Summer Milestones

Anna's & the Mini-Ds
It is hard to believe the summer is almost over.  Anna had a good one that included some big events.


The biggest milestone of the summer was learning to swim.  Anna was part of the neighborhood swim team, the Lakevale Dolphins.  Since this was her first year, she was on the mini-dolphins (aka, "mini-Ds").    Swim practice was three mornings a week.  It was not long before Anna was jumping off the diving board by herself.  Soon she was doing cannon balls (actually, her definition of a cannon ball was yelling "cannon ball" as you jump off the board.....she can now do a full-fledged cannon ball).  The grand finale was the mini-D swim meet in which team members jump in and swim the length of the pool in front of a crowd of older swim team members and cheering parents.  This is where we quickly concluded that Anna will likely not be training for the Olympics any time soon.  As soon as anyone mentioned the word "race," she refused to go.  After the crowds left, she than swam the length of the pool by herself (we don't need an olympic athlete....we just need her to swim).  She enjoyed the swim team (minus the racing part) and is looking forward to joining again next summer.

Anna & Hayden @ Ms. Be's Graduation Party
The other big event was learning to ride her bike on two wheels.  We headed over to the church parking lot to practice and it worked great.  Mom decided to roller blade while Anna biked around the parking lot, which proved to be a good equalizer (let's just say Anna's ability to brake was much better than Mom's ability).  The next step is to get Anna to ride on the sidewalk.

In between, Anna played with lots of friends, enjoyed many outdoor concerts, and was able to spend some non-swim days at Ms. Be's.  This week she is in an arts & music camp and is quite excited to be performing in her first musical tomorrow.
Anna & Nathan at Ms. Be's Graduation party



 The grand finale of the summer is the week she will be spending at Grandma & Grandpa's house.  She is VERY excited about that - especially after Grandpa promised her a surprise destination.  More details to come!

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