Swim Meet #2

Turner with our sweet Ms. Jean
Excited and ready to swim!

Waving to me at the other end of the pool before her race...

Freestyle!

About to dive!

Ms. Mary Wall came, too!

Swim team has been the BIGGEST blessing! Turner absolutely loves every bit and every minute of it. It doesn't hurt that she has a fan club for every meet -- Ms. Jean and Ms. Mary Wall came this Thursday to cheer her on! We are truly blessed with some amazing friends here who love on our children!

Today was the "Swim-a-Thon," where Turner had to swim as many laps as she could in 30 minutes. She did 24! Pretty awesome! She told me, "Mom, I thought I might DIE! But it was so much fun!"

Berry Picking with my Berry Best Buddies!

Proud Picker! :)
Filling up our bucket.

MMMMMmmmmm....

Checking out the raspberries

Finding the perfect one!

The kids and I had so much fun picking berries at Adam's Farm last week. We got some great blackberries and raspberries! On the way home, we stopped to buy some vanilla ice cream and had homemade blackberry cobbler a la mode for dessert. YUM...YUM! Summertime is here!

Nana and Grandad!

We had a wonderful visit with Nana and Grandad last weekend! They drove into town in time to get to Turner's first swim meet and were really great sports to sit in the hottest heat (ever?) and cheer her on for almost 4 hours! She was very proud of her fans and had a great night. Friday, we met Thomas for lunch at Chick-fil-A, and Thomas and I had a date night (while the kids had a date with their grandparents!). Saturday was a pool day, project day, cookout and trip to get toenails done. Fun, sweet times!

Thanks for making the effort to be here! We love you guys!

How many Guerard men does it take to fix a toilet? :) I stumbled upon this "moment" and got such a kick out of three sweet men gazing intently over the potty!

Fun in the pool!

I LOVE Nana's face in this one -- pure joy!

The guys!

Pretty Toes

Memorial Day on the West Coast

We spent Memorial Day weekend (aka birthdays and 11th anniversary) outside LA, California. It was a very special and memorable trip for our family (more on that in a later post!)... Ready to go!
The girls were excited for our West Coast adventure!

First stop: Huntington Beach

Typical CA beach!

Parker and the Birthday Boy on the pier

Ruby's Diner = YUMMY shakes!

Watching the surfers

Sweet, sweet, sweet!

Salt Creek Beach

Mommy's birthday surprise: DISNEYLAND!!! Pluto greeted us when we walked in the gates!

So excited! Made me feel REALLY YOUNG at heart on my birthday!

Happy girl!

Parker LOVED his horse ride.

Tea cups!

Splash Mountain! Second only to Space Mountain for Turner! (Check out Thomas' expression vs. hers...priceless!)

My rocket man!

Boat ride!

A spoon full of sugar...

Pretty girl!

Dumbo!

Last Day of Preschool!

Where did the time go and HOW do I have a Kindergartner in my house? Turner's last day of school was a really fun celebration of a wonderful year...and thankfully, her joy did not leave any room for my tears!

Waiting in line behind Daisy to "fill up" her Big Wheel tank! I had a "flash forward" to 15 years old...
GAS...thankfully cheaper than our $4/gallon...

Happy girl!

Doing a silly song and dance...

Party snacks with Madison!

Best Buds: Turner and Trevor

Mrs. Marks and Mrs. Cerilli

My Woodcreek Wave

We have quite a little fish on our hands this summer! Turner made the decision that she wanted to be on the Woodcreek Waves swim team this year. Thomas and I honestly were not sure it was a great idea, but she convinced us she had thought through the "consequences" of this decision, and we let her make it.

...And yet again, Turner has proven that if she sets her mind to do something, she is going to do it. Even if it almost drowns her! :)

She is the youngest on the whole team, and her first day of practice, Coach Garcia asked the 5 and 6 year olds if anybody could do the Butterfly. Turner raised her hand and said, "I can!" The coach looked at me and said, "Can she really do the Butterfly?" I quickly replied, "She thinks butterflies are pretty. But what she lacks in skill, she will more than make up for in confidence!"

Needless to say, she also convinced them she could do breaststroke, and she ended up swimming the Medley relay (breaststroke), the freestyle relay, individual backstroke and freestyle in her first meet. She had the BEST time doing it at the meet and was SO proud of herself! Her "posse" was proud, too. Nana and Grandad, Mrs. Marks (her preschool teacher) and Ms. Cathy (her swim teacher) ALL came to cheer her on.

Turner won four ribbons (one per race), and you'd have thought she'd won the Olympics. She was especially proud of her 1st Place ribbon for the medley relay (in which her team was the only competitor!) She also received an 11th place ribbon -- who knew they even made 11th place ribbons? Ha!

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Needless to say, I feel like I've been learning a lot from Turner lately, as I observe her latest swim team adventure:


1. Have fun!

2. Persevere -- we can get to the other side of our current challenge, if we put our minds to it and trust our coach (coach with a capital "C")

3. Enjoy the journey...even if we occasionally run into the guard rails/lanes

4. Love on our "fans" and let them love on us and cheer us on.

5. Don't be scared to DIVE right in, even if that means we may belly flop every once in a while.

6. Be sure and celebrate the finish, whether it is a blue ribbon finish or a pink ribbon finish.

Sing to the Lord!

Turner and her sweet Angel Choir friends shared their gifts in church a few weeks ago! I know God was smiling!