never happened

oh, swim championships are upon us!!!  this crazy sport of daily practices, meets that last 4+ hours, filled with card games and eating hideously unhealthy snacks, baking in the heat, all so you can watch your kid swim for a few seconds.  i'm telling you.  intense.

so normally, first day of championships are prelims and if you qualify, you swim the finals on the second day.  but for the littles, they swim backstroke finals on the first day and freestyle finals on the second day.

he did great on his backstroke and i'm so proud of how much he has improved this summer.  he's getting stronger and has worked super hard all summer.  all with a huge smile on his face.  just love it!

we stopped at a new gourmet doughnut shop on the way home to celebrate!

i was super happy that i was able to arrange our schedule so that ella wouldn't have to sit and wait with us.  she spent sunday night at my parents' and then tuesday afternoon, she had a playdate with her bestie, hailey.

love love love these two sweet friends!!

meanwhile, back at the pool, max and his buddy, grace.

with the boys, levi and jack, ready for his freestyle heat!  last swim of the season...

...and unfortunately, the meet was called due to contamination in the pool (read: poop).  seriously.  seriously??  apparently this was a league first and the 600+ swimmers and their families had to call it a day.  so sad for all the swimmers who worked so hard this past season.  

so we packed up and partied with the team at peter piper to celebrate the orcas taking first place!!

he made coach hailey proud with his plan (though thwarted) to do quick side breaths and hoping to ribbon in freestyle.  aww, buddy!

wednesday, i enjoyed a fun morning of shopping at la encantada with my mom.  while my dad stayed home and watched the kids.  although they reported that he just watched tv.  ha!

that afternoon, we had open swim at the orcas pool and the year-end banquet.  

with his little girlfriend, eleanor.  

thanks to our wonderful (and generous) family, max was runner-up in the swim-a-thon fundraiser!!!!!  he received an awesome orcas swim towel.

we loved all of our coaches!!!

whew.  can't believe swim is over.  thursday morning, we were off to see the new despicable me movie with the fletchers.

friday we had a chill day (with a playdate with max's friend, sebastian), then rog took the kids to his soccer game and  i was off to orange theory with a few girlfriends, followed by a yummy dinner.  i love my girls and am beyond thankful to all of them.

we are packed and east coast bound!

[king] swing[ing] in the [monsoon] rain

last week, ella had climbing camp at rocks and ropes.  she's been so super excited about it - especially after seeing an episode of 'american ninja warrior.'  love our strong and brave girl!! 

so the week was spent running back and forth between ella's rock climbing (which was downtown) and max's big practice week leading up to championships (on the far northeast side of town).

the kids also got their teacher letters!!!

ella will be in mrs. roh's 2nd grade class and max will be in mrs. shannon's kindergarten class (the same kinder teacher that ella had!).

hello, monsoon season!!!  we have missed you!

buddies waiting to swim their practice relays.

tuesday - practicing belaying with partners.  she made a sweet friend, alana.

it was fun to see her already becoming proficient with her belaying skills.

wednesday - a mini swing and some climbing.

thursday - i got there just in time to see her attempting the 'king swing.'  she loved it and was super proud of herself.

a lesson with coach hailey to wrap up the week of practice.

your dive is looking great, buddy!!

coach hailey said she would start butterfly with him and he was so beyond excited.  normally the kids don't learn the fly or breaststroke until they are 7.

friday - ella wrapped up her week of climbing with one final, awesome king swing.  she was belay-certified and she absolutely loved the climbing camp!!

you can't see in this pic, but she was feeling like a big girl, having her hair curled at the salon and eating her yummy dinner at her fave restaurant, zinburger.

all kinds of independent

last week, max literally spent his entire monday here:

on the back porch in his undies, carefully excavating his dinosaur fossils that he had previously buried with daddy a few days before.  the dedication on this kid!!  although, he did employ ella's help throughout the day.

tuesday we celebrated the fourth of july with a family outing to roadhouse cinemas to see cars 3!!  max was very concerned about any and all rules he needed to follow.

then it was off to gigi and captain's for our annual swimming, cook-out and fireworks!!  love love their family and our tradition.  

ella looks FAB in the pool - maybe she will consider swimming for the orcas next year??

the rest of the week was spent swimming (of course) and wrapping up the FINAL meet of the season!!  

friday night, we went to cheer on roger and his soccer team.  it was so fun to watch him playing the sport he loves so much!

yay!!  the t-rex was full excavated and re-assembled!!  this is, by the way, maxwell's current career aspiration: to dig up dinosaurs and drive them on his own train to a museum.  he has also said that ella can display her art in his museum too.  

saturday night, we surprised ali for her birthday, as she's been mostly homebound to take care of her hubby who just had a major surgery.  love love all of my sweet friends and so thankful for the way we rally around each other.  

pool time...here, there, everywhere

another week into our summer and it seems to be flying by!!!  on monday, ella started her week-long art camp at creative juice.  she was super excited about it because the theme was 'star wars mania' AND she was in the class with hailey!!  the girls were so happy to be reunited.  

max, meanwhile, was super bummed because swim practice was cancelled, but it was in lieu of a party with his swim team at skate country.

oh, it's starting.  all the 7 and 8-year old girls kept looking for max so they could skate with him.  he loved it.

back at it on tuesday for our last home meet.  love his smiles all the way down the lane for his backstroke.

on wednesday afternoon, we had ella's annual appointment with her allergist.  unfortunately, her levels are still high - to peanuts, pecans, brazil nuts, pistachios, cashews and walnuts - and that levels indicate she, god forbid anything ever happens, would have a systemic reaction.  but based on her numbers it would be on the less severe side.  some good news but unfortunately the doctor thinks that since her levels continue to climb, she will never outgrow her allergies.  ugh.  but still thankful she is otherwise a healthy and happy little girl.  

speaking of my happy little girl, she finished her art class on friday morning and here is her little "show."

she painted a droid named BR-64 that dispenses margaritas.  for me.  ha!

love her rainbow tie fighter

such sweet friends

then, it was off to another pool playdate at the fletchers!

we spent a relaxing friday night, then saturday, after an early workout with my girls, we were off to our annual birthday weekend at starr pass.

happy birthday to me - floating on a lazy river with cucumber margaritas with my best friend.  awesome!

cocktails on the patio after dinner followed by a girly sleepover.

 and back at it again for sunday morning before wrapping up my weekend with roger, els and max.

i'm so thankful for my fabulous birthday, family and friends.