gooooooo family!

last year i wrote about the first time i ever swam our lake. this event happens every year at the celebratory weekend of festivities. last summer was the first time we lived here for it, this summer it was awesome.

the weekend started with the lake swim, (wait, wait, wait! technically the weekend started with tom taking a long weekend from thursday, so we enjoyed the olympics, swam and floated had impromptu dinner with friends on the deck, fab fri and then on saturday...) i swam again and this time i was the only one in the under 40 women's division; so i got a trophy. which is just wrong and funny since every one of the 12 or so women in the over 40 swam it faster then me. but as one of them pointed out to me there were plenty of under 40's still in bed or at the nail salon (or, i was thinking, too tired from motherhood) and i should be proud for showing up and finishing strong. the best part was i shaved 6 minutes off my time from last year, which is huge!! especially for me who is never speedy. i can swim for a long, long time just not fast but i have been working on my breathing and endurance at a faster pace, so ok i'll take it. i only have a few more years till i'm where i belong at the bottom of the list in the over 40 anyway. my support boat was super cool, with tom, r and z cheering me on.

5/6 triathlon, r is 2nd from the right (photo by j.b.)

r participated in his first triathlon in the 5/6 group. he did great!! then came the sand games where the kids participated in a frozen t shirt contest, (nothing like a wet t shirt contest!) egg toss and sack relays. the adults got to play too, tom sack raced with total style points. even though i'm in the under 40 bracket these old lady joints can't take a sack race.

kids sack race gooooo r!

adult sack race goooo tom!! (photo by r.l.)

then came the best part. on friday night, for the first time, r swam the 25m lane from end to end with no break and no stopping. this is huge for him!!! then on saturday for the games he wanted to do the breast stroke race for the 8 and under. when z heard that, she wanted to do the kick board race (they let 5/6 year olds use a kick board and a buddy if they want it in the -8, she's 4). ok sure, let's do it, and they did it!!! they did great!! they were so proud of themselves and it was awesome to see the people that i grew inside of me swimming on their own with confidence. after the races they said they needed to do that again right away. good thing there was a family relay. they were begging us to do it, of course we did, even though the wind was picking up and one of us wanted to go sailing ;) so right after the adult freestyle race, where i swam in the lane between 1st and 2nd place, which was super fun and i wasn't last; i wore my american flag swim cap to cut down on the drag from my skirted tankini...

the family relay was amazing. it was the first time we did something like that as a team (besides a sailboat race) and it was so fun!! r did the first leg with his breast stroke, z did the 2nd with her kick board then me and then tom; our anchor, which is so right in so many ways. what a fun day. we were at the lake from 9am till 9pm, good, good times.

oh but they weren't over!! sunday am held the kids lake swim. tom and r were support boat for one of our swim counselors who swam so fast, she was second to reach the finish. then we prepared for the sister lake sailing challenge held at our lake this year. it was windy and perfect weather, tom and the sailing club defended their winning status from last year and fun was had by all, and we finished the weekend of encouraging and cheering for our family as a team and all of us in individual events where we all did our personal best.

tom got a new sail, it's the red and white stripes

we hung out, swam the lanes where r practiced his version of backstroke and freestyle while pretending to be michael phelps. then we came home to watch an awesome thunderstorm pass through with brought us a magnificent rainbow to finish off a great weekend with "gooooo team c" still being chanted in my head.