Swimming! and Olympians

  

Jake swam in his first swim meet last Saturday.  It was so amazing to watch him swim down the pool in his first race.  He was very excited and got a blazing time of 2:08 on his first 25.  He was entered again in Wednesday's meet and beat his time by 43 seconds, down to a 1:25.  All while wearing a snorkel mask :)  He has made great progression from not putting his face in, to swimming 2 meets.  Tomorrow will be their last of the season, but I'm sure we'll be at the pool daily.

Bella was invited to the Herndon Olympics.  Only the top 2 swimmers from each event were able to go from the 9 teams.  She was disappointed in her finishes, even though she got 2 PRs and their relay team did well.  The event was run very well and there were 2 Olympians, Ian Crocker and Lacey Nymeyer, there handing out the awards.  They had put on a swim clinic the day before and Bella had a good time at that, too.  She learned (I hope) that these top athletes put in a tremendous amount of time and effort over the course of their entire lives to reach the pinnacle of their success.  Lacey commented several times that, "There are only two things in life that we can control:  our attitude and our effort."  If you give your best effort and have a good attitude, then the rest falls in line.  I couldn't agree more (even though sometimes I need to heed that advice more)

Ian Crocker, Isabella, Lacey Nymeyer

Alaina has done well with swimming but has re-started practicing her true love:  gymnastics.  Especially since her new class is geared to girls who have an aptitude for gymnastics!  She has been doing MANY handstands, into back bridges throughout the house.  I'm sure we will soon be into back handsprings...  No gymnastics pictures of her, yet.