Anna Grows

Coach Anna with Caroline  It was the last week of the summer swim season for Anna.  The highlight of the week was the lollipop meet for the 6 and under swimmers, or the "mini-Ds."  The goal is for the kids to swim the length of the pool unassisted.  When they get to the end of the pool, they get a lollipop (hence the name).  Normally there are several teams that have their youngest swimmers; however, COVID limited participation this year to one other team.  The older swimmers "ran" the meet, including timing, announcing, etc....   Anna served as a volunteer mini-D coach for the season and had a lot of fun working with the kids (well, mostly).  One of the mini-Ds was Caroline, whom Anna was also babysitting this summer.  Caroline was quite attached to Anna and often cried if someone other than Anna was helping her (Caroline is a bit dramatic).  There was no shortage of drama for the lollipop meet, including one of Anna's swimmers losing her tooth before the start

The winning relay team - by .02 seconds!  The summer swim season continues.  This week marked the final home meet of the season.  The team won (Anna finished 3rd in breaststroke and 4th in butterfly).  One of the most exciting races of the day was Anna's relay team who once again pulled out a win by .02 seconds.  It was a photo finish!  With the exception of one race, all of their races have been exciting this year.  She has a great group of friends on her relay team who really enjoy swimming together and encourage each other! After the swim meet was an alumni relay event at the pools (always fun to watch the former swimmers compete).  Since it was so hot, everyone hung out in the pool until the thunderstorms rolled in.  It never actually stormed but rather thundered the entire afternoon, resulting in the pool closing.  A group of Anna's friends relocated to our basement for the afternoon to watch movies and hang out. Sunday was the biggest swim team event of the season - the a

Uncle Tim & Uncle rod You know the world has returned to normal when the car shows return.  July 10 marked the return of the Carlisle Chrysler National auto show in Pennsylvania.  Each year, Uncle Rod & Uncle Tim make their pilgrimage to the show and usually stop  for a visit in Northern Virginia on the way home.  This year the show returned in all its former glory and so did the annual road trip.   The Fagella bed and breakfast is open to all guests who have been vaccinated (Uncle Rod just managed to squeak in his vaccinations....although he conveniently did not have his vaccination card with him).  It was a quick visit, but there was plenty of time for the uncles to tease their niece, who attempted to hide out in her room. The rest of the week was dominated by swim team.  Monday night was a long, hot meet, but Anna got first place in the 50 meter butterfly.  The divisional relays were held Wednesday night, which also happened to be the hottest day of the week at 98 degrees. 

Fairfax Fireworks  There was much to celebrate this July 4th weekend.  First, just being able to celebrate was a reason as last year everything was canceled.  This year, in addition to absolutely gorgeous weather, we were able to return to some of our past neighborhood celebrations with new twists. The summer weekends always revolve around swimming and this was no exception with a Saturday morning meet.  The team won this week, although Anna's age group had a tough go of it with some of the top girls in the division.  Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day for a meet and an exciting one at that with it coming down to the last relays to decide the outcome.  You can't get much better than that.   Saturday evening, instead of the July 3 neighborhood block party, neighbors organized a band line up at the pool parking lot.  There were 5 bands from 3 - 9 PM along with 3 food trucks.  People came and enjoyed throughout the event with plenty of space.  It was a nice way to catch up with n