Natalee's Last Swim Meet

Natalee had her last swim meet  and we are so stinking proud of the her season.

She has improved and strengthened a great deal this season and it's been so much fun to watch her flourish and her confidence grow.

Natalee's events for this meet were a 200 yard medley relay,

the 50 yard backstroke,

and the 100 yard freestyle.

On her back stroke, she improved her personal best time by 18.3 seconds.  That is phenomenal growth!  I was so excited for her and incredibly proud!

She did an excellent job on the 100 freestyle, also.  She accidentally had a false start, which is just a bit humbling, and I think that weighed her down a bit.  She was only .84 of a second from bettering her time!

Cheering for a teammate (in the purple blanket) - waiting for her race.

Grammy Sara and Papa Phil were able to come up and catch part of the meet and Grandma Cindy and Papa Curtis got to see most of it, too.  (We had boys playing basketball, too!)  I meant to take one of Natalee with Mike and I, too, but alas....we were all pretty tired after a busy day, especially mom, and I forgot. 

There is one more away meet of the regular season, but Natalee has opted out of going to that one.  She went to one away meet with dad, and it went fine, but she prefers the home meets and has made it to every one of them, and we think that's plenty.  She'll continue practicing with the team in the evenings a couple times a week as they work towards sectionals and state, and celebrate their accomplishments with them.

As Natalee's meet season closes, and I reflect back on it, I'm really proud of not just Natalee's physical accomplishments, but also her maturity growth.  After the first meet when she had a full docket of races, she realized that the load was too much for her body and she can only do 2 personal events and 1 relay or 3 personal events, in order to perform her best or better her times.  Her body uses almost two times the energy of a typical person's so it takes a bit more to recover between events.  She's learned to fuel her body with good nutrition, tries hard to hydrate, and gets her rest.  All said and done, on meet nights she's in bed by 7:30, all worn out, but it's the best kind of fulfilling worn out that a body can feel.

Congratulations, Natalee, on a fantastic swim season!  We are so proud of you....remember, we're always your #1 fans!