Our PA Cousins Visit

Our cousins from my Dad's side of the family up in Pennsylvania came down to visit and we caught up with them at First Landing State Park in VA Beach. Jonathan is 3 months older than Bryden, and Nathan is 1 year younger than Emmy. All the kids got along FABULOUSLY, it was one of those great, rare days where there were no arguments, just good times for everyone. Parenting is so much easier when the kids all get along! What a great day!

Ice Cream at the Pool

Ahhh, we spent many a day at the pool this summer. I was head coach for the Old Church Otters, and Bryden was on the team, and Emmy got stuck hanging out at practice most days. But, we got to play at the pool a lot this summer, which consequently meant we ate a lot of ice cream! Enjoy!

Bryden's Theater Camp

IWe signed BRyden up for a camp with the Christian Youth Theater. They put on some amazing shows, and they had a camp this year close to home, and Bryden LOVES to be on display, so we figured it would be perfect. It was, she absolutely loved it. They performed "The Lion King" and Bryden was "Flower #2" and said two lines "Where are you from? Why are you all alone?" The production was actually quite amazing, considering the group of about 50 kids ages 5-12 sang about 5 songs and it was all choreographed. We thought they did awesome. I will post a video soon!

Bryden's Swim-a-thon

Bryden has been rocking the summer league swim team this year! I am so proud of her, and so glad that I get to coach her everyday. We have a small team, so we do a lot of fundraising. We have a Swim-a-thon this weekend, and this is the video that Bryden made and I sent out to friends and family asking for donations! She came up with most of it by herself (especially this listing of the acceptable monetary donations, haha!). I also attached her first "legal" breaststroke swim. She got DQed two meets in a row, but she is legal now and loves to swim it! Oh, and Jim is the BEST cheerleader out there :o) Enjoy!

Emmy's First French Braid

I LOVE doing people's hair, especially french braids. I keep asking Bryden to let me do hers, but she says she doesn't like braids! HA! I used to get in trouble all the time in high school for playing with one of my best friends hair during class. Anyway, Emmy's hair is finally long enough, so I did a double braid. Wouldn't you know I took her to get her hair cut the next week! Go Figure!

Swim Team

I decided to get back in to summer league coaching this year, especially since Bryden was going to be on the swim team. I was hired by Old Church and I loved every minute of it. I LOVE the laid back atmosphere of summer league, and our pool atmosphere is amazing. It is a small team that is out in the country, and we all had a blast this summer! Here are some cute pics of Bryden and her very first meet. She made a sign for her "big sisters", Savannah Wright and Tiffany Pohlig! And there is a picture of Bryden's very first ribbon...second place! Then the last pic is a picture of our Honorary Swim Coach! Emmy was a trooper, she ended up coming to way more practices than anticipated, and she did a great job of keeping herself busy (like in this pic). My team's parents and swimmers were amazing, they would play with Emmy, and Bryden when she wasn't practicing, and keep an eye on then so I could coach! I am very blessed to be a part of the Old Church Otters!

Here is video of Bryden's VERY FIRST swim, in her very first swim meet! She is 5 years old, and she was the leadoff on the 8 and under 100 Free Relay. She was a little nervous, got right up on the block, then panicked a little. After talking with her for a couple minutes, she decided she wanted to start from in the water. No problem, even though she can dive off the block and everything, she just wasn't quite comfortable doing so today! She swam so great, I am so proud of her. It was tough for me because I couldn't truly enjoy the moment since I am coaching the team and had to watch the other swimmers too, but I got to see her races today, and she did AWESOME! Thanks to Nanne and Grampa and Uncle John for enduring the heat today to watch Bryden, and to get photos and videos for us since Jim and Emmy are in Maine!
Here is Bryden's very first time she swam breaststroke! It was totally illegal, but she actaully has a great stroke, we just have to get the timing down, make it only one breast kick, and take out the freestyle kicks...maybe by the end of the season she will be legal! She soooo wants to do breaststroke though, especially since Mommy was a breaststroker!

Here is Bryden's 25 individual Free. Her stroke already looks better from her first race, and she definitely swam faster! She even had great sportsmanship, she blew the other two girls in her heat out of the water, it's not in the video, but she sat on the edge of the pool until both girls finished their race! How awesome! We didn't even talk about doing that!