Family day in the pool

When we got home yesterday from the swim meet, our sweet girl wanted to swim some more! We all got in the pool and played a little HORSE and Claire even gave Jeff and I some swim lessons. I wanted to learn how to do fly. I have to say after trying and failing miserably, I have a brand new appreciation for what Claire does each day in practice! It is exhausting just trying to learn a new stroke!

 Claire and her Daddy are always goofing around and it is fun to capture some of those moments!

 I can't let Jeff be the only fun parent so Claire and I had to get some fun shots too!

More first place ribbons!

These girls rocked it yesterday at the meet! I love how they are growing their friendships and getting stronger each week!

 Claire pulled off an easy win in the 25 fly.

 She also took home first place in the 100 IM, doing fly...

 back...

 breast...

 and free!

 Claire loves to help coach her friends on their event. Thankfully, her bestie Karsen is very receptive to advice from Claire!

                      Love this kid to the moon and back!                       

                                     

 Another wonderful summer league swim meet in the books! All the hard practice Claire does each week is definitely paying off!

Pep Rally before our swim meet

Claire's Norchester Dolphin photo this year. We know Snugglebunny would have loved it because he always loved pig tails!

The team had a pep rally last night to get pumped for the big meet today. They had a poster making table, tattoos, and a photo booth area. It was lots of fun watching all of the kids having a good time!

Karsen, Claire, and Raegan...love the bond these girls share!

The team doing the team cheer.

 Before home meets, the coaches pour "dolphin water" into the pool to help the kids swim faster! It definitely worked for Claire!

Taking home the win!

Summer league is in full swing! Today we finished our second meet and it was a great meet for Claire! She pulled off some wonderful times and beat some tough competition!

Here Claire and her buddies are hanging out before the meet.

 I love this picture. It shows the determination and concentration Claire has when she is focused on swimming as hard as she can to beat someone who is seated 0.3 seconds faster than her on the heat sheet!

 Claire diving in for the breaststroke of her Medley Relay.

 The girls all did such an awesome job cheering for their teammates. This is one of the best parts of summer league, watching everyone encourage each other!

 Another great picture showing Claire's determination and focus. She is stretching out her legs and arms, getting ready to beat the girl next to her in the yellow and orange cap who is seated faster than her by less than a second! Claire pulled off the win and took 2 seconds off her breaststroke! This girl can really swim when she has a little fire under her!

 Claire rocking the back stroke, another 1st place win for our girl!

 All smiles knowing she beat the girl who was suppose to be faster than her and knowing she took time off her backstroke! Guess all those hard practices at the pool almost every day pays off! We were blessed to have MamaLu and PapaDo come out to watch our sweet girl kick some booty! So glad they are such an important part of our lives!

Happy Mother's Day!

 My family gave me a wonderful Mother's Day today. We started the day at church where Claire helped Jeff and I in the kindergarten class. Then we ran home to change and headed out to the first summer league swim meet of the season (it got canceled yesterday due to the weather). I got to watch Claire rock her 50 freestyle and swim hard in 4 other events! It was a beautiful day and so fun to spend it as a family. I am beyond grateful to be given the blessing of being a mother. For this child, I have prayed! It took us a long time to become parents, and we could not be more proud of the amazing daughter God entrusted to us to raise. She makes me so very proud (which I am sure you know by now if you look at any other posts on this blog!) and she inspires me to be a better person every day! I thank God for her and for my family! God is so amazingly good!