LaJolla Rough Water Swim

This last weekend marked the 79th Annual LaJolla Rough Water Swim and our 3rd year participating in this great event. Makenna competed in it for the 3rd time and I competed for the 2nd time. Kiley chose to "opt out" after her first swim last year. This event is also a fun social time for our swim team. We all traveled to LaJolla on Saturday and met at the cove for a practice swim with Coach Wade. We all stayed at the Sheraton and then enjoyed yet another great dinner at TGIFriday (which of course included their yummy Vanilla Bean Cheesecake). Although only about 10 families from our team participated, we enjoyed getting to know those families better and then cheered each others' children on the next day at the event. The current in the water was quite a challenge for all the swimmers this year. It was truly a Rough Water Swim! Just about all the swimmers had slower times than years past, but since my goal was just to complete it, I reached my goal! An added bonus this year was that my parents came down to cheer us on and our "front row friends" Bill and Janet surprised me by showing up too. It was a great weekend and we definitely earned our medals!!!

First Day of School

What a day to start school, 09/09/09! Claremont was one of the last districts in the area to go back to school. Some districts have already been back for a month! You might say the day was bitter sweet. I was looking forward to having a quiet house again, but wasn't ready for all of the chaos that comes with school: huge packets of paperwork, homework, projects, lunches to pack, etc. The hardest part though came a few days before school started. We were walking back home from the school after checking the class postings and Makenna said, "We're both upper graders now!" I about collapsed into tears. How could they both be upper graders? Where had the time gone? Weren't we just here for kindergarten orientation a few days ago? Yet, somehow, the years passed because Makenna started 4th grade and Kiley (are you ready for this?) started 6th grade!!! It's her last year in elementary school. Despite the lightning speed passing of time, I'm proud to be where we're at. Our daughters are GOOD girls! We couldn't be more proud of them! They both do very well in school and are such giving, polite and sweet children. Okay, they do have their bad days, but overall, I can't complain!

Of course, John was at work and wasn't able to walk them to school on the first day, but he surprised us in the morning, by getting up extra early to buy donuts and left them in the kitchen with a nice note for the girls. Can you say "sugar rush" on the first day of school? Oh how happy they were though. Both girls got their first picks for teachers. Kiley has Ms. De Leon and Makenna has Kiley's former teacher, Mrs. Douglass. Both are excellent teachers. :) As we walked up to the school, Kiley's best friend, Amanda, found us just before we were going to cross the street to the school. We barely made it on campus when Makenna found her best friend, Brooke. All 4 of them acted like they hadn't seen each other forever even though they were all just at Adventure Mountain together 3 weeks before! They lined up in their proper lines, got greeted by their teachers, followed by a greeting by their principle. Before I knew it, their teachers were leading them to their classrooms. I had secretly (it's really no surprise, I do this every year) packed notes in their lunches reminding them how much we love them and how proud we are to be their parents and of course a Bible verse for encouragement. I smiled at lunch time knowing they were reading their notes. It's official: summer is over and we now have 2 upper graders!

Summer Winds Down to an End

It happens every year, despite my attempts to stop it, summer winds down to an end. We love summer at our house. It means lazy days relaxing in the pool, camping at the beach, summer camp and time with family. Best of all, it means no homework, no packing lunches and no hurrying out the door in the morning. It does have it's drawbacks though, triple digit temperatures (heat is good but baking is not), the girls getting sick of each other and fighting and oh how I miss my quiet house during the day. We started the summer with a camping trip at the beach with the O'Malley Family, there were visits to Mamaw & Guga's house in Wrightwood, playing at the lake with cousins, several trips to Laguna Beach with the O'Malleys and a week at Adventure Mountain at Forest Home for the girls (quiet house for John and I). It was a great summer! We enjoyed every moment of it. Now, here we are, the start of a new school year......I guess all things must come to an end. I've posted some pictures taken throughout our wonderful summer.