Lily joined the Ladera Liquids swim team this fall, and has practice 3 to 4 times a week. She's always been so comfortable in the water and now she gets to do it all the time! With coaching! It's the cutest thing ever.
Yesterday was her first swim meet. Such a new experience for us! We pulled up to Huntington Beach High School in the rain at 7:45 am. It was already bustling like a little city with Easy-Ups set up all over, beach chairs, a full make-shift "kitchen" on the side of the pool selling breakfast burritos, bagels and muffins, etc., vendors selling swim gear, tons of excited swimmers, and crazy parents. We learned a lot from the veteran parents though and had a great time watching our girl's nervous excitement.
All ready for her events:
Having some snacks after warm-ups:
Her event numbers, 5 and 21, written on her hand:
Her first event was the 25 Freestyle, just one lap. She didn't hear the whistle, so she was the last one off the deck, but her great dive made up a lot of time. She came in 3rd in her heat, but how awesome is that for her first time?!!
She is in the white cap in lane 4 (she almost started in lane 5). I kind of almost missed the end because I was watching her and not the camera!
Her second event was the 50 Backstroke, and she came in 2nd in her heat AND overall (about 20 girls). Here she is ready to take off, with Paul giving an encouraging word. She's in the white cap:
We are so proud of you, Lily!!!
And guess what Mr. Max's new sport is? Fencing! He is officially a cool kid, because who do you know that does fencing, huh? It was 100% his idea, so I went online to see where in the world a kid could take fencing lessons. And what do you know? There's a great center just 10 minutes away! So we signed him up and he takes an hour-long lesson twice a week. Check him out!
They spend about 40 minutes doing footwork and technique, then they get to don all the gear and fence with each other for the last 20 minutes. Seriously cool. Coach Nick is from Romania and is so great with the kids. Max is always sweaty with a huge grin on his face after class. After his first lesson he said, "Well, I finally found my sport!"
And in other news, Max consented to a haircut--finally!
Before:
After:
Sweet '80s 'do! I feel like he looks like my son again--ha ha!
Have a great week, everyone! Get ready for some fun Halloween costumes coming soon!
