Swim meet with PapaDo!

 As if being at a swim meet from 7am to 2pm wasn't enough, Claire wanted to have a swim meet in our pool with her Addisyn and PapaDo. It was a pretty exciting meet!

 PapaDo was such a great sport and worked hard to try each stroke that was requested!

 The races were very close and many ended up in a tie!

 After the "meet" was done, the girls spent some time trying to get PapaDo off of the float. It was quite hilarious to watch!

 Finally, PapaDo called it quits and the two girls worked on trying to get across the pool by both sitting on the float and using their feet to push them to the other side. God blessed us with such a wonderful weekend!

More fun at Summer Swim Team Meets!

Claire's summer swim team, the Norchester Dolphins, assigns each younger child a "dolphin buddy". This buddy is an older swimmer on the team. This year Claire's dolphin buddy is Calah Gallegos. Each meet they get each other a small gift and cheer each other on in their events! It has been fun watching Claire come out of her shell a bit and go talk to her buddy!

 If she beats her fastest time in an event, she gets a "speeding ticket". She can turn these in for small toys. She picked these cool glasses as one of her prizes!

We are so blessed to have MamaLu and PapaDo in our lives! They are so supportive of Claire and her swimming meets. We love having them here to cheer her on and to visit with us. Each Saturday meet is usually followed by an evening of time together eating and playing games! Claire just soaks up the attention and we have really grown close to these two amazing people!

 I just love this group of beautiful young ladies! Raegan, Claire, Addison, and Karsen are such a great group! They all get along really well and the older 3 have been friends since kindergarten. I pray their friendship continues for a long, long time!

First swim meet for Norchester Dolphins

Claire had her first swim meet for her summer league, the Norchester Dolphins. Her good friend from Fleet swim team, Addison, is also on this team. This year, Claire was able to get her best friend, Karsen, and her sister Raegan to join also. We are blessed to have MamaLu and PapaDo join us as well!

 Raegan, Karsen, and Claire

 Claire had some tough competition for her 25 freestyle. She managed to come in second place but beat her best time by almost a second. She swam it in 16.62 seconds!

 She was able to pull ahead of the same girl in the breast stroke and got first place for this event!

 Claire did the 100 IM for 10 year olds and under and came in first place in this event too!

 We are so proud of how great Claire did today with her events! However, what makes Jeff and I the most proud is watching Claire cheer on her teammates in the relays and in the events she wasn't swimming in. This really showed us that she is realizing what is means to be a supportive teammate!

I love the relationship Claire (and Jeff and I) are developing with PapaDo and MamaLu. These two people have been a true God-send in our lives and have become a part of our family! As you can see, Claire just eats up the attention!

Swimming at A&M!

 Claire qualified for the invitational swim meet at Texas A&M this weekend! Since she is convinced she is going to go to college here, she of course was super pumped to get to swim in their pool!

My excited girl getting ready to swim her first ever long course meet in a 50 meter pool and her first time to ever swim in the A&M pool!

 Once she got onto the pool deck, it was a bit intimidating and her awesome coach could tell she was a bit nervous. He caught her and gave her a great pep talk and helped to calm her nerves. Thankful for dedicated coaches like Coach Rick!

 Jeff was timing so he was able to catch Claire after each of her events to congratulate her on strong swimming!

Thankful to share this experience with GMa...

 and Mama Lu and Papa Do! We sure are blessed with amazing support!

April Fools....on Claire (twice)!

Of course we can't let April Fools pass by without pulling a prank on Claire! This year Jeff got her donuts and cut one open and put mayo inside it! Claire took a huge bite and realized the joke!

 As you can see from her expression, she was not too impressed and you could just see the wheels turning in her brain on how to get back at Dad!

 All set...Claire got some Easter zebra cakes. The plan was to set a regular on on her plate and to take a sponge cut to the same shape and covered in frosting onto Dad's plate. Little did Claire know, Mom was behind the prank and when Claire went to get the camera (because we just had to have a picture of Dad biting into the sponge), Dad switched his sponge for a real zebra cake.

 Dad took his first bite and Claire couldn't believe he thought it was good! She started to laugh and couldn't hold it in! Jeff loved this and continued to eat his "sponge" until it was all gone! 

 Claire was absolutely floored that Dad ate an entire sponge and thought it was good! She had to spill the beans and let him know that he just ate a sponge in frosting!

 After a little bit of time, we finally told Claire that she had been fooled, again! She wasn't too impressed but did agree that we got her really good!