Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Eat. Breathe. Sleep. Swim.

The above stated = our life for the past three months/twelve weeks/84 days.

Introducing the Mesa High Swim Team


It all started back in August, when the three of us witnessed an hour that is never spoken of in our family during the summer. Apparently the sun rises around 6:00 am in the summer. Who knew?



A week before school started we rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn for swim practice. We were really excited to be there. See also none of us were coherent enough to realize how stupid we were to be up that early.

It was Annie's first year and Julia's third so Julia was a darling and showed Annie the ropes of how it was done. We practiced a lot over the summer at the pool to try and get Annie to learn that she had to swim ALL the way across the pool and couldn't stop in the middle. Both girls did really well.

Sometimes Annie acted ticked but she secretly loved it as evident in the second picture.

Saturday practices were always entertaining (sans the mosquitoes) because I got to watch them do stupid exercises like the bunny hop and jump or dive. Random Julia talent, she is really good at jump or dive. Read: really lucky at jump or dive and the coach always says what she is already doing so she won the game. Jones's are never actually coordinated.


Julia had one major set back. When she got her team suit one strap was ridiculously shorter than the other strap. You can see in this picture as she is about to race how far the strap is cutting into her back.

This is what it looked like on the front...


I told everyone on swim team that she just had really uneven boobs. Julia wasn't so much a fan of that littler rumor.
No exaggeration. When we held up the straps it looked like this.



The extra strap isn't part of the short strap its the strap that goes across her back. I honestly don't know how she got the swim suit on. But I think it was lucky because this was the pool that Julia first broke her 29 second 50 free and got a 28.7. We were very proud. Here she is coming in from the race.


Julia really focused on dropping time this swim season and did an awesome job! She qualified for state which is no small feat as junior and we are hoping she will swim at state next year too!

While Annie waited for her race she practiced her top model poses. Who says a cap and goggles can't be fashionable.




Annie was a great swimmer! She was able to drop over 18 seconds on her 50 free over the course of the season. Annie always swam so fast on the first 25 lap across the pool but her favorite thing to do was stick her head out of the water to see who was cheering for her on deck. So her second 25 kinda slowed her down since her stroke went like this one arm, two arm, stick her head out of the water and turn back to see who was on deck cheering. She just loved seeing that all her friends were on deck screaming for her to do well.

At the swim banquet (my pictures are on my internal camera memory and i can't transfer them to my memory card so we might never see them...if you are reading this and have pictures of Julia or Annie at the banquet send them to us) Julia got another Varsity certificate so she received a pin for her letter that she got as a freshman (like I said she's really good). Annie got a junior varsity certificate and was able to give a little thank you speech to the other kids. She was very nervous but did an awesome job speaking clearly in front of everyone and reading her little speech. Then she told all of the swimmers that they were her BFF and handed out a bumper sticker that looks like this:


You know you are jealous. Let me know if you want one, we have extras. All during swim season, as Annie made friends on the team she would tell them that they were her BFF so we decided they all deserved a bumper sticker that said it for all the support they gave Annie.

Anyway Julia and Annie both had an awesome season and we are so excited to do it again next year!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Consolation Prize

Hi there, Devin here.
No, no, I am not going to gloat. I know that a lot of our friends were ardent supporters of John McCain, and trust me, I know what it is like to have your candidate lose, while the country elects a president you think will ruin the country. So, as an olive branch, I give you one of the best videos I have seen in some time. God Bless America and God Bless snarky kids on the internet.