This really never happens. I feel a little giddy with excitement about it!
We have had sickness in our house all week long, but today everyone felt good enough (minus the hacking coughs) to head to church and so I get to be here all by myself, since I did not feel like hacking up organs throughout the service.
I figure I better put my time to good use, so what better way than to finally, finally update some of our summer events on the blog before fall gets any farther underway.
Two events stand out most prominently....my 10 day getaway to Marco Island, FL with the girls, and Evie swimming in the county and state meets at Georgia Tech.
Florida...
We decided not to do our summer trek up to MN this year for a variety of reasons and so we really had a very relaxed, low-key summer for the most part. Then, about mid-July I started feeling restless to just get out of the rat race of suburbia (even though I wasn't even participating in it at the moment.) I just wanted to be where noone could find me and bother me (not that anyone specifically was bothering me...it was just a sensation I had!)
I asked CJ what he thought about just jumping in the car and heading to Marco Island (his parents have a condo there). He was in the middle of a big deal with work and couldn't get away, but encouraged me to just go with the girls.
I knew I could handle it, as I had made the 10 hr drive alone with the girls last Christmas when we went down there without CJ, and it went so smoothly. But I thought a guest might be fun, too, so I emailed my dear lifelong friend Jill, who is also my Evie Jill's name sake and fairy godmother, and randomly asked her if she could head to FL in about 2 weeks...after a couple email exchanges her ticket was booked and the plan was on!
I wanted to time it perfectly to reach Fort Myers, where she was landing, at just the right time, so we left at 6am in the morning. I am proud to say I am a master packer of a large family now, and with Marco being so casual and beachy (no makeup, no bra, no blowdryer, no dress up, etc) I packed all 5 of us in one rectangluar laundry hamper!
Yes, I am that good.
Anyway, it is noteworthy to point out how perfectly timed it was....we got to Fort Myers about nine hours later. Parked the car and walked in. As we were coming down the escalator into baggage, Jill was walking into baggage from her flight!! We couldn't believe it...we couldn't have timed it more perfectly! Jill and I always were a good team! :)
So she stayed with us for the first 6 days and we had a wonderful time relaxing on the beach and at the pool. Then the girls and I had an extra 4 days after she left before we decided to head home. Daddy missed us, and Sarah literally called him 20 times a day. It was so cute.
There was one incident with a gecko that snuck into the house one morning when Jill and Evie came back from their run. I am NOT a gecko person and we were all freaked and squealing like little girls standing on top of furniture. It took us an hour to problem solve getting the nasty thing captured, during which time I started to bond with our torture victim as we surely scared it out of its mind and ultimately, accidently injured him during his capture (we have left that little detail out with the little girls-we wiped up the blood smear and "released" him into a bush to go back to his family) The whole thing was ridiculous comedy and Jill and I laughed so hard at the obsurdity of the situation by the end that tears were rolling down our cheeks!
You had to be there to fully appreciate the humor. Just take my word for it.
I've never been an ocean swimming kind of girl. I much prefer basking in the glory of God's marvelous creation from the comfort of the sand and a beach chair. Plus, we are usually down there in the winter and the water is COLD!
But this was summer in Florida, and the ocean was like bath water! It was so awesome, we got in and floated and swam around. The girls loved it and so did I. I continually commented that I could not believe we had lived in GA for 12 years and had never once considered coming to Florida in the summertime because of the folklore that Florida is "too hot" in the summer. Well, let me tell you, it is a best kept secret that it is marvelous down there in the summer and I will be back every summer from now on!
Here are a few pics...
Swimming...
My girl Evie Jill...we continue to be so proud of her God-given swimming talents! She swam for our n'hood summer swim league this summer and then participated in the county swim meet at GA tech, where she placed 2nd in the county in the two events she swam (50 free and 100 IM). It was so exciting to be at the beautiful facilities at GA Tech where the '96 summer olympic games were held. In one of her neck and neck events, I became "one of those moms" screaming and cheering like a banshee from the stands!
Then with her year round swim league, she qualified in 3 events for the state meet later in the summer, also held at GA tech. That also was an amazing experience and she placed in the top 15 out of 60+ swimmers for each of her events that she swam. She was also selected to swim in two relay team events which was great.
We wanted to make the state meet special for her, and since it was an all weekend event, CJ and I took her to a hotel downtown overnight and also toured the World of Coke with her.
My mom and Aunt Genny had come into town and came down to the aquatics center for one of her events and then took the other 3 girls on an adventure of their own for the next day.
We are looking forward to this coming year of more great swimming and hopefully qualifying for the short course state meet which is being held in Savannah, GA at the end of Feb. I haven't been to Savannah since I was pregnant with Evie and really hope we will have an opportunity to take her there again! Swim, Evie, Swim! :)
Here are some pics from the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center...
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