swim team in may

The combination of some daily exercise, good neighbor time and friendly competition sounds great, right?  Greer was all-in for our neighborhood swim team signups this year but the other two weren't so sure. We ultimately decided to have them all give it a shot and braced for the challenge :)

Day 1 was a little tough for Garner Bug...

...but by the end of that first week, she was set to go (for practices at least ;))

Gehr struggled the first couple of weeks with the cold water, cool practice mornings and a higher/tougher age bracket.  Thankfully, for his sake at least ;), the first meet was held on one of the hottest days in history

We didn't think about the fact that an away meet would mean a pool that Garner wasn't familiar or comfortable with...and she never loves big crowds or lots of attention.  Poor thing cried right up until we walked her over to her coach when it was time for her first race.

Coach Brooke talked her into just doing her leg of the relay...we would worry about her individual races later.  She is a magic-worker :)

Sweetest sibling cheerleaders

And lots of other friends came to cheer her on at the end too.  All the sweetness totally made me tear up, and Garner made it the whole way without Coach jumping in with her!  She only stopped for a few short rests on the rope and their relay team placed first I think! :)

It didn't appear that she was going to fall for our pep-talks a second time...

So sweet Coach Brooke jumped in to cheer her on from the water.  It meant that her time didn't count, but she swam, so we were thrilled!  And Brooke didn't even have to give her a hand...just knowing she was there was enough for Garn :)

The bigs did awesome and had a great time swimming and spending time with friends...and being a part of such fun competition totally changed Gehr's feelings on it for the rest of the season :)

Love them :))

And him :)

It really is a fun place to be once the heat of the day passes and the kids have the hang of it all. Already thankful at this first meet for such a sweet community of neighbors to have the time with this summer...more to come in June :)