Our last five weeks have been spent immersed in swim. This is Julia's second year on the Greenwich Club Gators swim team and her passion is only growing!
Chilling before her first meet
fueling up between races (with Ramona Quimby on the headphones)
'swimmers take your mark'... GO!
breaststroke - her favorite!
proud Gator Mom!
Julia is particularly enjoying the team this year because she's swimming with the bigger kids and working on different techniques to increase speeds. The latest new skill is a relay start where the arms are used to create momentum before diving in.
The dual meets are over for the season and Julia has been thrilled with her results. She has placed first multiple times in breaststroke, second and third in butterfly, and she has met her own goal of increasing her speed with each successive meet. We have one week of practice to go and then the finale of the season - the All Pool Meet!
For one last glimpse into our Maine trip here is a video of a song Julia created and sang... over and over and over again. I've spared you the crazy, yelling version of it in favor of this tamed down one!
Playing on the lake was taken to a whole new level this year. Last year, Julia went out in the kayaks by herself for the first time but this year, she and Benjamin went out together! She pedaled and he navigated from the back. That left Mom and Dad free to use our new toys - inflatable paddleboards!
big sis in charge
sailing away
after 4 years of talking about it!
demonstrating on my "yoga board"
Others also got in on the paddle boarding! Grandma Su-su particularly enjoyed it!
For me, the highlight of the boating for the week was taking a family paddle out to the lighthouse. Julia and I took the yellow kayak and Benjamin and Andrew canoed. We started out joking about it but ended up making it the whole way! It took us an hour and was a great accomplishment for all!
Of course, there were lots of other water activities as well. Fishing was on the agenda and was a successful adventure for all!
1 fish....
2 fish...
whoa! a huge fish!
There were plenty of rides on Grandpa Herb's boat.
And last but certainly not least, there was swimming. The kids swam every day, even when it was gray and chilly. Julia worked on perfecting her dive off the dock, had fun snorkeling and spying on the fish, and acting like a fish herself!
Benjamin was really comfortable in the water as well and for a few days only used a pool noodle as his flotation device. Then he realized that he could do more if he was wearing his lifejacket so he switched and demonstrated all his strokes!
I would say that we had our fill of the water but really none of us wanted to leave the lake! We're definitely a water family!
Our annual 4th of July trip to Maine kicked off this year with a family-filled weekend! Andrew's aunts, uncles, and cousins joined us at the lake for a reunion. The last time we were all together was 4 years ago so the kids had no memory of it and loved "meeting" everyone!
Our game fanatic, Mr. Benjamin, has invented a new one! The game uses a two-speed flying disc which he created using Snap Circuits (one of our all-time favorite toys). The basic premise is that you send a disc flying in the air and then tap it to sail it across the room.
Here's the circuit set-up:
There is an elaborate points system based on what the disc hits and where it lands. Here's what the points system looks like:
Each player takes 10 turns (sort of like bowling), at the end you add up the points, and the player with the highest points wins.
Practice Monday - Friday at 7:30am. The temperature has been averaging about 62 degrees at that time of day. brrrr. But she is in her element - diving right in and swimming away! This year she has moved up to the older kids lanes and basically swims non-stop for an hour. And she loves it! She's smiling when we get, smiling climbing out at the end, and always trying to figure out when she'll be back in the water.
Her first meet is in a couple of weeks so there's more to come!
