Ryan's Swimming Season

This is Ryan's third season swimming with the Castle Rock Cruisers. Ready to get on the block.

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Ryan and Christian Townsend pal around between their events.

Ryan usually wears a swim cap even though his hair is quite short. He wasn't wearing one this time for some reason.





We have quite a bit of down time between events. Someone usually invites us to sit under their canopy to visit and eat snacks. Today we were with the Warcholiks.

The kids line up in the heating area.

Love that smile!

Ready to race!



Ryan's favorite stroke is the freestyle, and this summer that's the only event he wanted to do, so he did the 50 and the 100. He also signed up for the the freestyle relay--4 boys and they each swim a 50 doing the freestyle. Ryan was usually the anchor and swam last which can make you feel pressured if your team is behind. Most meets he did a medley relay too--each boy does a different stroke and he always wants to do the freestyle.



They give out ribbons each meet and these are some that Ryan got this season. The boys his age are fast in the relays, and they usually got first place. He placed second and third in the freestyle, and once he got 5th. The super swimmer ribbons are earned when you beat your own personal best time. Ryan's fastest times this season were 33.81 in the 50, and 1:19:48 in the 100.

Championships are the last meet of the season and they give medals to the top 8 finishers. Ryan got third for the both the 50 and the 100! His relay teams got first in both events! Good job Ryan!

Paddle Boarding a Second Time

This is Britta's first time to try out our new paddleboards. We went to Chatfield again, this time to the swimming beach so we could swim too.



It was just as much fun as she remembered!



Savannah is here visiting Blake, and they came too. 

We brought the inflatable chairs and Britta got the idea to have Ryan pull her around the lake.

It worked pretty well!

Britta does the relaxing and Ryan does the paddling! What a life!

Ryan and Britta jumped off their boards and had contests to see who could get back on first. They also tried diving off their boards, but it was harder than they thought. Another fun afternoon on the lake!

Fourth of July Celebration

We had a very fun Fourth of July! Our ward always has a breakfast at the park. This year the Bishopric did the cooking and the breakfast burritos were delicious. 

Megan bought this inflatable pool for Dagny, so they brought it over to try it out. Of course she loved it!

Britta decided to get in the pool too. Dagny loved having someone to play with.

They played games,



and poured water. Dagny is lucky to have such a fun aunt!

The grown-ups relaxed and visited while Dagny was swimming.

Delwyn set up the sport umbrella to give us some more shade.

Delwyn grilled some steaks for dinner. Yum!

We ate outside on the patio. It was fun!

Then we made s'mores. More deliciousness!

This year the Town of Castle Rock did something different with the fireworks. They set them off from the butte above the golf course with the idea that they could be seen from almost everywhere in town, eliminating the traffic congestion from everyone going to a central place to see them. The neighbors trees are tall, so we couldn't see them from our cul-de-sac. We went to Liggett Road and parked off to the side. There were 5 or 6 other cars there too. We had a perfect view! It was so nice to be back home in about 2 minutes when they were over. In the past it has taken us anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to get back home.

The green and purple fireworks are my favorites, but I only took a couple of pictures and they both happened to be white.

Of course we bought some fireworks to do ourselves. Britta was with some friends, and Blake is house sitting for the Porras' and he has work tomorrow morning, so he ditched us and went to their place. Oh well, all the more for Ryan and Wade to set off!

Happy Birthday America! So thankful we can call this glorious place home!