Side Breathing

Earlier this week Aurora cried herself to sleep because she was missing her school friends. She's made a lot of new camp friends and we've been having play dates here and there, but sometimes change is just hard. We ended up arranging a sleepover with one of her best school friends Friday, and this friend just happened to have a pool, which would normally make me pretty nervous in a drop-off situation. Aurora has taken swim lessons pretty much every summer, but it's never done much good. This summer she's swimming 2-3 times/day at camp and is making amazing progress! After just two weeks, she might be a better swimmer than me!! Suddenly she can swim with her head in the water and is learning to side breathe. So, in addition to her daily lessons, she swam with her friend Chloe Friday and Saturday.

Today I decided to take the whole family to the community pool. It's our first year as members and this was actually our first time going as a family (Aurora and I have gone with friends before). I should've known that this would be THE PLACE to see school friends! A few of Aurora's good buddies showed up soon after we arrived and we stayed all afternoon, splashing, playing, and watching Aurora dive and flip in the water as though she's been swimming for years. The boys wore hats and long-sleeved shirts and had a great time, too!

Clark was much more tentative than Aurora, but he told me they use kick boards at camp so I dug up our old kick board and he did fine. He's less of a fish for sure, but he does love fish. We spent the morning at Zilker Botanical Gardens and as awesome as all the fairy homes were (seriously, so awesome) his favorite part was watching the koi fish in the Japanese Garden.

I had a pretty awesome weekend, too... actually, a pretty awesome week! Being on the board for the Austin Runners Club has been a lot of work, but it has not been thankless work. On Tuesday's I've been doing track workouts with their weekly training group. Wednesday I got free Amy's Ice Cream for wearing my Distance Challenge shirt on Global Running Day, and Thursday I got an entry into the Maudie's Moonlight Margarita 5k Run and Party where we presented a check for $13,000 to the Trail Foundation. Yesterday I lead a group walk/run around the lake for a Global Wellness Day activity sponsored by the Four Seasons and lululemon, and I was given a lululemon outfit for my efforts! It was a great group and we stopped for pictures at the most scenic areas of the trail.

Running in the heat and humidity isn't easy. I usually eat ice cream INSTEAD of training in the summer, but this year I'm doing both and so far it's going great. Adding in swimming was so refreshing and fun. We will definitely be making it a regular occurrence. Now I just need to start working on my side breathing so I can keep up with Aurora...