The girls decided they wanted to get their hair cut last week. Here are some pictures of them right before we left: 
And here are pictures when we got home! As you can see, they both got quite a bit cut off. I think they both look super cute with their new summer cuts!!!
Gay - this post is for you & Karly!!!
Rachel had her 2nd swim meet of the summer on Tuesday night. She swam in five events: (1) 8 & under 100 yard IM, (2) the 8 & under 25 yard freestyle, (3) the 8 & under 25 yard backstroke, (4) the 8 & under 25 yard butterfly, and (5) the 9 & 10 medley relay. She finished the night with four 1st place ribbons and one 2nd place ribbon! Pretty good if I do say so myself! For the season she now has eight 1st place ribbons and one 2nd place ribbon. Next up is the BIG meet on July 10th and 11th. It's the Smoky Mountain Invitational Swim Meet and it's a 2 day event. The kids 11 & over swim on the 10th and then the 10 and under kids swim on the 11th. You're only allowed to compete in 4 events, so we're having to decide which four Rachel should compete in. We've looked back at the results from previous years to give us an indication of what times look like for each event. The top 12 finishers from each event earn points for their team. But this is a BIG event! For instance, there will be probably 150 swimmers competing in just the 8 & under girls 25 yard freestyle! So it's pretty tough to get into the top 12! But based on previous years results, Rachel has a really shot and making the top 12 in all four of her events. We'll just have to wait and see!!
Here are a few pictures from the warm-ups before the swim meet on Tuesday night. I didn't get any pictures during the actual meet. I have some videos from the meet, but Blogger isn't cooperating right now! I've tried for 2 days to post videos and it keeps giving me errors. I'll keep trying!
Rachel had her first swim meet of the season on Tuesday night. It was a tri-meet, which means there were three teams competing. It counts as 2 meets for each team. Rachel was in 5 different events. She competed in the 8 & under 100m individual medley, 8 & under 25m freestyle, 8 & under 25m backstroke, 8 & under 25m butterfly, and 9 & 10 year old freestyle relay. The first event of the night was her 100m individual medley, which consists of 25m of butterfly, 25m of backstroke, 25m of breast stroke, and 25m of freestyle. Rachel started out strong and had a good lead after the butterfly and backstroke portion. When she made the turn to start the breast stroke, she evidently got a mouthful of water and got choked. She tried to continue, but you could tell something wasn't quite right. She finally actually stopped and stood up, crying and coughing. She made it the end and got out of the pool. She was so upset. I think she got scared too because she was having a hard time catching her breath because she was choked, but it reminded her of one of her asthma attacks. I hate that it happened because she had a pretty good lead and the freestyle is the last leg of the IM and Rachel is pretty strong in the freestyle, so I feel like she would definitely have won the event. I hope she doesn't let it affect her the next time she does the 100m IM; I don't want her thinking about it and wondering if she's going to get choked again.
I must say that Rachel was able to overcome that little setback and continue with her other events. She won 1st place in the 25m freestyle, 25m butterfly, and 25m backstroke!!! She swam so well!!!
There was only one freestyle relay team (Rachel's team) so they won 1st place in that too! Rachel swims in the 8&under division, but for the relays, you are allowed to let one swimmer move up one division. So Rachel actually moved up and swam with the 9&10 year old girls. The fun thing is that there was also only one freestyle relay team in the boys 9&10 year old division, and that was from our team. So they let them actually swim at the same time and "race" against each other. The girls relay team actually beat the boys relay team! Girl power!!!
It ended up being a good night for Rachel and her team. They won against each of the visiting teams, so we're 2-0 for the season! And Rachel won four 1st place ribbons!!! Her next meet is Tuesday. I can't wait!!!
It's that time of the year! Swim season is here! Rachel's team had their mock meet on Thursday. It's just a practice meet for the kids to get rid of their nerves and for the parent volunteers to learn their jobs. Rachel swam 5 events and had her personal best in all 5 events!!! She is picking up right where she left off last summer. She is so excited! We're looking forward to the first real meet tomorrow night. 
Katelyn had to go to the dentist today to have 2 teeth pulled. Our dentist had referred us to an orthodontist a few weeks ago to see what he had to say about Katelyn's tiny mouth and crooked, big permanent teeth. The orthodontist wanted our dentist to pull two teeth to give her permanent teeth room to come in. Her permanent teeth are huge! Anyway, today she had two teeth pulled - one on the top and one on the bottom. The tooth on top was already getting loose, so it didn't take Dr. Adkisson too much work to get it out. The bottom tooth, however, was not loose at all, and required a little more effort. Katelyn did great though and was a trooper. No tears or anything! She now has lost 10 teeth, and only 4 permanent teeth have come in. So she has quite a few gaps! She's awfully cute!!!
