from swimmer to quarterback?

probably the craziest week of the summer; on top of the continued wait for the quarter...

with roger in germany, max still swimming every morning, ella in her art class in the afternoons, i survived a week of multiple garage workouts in the hottest week of the summer so far.  thanks max and ella for "helping" me during my workouts!

love that they thought i was leaving them at home alone to go to the gym.  max started to panic telling me that it was not okay, a grown-up needed to be present, they're not allowed to be home by themselves, etc.  ella's face completely lit up with mischief.

on tuesday, max PR'd in backstroke with a time of 1:00:51.  sooooo close to under a minute buddy!!  and he placed second in his freestyle heat.  

we celebrated wednesday morning with snow cones!

ready for another meet on thursday night.

first time wearing a swim cap - he's so adorable in it!!

he came in third for freestyle and PR'd with a time of 51:26 - keep it up, max!!  so, we celebrated at the kona beri truck.  :-)

thanks for joining us in the sweltering heat, gigi and poppie!

on friday, my mom took els to art, so i could take max to see cars 3 at the movies with the rest of his swim team.

with one of the assistant coaches, lauren

ella had a fantabulous time at her art class - they painted a garden, did a couple of science projects (including a salt/amonia creation that is still growing on my counter...eew) and a beautiful birdhouse that she sculpted from clay, glazed and painted.  she even put little hands on it and labeled each for dad, mom, ella and max.  love our talented little artist!!!

we survived our week!!!!  yay!!!  and welcomed roger back home!

early, early saturday morning, back at it for the muppet meet invitational.

the theme was superheroes, so he rocked his cape.  until it got too hot!

so same deal as last week, where not everyone placed.  there were 5 heats in each event and 8 lanes of swimmers and he ribboned in both freestyle and backstroke.  awesome job, max!!!!!

he wanted a sleepover with ella, but didn't want to sleep in her room.  sweet sweet ella agreed to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor in his room.

 celebrating this week being over and my birthday week beginning - out for dinner with two of my fave girls, kipley and ali.

also a reason to celebrate - while i was at dinner, roger texted to say that max's quarter finally passed!!!!!  so so relieved that we didn't have to have medical intervention.  

waiting on the swallowed change

oh man.  last week was tough.

monday was nice - ella started VBS, max had swim practice, max had speech, picked up els, mom and dad came over so i could meet a friend for a late lunch and the gym.  that was a good start...

tuesday.  it started out okay.  VBS, swim practice...  after lunch, i told max to lay down for a bit and have quiet time to get rest before his swim meet.  he came out of my room 5 minutes later crying hysterically telling me he swallowed a quarter.  yup.  a quarter.  ahh!!  after talking to his pediatrician's office, they wanted me to go to the ER.

well there it is.  safely in his belly, which is good news.  but now we are waiting for him to pass it...

he took home a copy of the x-ray to remind him not to swallow foreign objects.  but he was cleared to swim!

wednesday and thursday still waiting...  

we passed some time at the fletchers' pool with a fun playdate!

we also had an appointment for ella on thursday.  she is healthy and happy, we are so thankful for our sweet, smart, amazing, thoughtful, creative, empathetic, joy-filled girl.  we love you so so much els!!

friday morning was max's swim-a-thon.  last year, he swam 10 laps in the allotted 30 minute practice session.

he set a goal of himself for 15 laps - he beat it and swam 16.  way to go, max!!!

ella wrapping up her week of VBS

 friday night, i went to the gym and a much-needed girls' night, followed by an early, early saturday morning with these 4 faces:

we were poolside by 6:45 a.m. for the don baker invitational.

max did awesome!!  instead of placing in individual heats, they were placed by event.  he didn't ribbon in freestyle, even though he had a great time (they only placed the top 16 and there were 25-30 swimmers in each event), but he placed 15th in backstroke with a time of 1:03:84.  that's super impressive because he was one of the only 5 year olds there, most of the kids were 7 and 8.  yay, max!!!!  

 we chilled the rest of the day on saturday, then said good-bye to roger, who is in germany for the week.  boo.  we spent all of sunday at my parents' hanging out and swimming.

happy father's day, poppie (and daddy!!) - we are so so so lucky.  

...and, as of this writing, i'm sad to report no progress, so we keep waiting (waiting)...on the swallowed change.  

a first place first

back in the desert and onto our summer.  we had a chill day on wednesday and on thursday had our first meet of the season.  

alora and max cuddling before warm-ups

silly faces with daddy right after coming in second for backstroke!!  yay, way to go, max!!  he had his best time ever of 1:02:07.

lined up for freestyle

off the blocks like a champ after getting some last minute coaching from lauren and hailey

woot-woot!!  max came in first place in his freestyle heat - with an awesome time of 52.65 seconds!!!  

yay max!!!  we are so super super proud of you.  you work so hard on your form and strokes.  you earned it buddy!

on friday morning, ella had her bi-annual blood test (for allergies).  she was super brave!

we told her she could pick out a treat as a reward for her bravery - her pick: a sleepover at gigi and poppie's!!!!  thanks for the last minute sleepover, mom and dad.  the kids had a blast with you as always - love how much they love you guys.  and roger and i scored a date night!

friday fun day at swim practice, max's crazy jump off the blocks

he finally received his ribbons for last thursday's meet.  he was super super excited to have earned his blue ribbon.  blue because it's his favorite color, not really because of the place it signifies.  :-)

stay tuned for this week's post.  it's a doozy so far...

la jolla with nana 2017 and 21/40: san diego rock n roll half marathon

and we were off to san diego!!  more accurately, la jolla.  

we found some dinosaurs at a gas station - max was super excited.

upon arriving, we were horrified to see the condition of the house we had rented.  after stubbornly sitting in the office, while rog and nana met with the operations manager and took the kids out for ice cream (max, apparently likes the flavor of rum!), we were given a new rental property which worked out perfectly.  although it did have an insane number of antiques occupying nearly every square foot of the home.  

it was in the perfect location - just a few blocks from the beach!  we spent our first day in la jolla getting settled and enjoying the cold, june gloom.

max was exhausted after his cold swim and didn't want to walk home.  he stood for a while on the sidewalk, in a very sad voice saying "just leave me here.  i'm tired.  i'll be home for dinner."  ha!

whadda great daddy!

day two, we made the drive to legoland.  the kids had a blast!

ella was super excited to see the star wars area in miniland.

we missed unikitty, her fave character, but found wildstyle!

back at home, nana taught the kids several card games.  they loved spending time with her!!

on friday, we all met up for brunch after my workout.  i love love love a little beach town where everything is in walking distance.  ella found "tattoo" ink pens, so the kids spent time drawing on themselves and nana.

roger and i also got to enjoy a date night - thanks nana!!!

more beach time!!

saturday, we went back to legoland for star wars days.

ella's personal hero(es)!

doing a scavenger hunt

and because it warmed up to about 65 degrees, we went to the water park!  oy.

she was super grown-up and had me walk her to the entrance to the stairs for the water slides, but went up by herself.  love my little dare-devil!!

back on dry land and grabbing churros before heading out.

on sunday, i ran the san diego rock n roll half marathon - i finished in 2:16:41 (almost 2 minutes faster than last year!) and finished 5,839/15,317.  a 94 year-old woman beat the world record for the oldest woman to finish a half marathon and i saw her on the course - so inspiring!

we spent the remainder of our vacation relaxing and playing at the beach.

the kids and nana back at home, reading.

what an amazing vacation with nana.  thank you for everything and thank you to my mom for staying with george!