Pool Fun

What happens when you give a 9 year old your underwater camera?  Lots of pictures like this:

He actually managed to turn this into a dive!

Guitar or weapon?

Rummikub opponent

While Rudy was away at Camp OmaPapa, Brady and I took advantage of a mild summer night for an evening game of Rummikub on the deck.

Backyard Wildlife

We haven't seen the huge pileated woodpecker that usually hangs around this year, but this red head has been a frequent visitor this summer.  He even loves the compost heap when the boys don't manage to turn it sufficiently. 

Update...the big guy came back!  And he brought a friend!  We watched two of them in the woods while we ate dinner on the deck one night.

Swim Team Wrap Up

After a bit of a rough start, we ended the swim season on a positive note! 

This season was Brady's first in the 9-10 age group, which is the first division where the kids swim 50M instead of 25M.  That, combined with competing in butterfly and breaststroke events, made for some disappointing meets at the beginning.  However, he worked hard and not only not getting a DQ, but also in shaving a whopping 15 seconds off of his breaststroke time.  We kept tables of both kids times so they could see their improvements; it's a unique sport in that you can see very measurable results from week to week. 

 

Rudy has the perfect birthday for swim team.  The age cut-off is June 1, so he started the season as a 6 year old, but was a 7 year old for most of it.  He was happy just competing in the freestyle and backstroke events, and his efforts paid off.  He managed to earn himself a gold time in both events at the championship meet.

A little summer reading time...

Our crew at an away meet.  We were extremely lucky this year and didn't have any brutally hot days for swim meets.

Yay!  Heat winner!  This was for the breastroke where he dropped 12 seconds!

The championship was held at the UVA Aquatics Center (where Ryan Lochte happens to hold a few pool records!).

Two cool guys ready to swim!

Checking out his adoring fans in the stands:

Gold cap! I think my favorite thing about this gold cap was how EXCITED Brady was when Rudy won his freestyle heat with a personal best time.  We were pretty sure it was a gold time too, which Brady couldn't wait to tell Rudy.  Then, when we almost left without picking up the cap it was Brady who remembered about it and took Rudy in for pick up. 

Rudy in the clerk of course, waiting for his next race:

Freestyle gold time finisher!

And a backstroke gold time!

Brady showing off one of his much-improved dives:

In the lead in his heat for the first leg (still need some practice on those turns!):

Chillin' in the team tent:

River

Even though they live so close, we hadn't seen Blake, Heather, and Skylar in ages.  Somehow we could never plan to get together until Blake and Heather were thousands of miles away in Hawaii when Heather and I finally pinned down a weekend to meet at their river house.  

It was blazing hot most of the weekend, so we were either in the water, on the boat, or in the air conditioning!

We stopped at this little beach to explore.  Soon after we got in the water, Rudy felt something brush against his leg.  Not long after that, he realized what a jellyfish sting was.  I thought he would be done for with the water after that.  He never would swim, but he did agree to do some more wading. 

Happy kids on the boat:

Just in case a simple house on the water isn't enough...

I can't explain...

It was pleasant enough to be outside at dusk in the shade.  Skylar played in the pool and the boys played with the R/C boat.

Blake took us out to the bay on Sunday.  It was hot, so I dove in.  Brady did too but couldn't be convinced to stay long.  Rudy wouldn't get in at all.  A little too disconcerting to be in such deep water.  

Cat nap!

The boys went for a nature walk while Skylar was napping.  They saw lots of birds, including a baby bald eagle!  Brady also got his opportunity for an encounter with a jelly fish.

Overall it was a pretty great chance to catch up with friends!