The Smiths' Triumphant Return to Swim Meets: Zone 3 Championships!

 Sisters!  These two had fun hanging together.  We were at the Junior College for the swim meet here in Santa Rosa.  Nice and conveniently close!

 The meet itself was indoors, but we set up our "camp" outside by the outdoor warm up pool - let crowded, but a little chilly!  Here's Rea getting ready for her first event, I think it was the 100-free.  She looks so grown up....  (sigh)

 I got a shot of the very end of the race - she almost won her heat!  She did make it to the finals though and placed second. :)

Ma-lak's turn!  He did great as well!!  I'm trying to find the video  him going head to head in a swim off with another boy to determine who goes to finals - it was so nerve-wracking!

Here's my motley crew of little swimmers!  Yay!!!  So proud of you all!

 Ya'shar snuck in for some cuddle time.  I thought I'd try to do some reading while I was there (a required book for my class this spring) but that didn't last too long!

 All bundled up!

Had to hit Five Guys Burgers and Fries after a hard day of swimming.  I've never seen them put away so many burgers and fries in my life.  And still had room for peanuts.

We got home and had the visitors go by our house for a little evening saunter.  I love horses, and it was such a fun surprise to see them in such a strange place!  I thought Ma-lak was joking when he looked down the street and said "Hey cool, here come some horses!" 

Gargantuan Blog Update!!

 So I'm a little behind on my bloggin'.....  Since my spring grad classes have officially begun, my free time is not what it used to be.  But this is fun and therapeutic for me, and a great opportunity for procrastination, so I'm unloading all my pics from the past couple weeks!  Here we are at Hanks, our favorite place to have a hearty hungry man breakfast after the kids swim on Saturday mornings. I love how intently Ma-lak is telling his story in the picture below.  Wish I could remember what they were talking about!

I'm pretty sure we played card games all weekend between Christmas and New Years.  I taught them a new one - Scattergories but Dutch Blitz will always be our favorite.

 And this is how I feel when I go shopping at Costco.  Somehow I manage to always be there when there are massive crowds of people.  Maybe there are just always crowds of people there....  Hmmm, probably.  I only go once a month or so - that place sucks you in. You think you're going for the 2-packs of milk for $3/gallon, only to come away with a years supply of hot chocolate and 17 gallons of fabric softener. 

 Daryle and Pastor Carlos went to Cozumel, Mexico for a dive trip a few weeks ago.  Sadly,  out of the 7 days they were there, they only dove twice.  Thank you Mr. Polar Vortex....  Turns out that wasn't what God had in mind for the trip, because they were given numerous opportunities to witness to the staff while there and led 8 people to Christ!  So, thank you, Mr. Polar Vortex.  :)  Anyway, while D was gone, the kids and I had a few adventures before school started up again.  One Sunday after church we headed to Red Lobster for lunch, compliments of Mom and Dad via Christmas gift!  Rea went fashionista and posed out in the parking lot for an impromptu photo shoot.

 Miss Ni'ke joined in the fun!

 And even Ya'shar cooperated!

 Ma-lak, not so much.  He's 10 now you know, and really isn't feeling the whole photo opp thing.

 After lunch we went to see Frozen - what a cute movie!  I loved it! The kids posed by the Rio 2 poster.

 These two take their movie preparation experience seriously.  Snacks? Check!

I say it all the time, I'm so glad my kids love to read.  And I'm so glad my dad loves to read, because I'm sure that's where I got it from and can hand that love down to my kids. Ni'ke gobbled up Wuthering Heights in a couple days.  I'm pretty sure at her age I was still reading Baby Sitter's Club or something non-challenging like that.

Ma-lak is pretty into planets and the solar system right now.  Big plans for the telescope this weekend. :)

 I dropped the kids off at school, first day back from winter break, and Mommy took a spa day! Aaaahhhh......

 Daryle is usually the parent on swim practice duty, but while he was gone, it was all me!  Hadn't seen them swim for awhile, so it was fun to be back on that scene again.  Check out that handsome guy down there. Looks like he got his tickets to the "gun" show.

 Yes, you too, Ya'shar!

We may live in sunny California, but don't be fooled - it's been down in the 20's at night and I've done my fair share of wind shield scraping to get home from work in the mornings.  This is how I found Rea one morning, cozied up by the fire.  Reminded me of myself as a kid, how I loved to get up in the middle of the night and go sleep by our wood burning stove in the living room. It was so warm and cozy and I loved the sound of fan blowing the heat everywhere. (Dad put a stop to that one early morning when he got up to put more wood on the fire, and tripped over me in the dark!  Good memories!)

 Did a lot of baking and snack-making last weekend in preparation for the big swim meet!  It was the Zone 3 championships, and our first swim meet in about a year.  We took a little hiatus from all the swim-meeting, and just let them do practices and work on their skills.  Stay tuned for pictures and updates from that - huge success and lots of fun!