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 :)

How Time Flies!!!

Wow! Has it really already been a month since I posted on here??? I guess once June got here, our family went into overdrive, and we have just now slowed down long enough to take a break! Several people have asked me if we ever finished our room, and I guess we did, so check out the webshots page for updated pictures in that "room remodel" album for the almost final product! We still have not put in actual carpet (it is just a remnant on top of old linoleum), but it works for now. There also isn't really much on the walls, but those things will get added as they come to us. But everything is painted and structual changes are all done. Next winter project, the bathroom, hopefully :)

Another big project around here was the addition of an above-ground pool to our backyard. We have wanted to put one in right off the deck for a while, but didn't think it was possible with the grade of the hill, and had resolved to putting it up in the field behind Heather's parents' barn (not the ideal location). When the excavator came to prepare the site, he convinced us that it really could go where we wanted, without costly retaining walls or drainage issues. He maneuvered that bobcat and sloped/graded our hill like a baker icing a cake! It was amazing! Now we have a pool right off the deck that the kids can enjoy and not have to hike across the field to get to it. Our weekends since the installation have been spent planting grass, landscaping with rock around the pool, and building a deck/bridge from our existing deck to get to the pool! Heather is planning on hopefully being able to teach some lessons later in July to some kids from our home school coop.

Eric and Bay have been busy with swim team this summer-practice every morning and swim meets (the whole family gets involved) twice a week in the evenings. Bay has been practicing hard, and is almost ready to swim in a meet. They love the time swimming every day and making new summer friends.

We have enjoyed some unusually cool summer weather so far up here, and have only just today turned on the a/c because of humidity. It has been nice to have the house open and airy for so long into the summer. Hopefully the a/c won't have to stay on for too long!

I am adding pictures to our webshots album, so explore some new photos when you get the chance.

Memorial Day Visits...

Heather's brother, Andy, from California

Heather's cousin, Laura and her husband, Kevin from Florida

We had a great Memorial Day weekend complete with visits from both Heather's brother, Andy and Heather's cousin Laura and her husband Kevin! We all had a great time catching up with each other, spent lots of time out on the grandparents' sailboat and power boat (tubing, swimming on the beach), cooking out, etc... There are tons of picutres from the weekend on our webshots page, and check out the video of the boys swimming off the sailboat! I will be adding a link in the sidebar of the blog so you can go directly to any other "youtube" videos I may have posted but not included in the blog, so check that out from time to time as well if you wish.

Grandma's 77th Birthday!!

Dennis' mom just celebrated her 77th birthday! She came over for a birthday lunch and cake. Her favorite present by far was the calendar with pictures of the kids on each month. We are so glad that she still has the energy to come over and spend time with her grandchildren on a pretty regular basis. It is so nice to have all of our family close by-we feel very thankful and blessed!

Celebrating 10 Wonderful Years!!!

Dennis and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and we were able to plan and go on a weekend trip (our first ever since kids) out to western Virginia along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had a great time and came home refreshed and renewed! We stayed at Peaks of the Otter Lodge along the parkway, and explored towns and attractions up and down the parkway from there. We hiked on one of the peaks near where we stayed (called Sharp Top peak) and even saw a black bear. The elevation was about 3900 feet. It was quite a hike! We also explored the city of Roanoke, Mabry's Mill in Meadows of Dan, and Waynesboro.

The kids had a great weekend having their Granni & Gramps all to themselves. Leah was so excited to see us leave, she said, "I want to say good-bye to you, mommy!" (meaning, I want you to leave) Of course, they were glad to have us back by the time we got home :)