Swim Conference - Day 2

This is what most of swim conference looks like.  Waiting.  Luckily Jorja's ds was charged.  I asked Preston last night if it was.  He was wrong.  Jorja was a good sport and let him play it most of the time. She spent her time reading Harry Potter.  I have tried for years to get her to read these books, but she hasn't been interested.  This summer I insisted on reading the first book to her.  Now she is just finishing book three.  Love it!

Preston and Jorja

Preston wanted his own swim conference shirt.  Jorja picked one out yesterday.  They were all out of orange, so Preston got green.  He loved it.  He wanted to show off every part of it.  Preston got to watch them press the design onto his shirt.  When they first pulled the shirt out and it was blank he was so confused.  I told him, "Your shirt doesn't come with a pattern."  He didn't like that at all!  He got to pick what design to use on his shirt.  He was so proud.

Preston - front

 Back - All the boys names, even his!

 Sleeve

I didn't get many pictures of the kids actually swimming.  Jorja swam the the back stroke (50) in her best time ever!  56.70!  She has never been under a minute before.  She almost made it to the finals tonight. She was the first alternate.  Awesome job Porge!  She swam her butterfly (25) in 32.89.  Not her best, but look how great she looks!  I love all the exercise she was able to get this summer.  Although she is pretty burned out with swimming right now.

Jorja - butterfly

Preston took forever getting across the pool!  I know he really wanted to see his name on the big board.  I wish I would have taken a picture of it. He got across the pool in one minute and sixteen seconds, or something like that.  He did get another medal.  He loves it.

Preston

My two little swimmers with their new shirts.

Jorja and Preston

Maysen and Stockton came and watched the kids swim yesterday.  I had them stay home today.  Maysen had her first appointment with Holly. Mike went and picked her up and brought her to the appointment.  It was near his work, so that was nice.  I was able to get home in time to drop off Jorja and Preston and then leave to pick up Maysen.  When Maysen came out of Holly's office she was laughing pretty hard.  Holly said that Maysen is amazing.  I agree completely!  Maysen said she pretty much spent the entire time rambling about the characters in her story and their psychological traits.  Awesome.  I love that Maysen has such a good attitude.  I love being her mom!

This evening I brought Jorja back for the rest of swim conference.  She was swimming in the freestyle relay.  I thought that because her last relay was first, this one would be as well.  I was wrong.  It was last. Good thing I got there super early, and Mike left work early so he wouldn't miss it today.  Oh well.  Jorja got to jump off of the diving boards until the life guard told her she needed a wrist band.

Jorja on the three meter

I decided to run to Bubs and Ange's house.  It is Ange's birthday today and I wanted to drop off some garden beans.  Our neighbors gave us a ton and I thought she would like them.  The only thing I didn't count on was the traffic.  It was SO BAD!  I had no idea!  I ended up missing Jorja's swim while I just sat on the road.  I felt terrible.  Luckily Mike recorded it for me.  Jorja was the last in the relay.  The other teams were so fast!  They were almost finished by the time Jorja jumped in.  She got to swim by herself.  She did great!  I'm thankful Mike thought of recording it for me and I'm glad Jorja wasn't mad at me for missing it.

Jorja

We did go to Cafe Rio after.  Jorja loves their nachos and this weird little cake.  Pretty great day.

Now to more Bear Lake pictures.  This time Mike was acting like a Ninja with the rope.

Mike

 Mike and Shannon - fist bump

When Mike and I brought Jorja home we decided to watch the first Harry Potter movie.  While they were getting everything set up, they found three huge spiders in the movie room!  Eek!

Mike, Jorja, Preston and I all watched the movie.  I slept through most of it.  I was so tired!  Every time I would open my eyes I would see Preston with his eyes huge!  He watched the entire thing and loved it! He usually doesn't love movies, so this came as quite a surprise.

Swim Conference - Day 1

Swim Conference is an all day event.  Seriously.  It is held in Kearns, about 40 minutes away from us.  This morning, Jorja was swimming the breast stroke.  Preston was swimming freestyle.  The top three swimmers from each age division from each team get to compete. Except the 6 and under division, then they let everyone compete. Anyway, the kids did great!  I forgot to write down Jorja's time, but I know it was either her fastest, or close to.  The top sixteen get to swim tonight.  Jorja was 1/2 a second away from making it to the evening swim.  She was okay with that because in the evening she only had the medley relay, she swam the breast stroke, and then she was able to go home!  Too bad that is when they assigned me to time, so I had to stay until the bitter end.  Mike came straight from work, but just missed Jorja swim.  Too bad.  Preston swam the freestyle this morning.  I love watching him!  He cracks me up!  He has no concept of this being a race.  He stops and looks around not a care in the world.  When he finished he was given a medal.  He was so proud!  He asked me to write his name on the medal so everyone would believe him that it was his!

Preston and his new medal

Now, of course, is more Bear Lake pictures.  Most of them are of Mike surfing.  Shannon really wanted to tackle him while he was on the surf board.  She put on the helmet and was sitting on the back of the boat. She never was quite brave enough to do it and Mike finally pulled her off of the boat.  So funny!

Weston

 Mike

 Mike and Shannon

I think it is funny how they are right next to each other even though Shannon is on the boat and Mike is not.

Mike and Shannon

 Mission accomplished!

 Still standing

Dive Conference - 4th Place

Stockton had his dive conference today.  All the kids came to watch.  It was kind of cold, and really crowded.  Stockton didn't do as well on his first dive as he usually does.  It was his one and a half.  Usually he hits it great.  He did in warm-ups.  This time his entry was more of a 40 degree angle, which isn't like him at all!  The rest of his dives went very well.  I love watching him dive.  I am so glad he has found something he loves to do.  I'm glad he is happy when he dives, even when he has slight mishaps.  He is awesome!

Stockton

 Stockton - 4th place

Stockton is on the younger end of this division.  He competed great against boys who are quite a bit older than him.  He was so happy to get on the stand.  That was his goal.  The other thing that was great about today was the two other divers from our neighborhood took 1st and 2nd. Only three divers get to go from each division, so we were so happy with this outcome!

Stockton - 4th, Jaxson - 2nd, Dustin - 1st

 Jaxson, Stockton & Dustin

This morning I drove up to Bountiful to meet with a therapist.  Mike an I have decided to have Maysen go to therapy for awhile.  Maysen is so awesome and amazing, I love her so much.  She has had a hard time making friends lately.  I know she is not bothered by it at all.  She loves her writing and her stories.  They are her friends.  That is great.  I love reading what she writes and I know I could never come close to being as talented as her in that arena.  But, three years is a long time to go without friends.  Maysen will be starting High School in a few weeks and I'm hoping she will be armed with tools to help her in this part of her life.  I want to look back knowing I gave Maysen every help I could offer her.  I definitely don't want to have any regrets and wish I would have done more.  Anyway, the therapist's name is Holly and she is really nice.  I think she will help a lot.

Mike and I told Maysen tonight about the therapy.  She looked at us with a big smile on her face and said, "Ouch."  Haha!  Love her!  Then she smiled and said, "So I get my own therapist."  She was so funny about the entire thing.  I am so relieved.

Now to a different, completely unrelated note.  More Bear Lake pictures. These are of Steve and Mike surfing.  I only have a few pictures of Steve which is weird because he was up forever!  He is really good at it and makes it look so easy!  Too bad I only have pictures of him holding the rope and falling! Oh well.

Steve

Mike was also good at this.  It took him a little while to be able to do it without the rope, but he was able to go for a long time.  A lot better than me!

Mike

 Weston

 Mike

No More Primary

Jorja is still in love with her newest frog, Speckle.  I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Jorja and Speckle

Mike was released as Jorja's primary teacher today.  Jorja was pretty sad about it.  He is now serving as Elders Quorum 1st counselor.  Mike has been in primary since we moved here.  I just wish he was able to finish out the year with Jorja.  She loved having him as a teacher.  The recently released EQ President will be her new teacher.  Seth.  We went to high school with him.  He should be great.  His daughter is also in the class.  She is really excited.  His daughter's name is Olivia, but he calls her Larry.  I don't know why.  There are three Olivia's in the class, so I bet that will work out great.

Now for more Bear Lake pictures.

Jorja

 Mike and Stockton

 Preston

 Mike and Stockton

 Preston - LOVE this boy!

 Haha Mike!  Steve got you!

 Stockton and Mike's bobbing head

 Stockton

 Maysen and Stephanie

 Stockton