Swim team wrap-up

It's been about a month since swim team ended, and while we're enjoying a little more free time, especially on the weekends, we sure do love and miss our pool time! 

I can't wait for the day when I have the majority of the kids competing at the meets! These two have had so much fun at the meets together! I really have to cherish the moments when they're acting like best friends!:)

The little two missed out on quite a few meets this year due to weird illnesses that plaqued our family for almost a month of swim team. Kevin and I got to take turns at the meets, while the other one stayed home with the younger ones. ahh, the joys of lots of kids!

Miss Peyton got into the swing of it all and became an old pro at the meets.

Sometimes she was a little more focused on me, or those cheering than on the actual event. This was taken during a relay and it was almost time for her to jump in, but she just sat there smiling for me!

Love all the 6 and unders in their train on the way to the ready bench!

Pretend this isn't so blurry, I just had to get a good shot of Peytons dive. I love this girl!!

Halli really is like an old pro at swim meets now. Ive said it before and I'll say it again...how did she get so old? She really is, so much fun to watch race!

The 7/8 girls medley relay did awesome this year and they were so fun to watch! 

Lexie and Izzy at one of the meets Lexie was actually at. They found the jewelry guy and I don't think they hardly left all day! These are some true girly girls!

The final meet of the regular season was divisionals, where the girls had a decent meet, but not their best. Halli should have won a couple events and while she did great in them, some other girls came ready to take it that day and Halli ended up with a few second places. I don't even have any pictures from divisionals. It was miserably hot, and long, and I was too busy with JJ to even think about taking pictures! Peyton did great as well, and she just keeps on improving, that's the most important thing. 

After divisionals, we had the annual recognition ceremony. They all get to get together and play and eat, and run around like crazy, and to top it all off, they get a trophy to take home! 

Because Peyton has a late birthday, she gets to be in six and unders next year too, and I think that'll be good for her! 

Halli got MVP for the 7/8 girls. She had a great year and has decided that she loves swimming so much that she wants to try out year round swim this year. That's going to be a whole new ballgame, but I think it'll really help her with her technique. I'm just hoping she actually enjoys it and doesn't get burnt out!

Peyton and Lexie had a best friend during swim team, armand. He is seriously the best babysitter! If I couldn't find the girls, all I had to do was look for him and there they were. I don't think they bothered him too much, he seemed to like the attention, but I was grateful for the extra eyes on them for sure!

Once all that was over, we just had one last meet to go. Halli qualified for Ponderosa this year in the freestyle. She qualified for allstars in the breaststroke and butterfly, but those are both on sunday, so we only had this one event to go! She actually qualified at the first meet of the year, I was kinda shocked, but I shouldn't have been, that girl never ceases to amaze me.

Lucky for us, Blake qualified for ponderosa as well! It's always better when you have your best friend with you to cheer you on, and keep you pumped up for your race! This also meant more play time for the girls! I think Izzy must be the so patient, Lexie is constantly manhandling her, and she just lets her. I  always feel bad, but they have a very lovey friendship for sure!

Halli was coveting all the trophies. Someday Halli, someday! That's always a good goal to have!

She doesn't really get nervous, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but she was excited to go race one last time. I think this venue might have been slightly more nerve-wracking than a regular meet for her though. 

She's all the way in lane 8, and was one of the last people in the pool. Someday she'll figure out her start!

When she finished, the time on the scoreboard said 17.7, which was her worst time of the entire year. The timer told her she finished in 16.4, but Kevin gave her a little pep talk, cause we were pretty sure the timer was wrong. It wasn't the best note to end the year on, but she was at ponderosa, so she couldn't be too upset with herself.

we had to get the picture of these two. I should compare it to their first year! Hopefully these two will get to stay side-by-side for a very long time when it comes to swim team! I'm just glad they're different sexes so theres no competition between them, just pure excitement and cheering for each other!

We came home after the meet and I decided to look online and saw that the timer had actually been right, the scoreboard was wrong, and she had qualified for the finals at ponderosa. That's a pretty huge deal and lucky we saw it at about 3pm and she didn't need to be there till after 4. She was beyond excited that she got to go back. They have two final heats, and she was in the slower of the two heats, but it was still in the top 16 of the "best of the best" (ponderosas slogan).

At the finals, both girls on either side of her false started. Not a great way to get ready, I don't know if that threw her off or not, but she ended up swimming 17.4, which was accurate and really was her worst time of the year! Go figure.:) But she still finished 15th overall. When she got her ribbon, which is super pretty, lavender and very fancy, she said, " it's my prettiest ribbon, but it's also my worst.":) 

Hey, last time she went she didn't even get a ribbon, so we're just super proud of the job she did, and can't wait to see her and her sister improve even more in the years to come!