School began in our area today, which means summer is over. Except the weather doesn’t know that. We’re at the beginning of a 90+ week, while we’ve had about three 90+ days in the last year or so. I’m not complaining about a lack of 90 degrees, because me and heat don’t really get along. But it is a bummer when the weather gets hot and kids want to swim and instead they have to sit in classrooms while the community pool closes for its annual maintenance.
We went out into the heat of the day today and finally took some official 10-year-old-pics of Ethan (2 weeks late). Ten. Years. Old. Double-digits. I just can’t think about it too much or…or I start feeling really old. And we can’t have that, can we?! I thought it might be fun to look back on some little Ethan…
2001
2002
2003
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2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
I couldn’t procrastinate any longer on taking his photos because tomorrow he’s going to the dentist and getting a bottom tooth pulled. It’s wedged in there and causing things to shift too much, so out it comes. I’m hoping this experience does not cause too much trauma. We’re not officially starting school until next week, and swim practice doesn’t start up until the 19th, so we’ve got time to recover.
Speaking of school…we are joining a local group of Classical Conversations this year. CC is a nation-wide program that offers homeschoolers a structured, classical approach to homeschooling while meeting once a week with others who are using the same curriculum. It should be a challenging, full year!
Fall baseball is back in swing, school starts next week, swimming starts the week after that…maybe it will feel more like fall by then. As much as I like summer, fall is still my favorite!
The weekend brought us summer weather, a visit with friends, a swim meet. That’s the short story. The longer version includes fun, relaxation, hospitality, good food, outdoor time, encouragement, baby snuggles, laughter, sunshine, dining al fresco, boys-n-dirt, giant marshmallows, fast swimming, charcoal face paint, nerf dart-tag, conversation. Thank you, Scovel family, for giving so generously!
PS – The picture of Ethan in his hat and robe was taken by 7-yr-old Luke S. (with my camera) at the swim meet. I loved the expression he captured!
My blog seems to have turned into a swimming report lately, but for family/friends who don’t live here, this is a way to share!
Last weekend, we attended the Northwest Age Group Regional Championships in Washington at this impressive facility.
This meet brings together the fastest kids from seven states: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming. Ethan had qualified for three races in the 10&Under category: 50 fly, 200 medley relay, 200 free relay. His 50 fly didn’t go quite as well as he’d hoped, but he was only .5 second off his best time. His free relay team was ranked 4th going in, but they pulled out a very secure 2nd place finish and dropped 3 more seconds off their team record for a final time of 2:00.80! It was a very exciting race! Ethan had his best time ever for his 3rd leg of that relay. And he also had his best time ever for his 3rd leg of the medley relay which happens to be a 50 fly. His team was ranked 1st going in to this race, so there was some pressure to maintain that placement. But they made it look easy and dropped 3 more seconds off that team record, too, to end at 2:14.67! Wow! It was thrilling to see them get gold and silver medals in such stiff competition.
You can watch it, if you’d like. They are in lane 4 (see the lane numbers on the starting blocks). Each leg is 50 yards long and they go in this order: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, free. Ethan is the third swimmer.
Friends, a MAX ride, Beaver baseball and fireworks on a perfect summer evening = fun memories made.
On a side note…of the 47 days from nearly the end of June into the beginning of August, we were either gone and/or had house guests for 32 of them! It was a fun, full summer! I hope to share more of that soon.
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– 2007 –
