Swimming the Summer Away

The day the team jammers came in the mail.  My older boys would not be caught dead posing for a picture in them:) unlike these little guys who were so excited try them on and feeling pretty cool:)

We have spent A LOT of time this summer at the pool for SWIM TEAM  (thus the lack of posts) and I have loved {almost} every minute of it:)  I love that my boys get a great workout everyday, that they have been part of a wonderful team of coaches, kids and parents all working together to create strong swimmers and build confidence.  Swim team is a big commitment with practices everyday--and 5 { very long} meets.  The swim meets are exciting for the boys--but sitting in the sweltering hot humid southern summer weather for 5-6 hours at a time almost KILLS me, I am not kidding!  But I can honestly say--it has been worth it and we will do it next year and every year that we can.  What a great experience for my crew.  Our last meet is this weekend and although it will be nice to not be spending so much time everyday at the pool, we will miss it!

Cannon was one of the youngest children on swim team.  I was able to sneak him in since all his brothers were on the team and he would turn 4 during the summer.  This was the first meet--he had a cheering squad trying to coax him into the pool to swim his little "guppie" lap with his dumbell.

He finally did it!! It was so sweet with everyone cheering on the little guys who start the meet off!

One of the line judges (for the real heats:) was congratulating him on his big debut swim--he is so proud of himself!

Bridger preparing for his kickboard heat with one of his best buds Kooper.  They take this very seriously!

Connor and his friend Cameron splitting earbuds waiting for their heats to begin.  He is a couple of years older than Connor and his Mom still requires him to do swim team.  Which really helps back my request up:)

Cannons's little buddy Kristen--she was a huge help with getting him to praticipate on swim team in the beginning.  I LOVE this girl!

Yes--we got this face a lot the first week or two!  He would tell me "I don't fink I can do this"  I can report that he now happily runs to his practise and loves it!

Bridger had no bad days--he was always ready to go!  He is a determined little swimmer and has improved immensly this summer!

Coleman is the swimmer in the center...

He won his heat!  Woo hoo!  Dad congratulating him on a great swim!

Here goes TJ--he is the swimmer on the left.

GO TJ!!

You can tell that who is always at my legs and gets photographed the most.  Next year I am going to do better about getting shots of my older boys, even if they don't want me to:)

Unfortunately I did not get any shots of Connor swimming--I could kick myself! He really did not want to do swim team, but I think he now secretly likes it.  It is a great workout and he has always been a hard working kid.
  

The team had several sweet parties that the boys loved...

including  a pizza party with dolphin balloons. 

What a great experience to be a 'Dolphin'!

Thank you swim team for filling up our summer with good hard FUN!