Summer Swim

This year's swim season was a much different one than any we've had in the past. For starters, I only attended 5 or 6 practices total. That is a far cry from me being at the pool every weekday morning for about 90 minutes! This year found Ruby with doctor appointments and therapies many mornings. So many that 3 or 4 days each week Eli and Maddux would have to ride their bikes to the pool and meet me back at home when they were done. Crazy that they are old enough to do that!

The other way this season differed from years passed is the amount of meets we attended. We had our church camp interfere with one meet and an overnight camp interfere with one meet. Unfortunately that only left three meets for the kids to participate in. They loved those meets, but it felt like only half of the season.

Both kids swam very well this year. Maddux swam 'up' for practice, working with 9-12 year olds each morning. (Eli swam up too, but the 11-12 group practices at the same time as 9-10, so no one noticed :) I felt like that helped push Maddux a bit; her efforts were rewarded at the end of the season when she received 'Most Dedicated Swimmer' for her age group.

Finally, we did not plan to attend the county swim meet this year (timing was off), but there were three other 7-8 year old girls from our team competing, and they needed one more swimmer to participate in the relays. She helped them out and they placed second for their freestyle relay! Maddux did a great job in the anchor spot, coming back from being behind when she jumped into the water. Such an exciting event!

Maddux has talked about doing year-round swimming, but we are waiting until the school year starts to sign up. She is an excellent swimmer and enjoys the meets, but she is known for momentary interests, so we are trying our best to make sure before we commit. I hope she does; she would do so well in this sport!