. We awoke to 10 knot winds and sailed all the way out of the creek to the Chesapeake Bay. The winds were excellent and we made it across the Bay to Hooper Island Lighthouse and back home before dinnertime! The kids had a great time...they settled in and adjusted to the relaxed atmosphere of the boat today and were actually all just sitting around for a large portion of the day, doing nothing...amazing!!!!

Enjoy the video of a bit of our sail and more pictures to follow at the bottom of the page!

Bay in the jumpseat

Eric and Bay with Hooper Island Light in the background

Silly shot of Dennis & Heather...I think the salt air has gotten to us :)