swim, dance & birthdays...

Today is Ashlyn's 11th birthday and yesterday was Chris' birthday (don't worry babe, I won't reveal the number!).  I love summer when we get to celebrate all the birthdays and spend time with family.

This year we celebrated the June birthdays along with a marathon day filled with swimming, dance and family.  It was crazy and exhausting but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Saturday marked the first dual swim meet of the year for Ashlyn's team and she did an amazing job.  She swam three events starting with freestyle...

I am really proud of her.  She has worked incredibly hard on her stroke and it has drastically improved since the beginning of the season.  

A little goggle check and then breaststroke…

I have to say I am really impressed with Ashlyn's breaststroke.  I told her I used to look like a drowned rat when I tried to swim that stroke.  She thought that was hilarious and said breaststroke is actually her favorite.   

Landon kept busy during the meet with the iPad (if you look closely you will see him peeking at me from the background where he was playing Minecraft with his friends) and the grandparents tried to keep cool in the shade between events.  

I got to hang out with this guy…

This pic was taken right before she got up on the blocks to swim 50 fly.  Chris had just given her a little shout out which is the reason for her sheepish grin…

No pictures of fly because I got too busy cheering her on.  She did a great job and was all smiles when she was done.  

Her friend from school is also on her team.  They have a lot of fun hanging out during the meets and cheering for each other.  

I don't think I will ever tire of these beautiful green eyes.  
After the meet we raced home so that Ashlyn could get ready for her next event…her dance recital.  We noticed, once she put her costume on, that she has the unavoidable Speedo tan so it looks like she is always wearing her suit.  

Ashlyn has been in dance for four years.  She stood in line to be awarded with the other kids who have been studying dance for multiple years...

After she took her bow for four years of dance we had to wait through…wait for it…

THIRTY SIX PERFORMANCES before she came back onstage to dance!

Seriously.

No joke.

There were forty performances scheduled in our show alone.  And there were three separate shows!  Two and a half hours of dance.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.

When it was finally Ashlyn's turn she and her musical theater/jazz class performed to "Fixer Upper" from the Frozen soundtrack.  

Ashlyn has grown so much this year.  She is the tallest one in her class.  Her dance skills have improved so much over the last four years.

Check out how low she gets when doing the splits!!

She was so proud of this moment.  Ashlyn is the only one in her class who can do this move so her teacher chose to showcase her ability.  She said that is the best she has ever done.  

As in the song she had to get married at the end of the performance, hence the veil. 

Ashlyn laughed about the fact that she had to bend down so they could put the veil on her head because she is too tall.  That may be why they weren't quite able to get it on her head correctly.  

She did an awesome job.  We tried to take a picture of her outside after the performance but the wind was insane.  We were laughing so hard and this is the best picture we got.

Part two of our day still to come...