Courtney the Mermaid Girl....

Courtney loves to swim. Courtney has ALWAYS loved to swim. Courtney has begged me to find out how she could get on a swim team so she can swim everyday. I didn't know if I wanted to have that kind of a time commitment... but after some serious thought and consideration, I decided that it was selfish of me to not make this happen for her if it's what she loves to do...

I told her that she would HAVE to swim everyday except Sunday. Her answer? What do you mean have to? You mean, GET TO! That was the moment that I knew what I needed to do.

After looking online at our local rec center, I found out that they were holding a "Summer Club" tryout yesterday (Tuesday, May 29th) and today (Wednesday, May 30th). She could already do the freestyle and backstroke really well, but had no idea how to do the breast stroke and butterfly. So, after what I know was a prompting, I called my sister-in-law Karen on Saturday morning around 11:00 and by 1:30 we were at the pool by her house. She was a competitive swimmer from the time she was about 10 through high school. I asked her if she would be willing to teach Courtney the strokes and make sure she was doing the other well enough to try out. They were in the pool for about an hour to an hour and a half... and she was amazing!!!! She was so excited!

Monday morning Kenna took her down to the pool and let her practice for about an hour while Dan and I ran some errands for our BBQ. Yesterday we decided to head to the pool around 3 pm to practice before the tryouts started at 4:00. I stopped at the front desk to fill out some paperwork and they let Courtney go in to the pool to start swimming. When I got in to where she was, I saw a guy watching her. He was walking along the side of the pool. Was he a "creeper"?  I went over quickly and watched her finish swimming to that end of the pool. He walked over and asked me what she was doing. I told him that she was trying out for the summer swim club team. He told me that he had just done an "unofficial tryout" for the USA team. And she was REALLY good and had made it. I was shocked! He took me in and introduced me to the other coach and they gave me all the info. We had to run home to get her birth certificate and then came back and got her all registered. She starts on Monday. EVERY morning. At 7:00 AM. ALL SUMMER. And 4:00 PM the REST OF THE YEAR. Is it worth it? Absolutely! I have never seen her so excited about anything! We have found her passion...at least that's what she told me on the way home. What really surprised me? How excited I am!!!!