Swimming, Swimming, and more Swimming

This weekend Marshall got to swim in an invitational meet with 98 teams. The teams span as far as College Station and Brenham. Each morning he competed in different strokes against about 70 kids to see who would swim in the finals that night. And I am pleased to say that he finaled in everything he swam. It was exciting and exhausting and long. 

Above is a little swim lesson for those of you who don't know strokes. 1st picture is called butterfly. 2nd backstroke. 3rd breaststroke. 4th freestyle. The IM (individual medley) consists of all 4 stokes in the order above.

He medaled in all five events. The last picture is the awards ceremony and yes that is Marshall in the polar bear pajama bottoms and cowboy hat. What can I say. Marshall is Marshall. 

Divisionals 2008

Divisional Swim meet

OK, this weekend was our final summer league swim meet. It started with a parade that soon was joined by rain and more rain. Then dinner and more rain. Make sure you notice Victoria's cake she decorated by herself that says go flyer's and of course notice Marshall with his green boa. He earned the nick name "Boa Boy". 

Then came the official shaving of the heads. We only had 3 takers this year. Usually we have several little boys that follow Marshall. However, this year because of the rain we lost most of our team who didn't like the rain as much as the Johnston's. The 3 takers were of course, Marshall first (this is his 4th year to do this), Ryan Graham (who has also done this 4 years) and then Adam, yes my nephew, Adam Rae. 

Adam has been working with Rob. So, Marshall and Victoria talked him into joining our swim team. Marshall and Victoria have really enjoyed having him on the team with them. So look close you can see Adam and Marshall bald. It is weird how they look so much alike. People that don't know us think they are brothers. 

It was a great night followed up by the big divisional meet the next morning with 6 teams. Adam was not able to swim because it was a championship meet and he was not able to qualify because he was gone so much. He did great for his first time to ever swim for a team and learned how to swim the breast and butterfly strokes. GO ADAM. 

The meet went well, just long. Marshall was allowed to swim 3 individual events, plus relays. Victoria could only swim 2 events. That was kind of hard choosing. Marshall medaled in all 5 events. 2nd in 100 free time 54.33 sec, 1st in 50 free 24.56 sec, 2nd 50 fly 28.25 sec, 3rd in free relay, 3rd in medley relay. Victoria had personal best in both of her events, 100 IM (butterfly, backstroke ,breaststroke, free) and 50 back. Victoria competes in the 11-12 year old group. If you will look at the picture of her and the girls in swim suites, she is by far the smallest in her group. That's why I say it is all about fun for her. 

Our team, Eagle Springs Flyer's, placed 1st out of 6 with an undefeated record. The first in team history. This is what we work for all season. 

Marshall has one more invitational meet that is for all the top swimmers in the Houston area and then it is on to high school tryouts. Rob and I are ready for a long break. I am on the board, therefore we both work hard all season long also, So we are glad to say Congrats and Goodbye to summer league........... Make sure you look at the slide show above.......

Carnival/Rodeo

With all local rodeo's you have to have the cheesy carnival. Isabella begged to ride every ride. She was too short for all the ones she wanted to ride. She didn't want the train, planes, or carousel, no she wanted the thrill rides. She was on her tippy toes calling each carny worker and saying "hey man, I am tall enough man". So Rob, Isabella, Elizabeth, Nick R. (who was in the rodeo) took her on her first big ride, The "Super Roundup". Marshall was too scared at first, but we harassed him about his 4year old sister riding, so he decided to ride. It probably helped that Isabella was trying to console him and help him not be scared.  It was quiet the 

scene. Lisa R. and I got a great laugh out of this. This ride is the

one that spins so fast that you stick to the wall and then it lifts 

up so that you are spinning perpendicular to the ground. Isabella 

loved it and so did Marshall. He rode it 5 more times, until he got 

very nauseous. I don't have a picture of Victoria because she and 

Steph ran from ride to ride. We had so much fun. Thanks Lisa R

 for inviting us...........

Rodeo

Marshall, Victoria and Isabella had a great time going behind the scenes of a local rodeo (Actually Rob and I did too). Our good friends, the Rashall family, own horses and their kids do a lot of riding, so we got to go hang out in the back where all the rodeo families were. Stephanie Rashall spoiled Victoria and Isabella taking them on rides on her horse, Bitsy. Victoria has ridden before and loves horses and now is begging to begin ridding lessons. This was Isabella's first real experience with all this rodeo stuff. She loved riding the horse and feeding her, however she did not like the fact that her hands smelt bad. She was not big on the idea of  horse poop everywhere. I think she is a typical Ballerina.

Bee's thinking man

Oh, I forgot these. These are some more of Elizabeths photos. She is very creative..... and of course Marshall is always willing to show off and be center of attention......

Bee's camera fun

Elizabeth and Hillary came for a visit, youth conference and girls camp. Elizabeth has been camera crazy. I have a ton of crazy pictures loaded on my computer. It has been fun to see her perspective in her photos. Here are a few that I really liked. Pretty good hugh..........

Swim Marshall Swim

Marshall's swimming times qualified him to swim in the first invitational meet of the season. He did great in his age group of 13-14 year olds. He competed against about 50 kids. He placed 2nd in 100 free with a time of 55.25 seconds, 2nd in 50 free with a time of 25.11 seconds, 5th in 50 back time 31.23 seconds, 3rd in 100 IM time 1:05.48.  10th in 50 breast time 36.56 seconds, 3rd in 50 fly time 28.38 seconds. Plus he swam  3 relays. He did awesome. He placed 3rd place over all as a high point score. So he is doing quite well. 

Victoria head to toe Wal-Mart

How fun is this.... Victoria got to audition for the 

Wal-Mart print ad. It was a world wind event. We got the call Friday night for the audition Sat. afternoon. The crazy part was that Saturday morning we had Isabellas recital (with a house full of family to host), Marshall & Victoria's swim meet, Elizabeths birthday (all day), and still had to go to Wal-Mart and pick out cloths. She was dressed head to toe in their clothes that cost about $30. She had a blast at her photo shoot. Partly because Hillary got to be in the shoot with her. They needed an older girl and the photographer asked her to come in. That was funny because she had her hair in a pony tail, no make-up, and wearing a hoodie. They had so much fun and made a great memory together. The good thing is that no matter if she gets the ad or not, she had a blast.

Isabella's recital

On Saturday, we finished up our 2nd year of ballet with Isabella. She loved dancing on the stage and begged to do it again after she finished. They danced to a song called "Jesus Gave Me Wings". 

Isabella asked everyone to come watch her on the stage. So she was excited that Nanny, Memaw, Bobum, Glade, Jonnie, Marshall, Victoria, Hillary, Elizabeth and of course Mommy and Daddy were there. And she made eye contact to make sure we were looking. It was sooo sweet.......

Youth Conference

Well, I can't believe it, Marshall's first Youth Conference. The theme was the whole armor of God. Thus, the got armor shirts and his cute little armor picture that was part of a relay game. I got to go chaperone and it was a blast.