Dolphin Powers Activate!

Swim team was another huge part of our summer again this year. Anyone who spends much time talking to me will pretty quickly get to my thoughts on swimming as a great sport for kids. Its twin emphasis on achieving personal bests and being part of team is pretty fantastic. It's been such a great community of good friend and their families and a great way to keep active and get strong - physically and mentally! Here are lots of photos summing up the 2015 Swim Season and its highs, lows and big moments - including a couple of WOW moments - like overcoming big fears at Coney Island and swimming her FIRST 100M Individual Medley!! At the end of the season banquet she earned the Most Improved Award for her age group. We were so touched by her coach's words about her determination, spirit and sense of humor. What a season!

First swim meet of the season. In quite realistically one of the largest pools in the country. When the kids showed up for their warm-ups in the water, about half of the kids under ten (including our Josephine) collapsed into tears. Fear. Panic. And from Josie a string of sniffling "Mama please no. I can't. I know I can't." In moments like this, everything you think you know about being someone's mother bubbles to the surface and explodes into thin air leaving nothing but similar fear and panic. I knew she needed to just do it. I knew that I needed to tell her to just do it. I knew that through tears and pleading that she really did have it in her. Another parent I trust knew what I needed to hear at that moment too. And so with an "I love you" a "Honey, you got this" and a "It's hard to understand right now but this is a choice you get to make about how you want to live your life," I adjusted her goggles, kissed her swim cap & hoped I had done the right thing. Tonight she overcame fears and found out what she was made of. She jumped into 9 feet of water in a pool twice the length that she's used to and swam 50m of her most challenging stroke. She came away with a third place & two first place finishes. She struggled. She succeeded. And tonight at 11pm when she was finally getting to bed, she told us about how she could hear the crowd cheering for her. And just before she closed her eyes, she thanked me. 💕

A photo posted by Carri (@fourschneiders) on Jun 9, 2015 at 9:00pm PDT

P.S. A certain little someone became quite the little dolphin this summer, too and ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT until next summer to don her own swim cap and team suit! 

Whoa. Week one of the pool & this wee one just busted out a pretty solid freestyle. Someone's been paying attention at her sister's swim tam practices. 🏊🏻

A video posted by Carri (@fourschneiders) on Jun 5, 2015 at 4:27pm PDT