The past 3 weeks have been filled with impactful events in our lives, but before I get to that we will start off with Axel's promotion to the Senior 3A group at Santa Clara Swim Club. He is now with the top high school swimmers who are freshman and sophomores. He has been stressed since school started because he didn't have the time cuts to make this team and he really didn't want to go to Senior 2 because the workouts are too easy. He had been to several Senior 2 practices because he had to miss his group practice for cross country this fall. Well, his coach, Coach Sveta, believed he has the potential and is a hard worker, that they promoted him despite not having the time cuts. He has shown incredible growth since moving up 3 weeks ago. He has been going to 6 am morning practices twice a week and doing 2 double days. He is fully vested in giving his all this Spring to see how much he can improve. He is making friends with kids his age and learning to enjoy the process, even if the results don't come. Keith and I are incredibly proud of his growth and hope he learns many life skills with this new opportunity he was given.
Hot cocoa before bed....
Phoenix asks me to take pictures of these with the hopes of painting them some day.
The big news that happened just about 2 weeks ago is that ISC, the international swim center was deemed unsafe and closed permanently. The diving structure and the cover to the stands, along with the buildings are at risk of falling down and collapsing according to architectural engineers. The funny thing that our head coach and the staff continue to joke about is that the boiler that needed rebuilding is working great and that the pool itself is usable. We are hoping the city will figure out how to take down the unsafe structures or the city will pass a bond to help rebuild ISC. For now the head coach is working hard to find pool water for the kids. This morning, Axel is at Sunnyvale Middle School. This afternoon he will be at Peterson with Rubix and Phoenix will be at Santa Clara High School. With high school swim starting this coming Monday, we are uncertain of where the kids will be swimming, but we trust the community will come together to help our swimmers find water to swim in.
On Saturday, Phoenix wore the birthday swim camp at practice and I made the biggest chocolate chip cookies to hand out to her swim group.
Her teammates sang to her and they did fun kicking at the end of practice!
After practice, she had 6 of her swim friends over to celebrate. Sarah T, Savanah, Helen, Anabelle, Victoire and Audrey!
They enjoyed food and games.
It was a very cold and windy day, so the clinic ended at 3:30pm instead of 4 because she said it was too cold to do starts. That was a bit disappointing, but I think the kids enjoyed themselves and learned a bit too.
The big milestone that happened for Phoenix is that she started her menstrual cycle on Friday, January 19th. She called me at 3 pm asking me to pick her up from school. I reminded her of the pads we packed in her backpack. She managed to take care of things and stay at school until 3:30pm. The past several days has been a huge learning curve for both of us. I am sad that she has to deal with this at such a young age, but she was very well prepared and is taking it in stride. I am so very proud of her for managing to get through all of her swim and birthday activities despite all of the fun side effects that come from having your menstrual cycle.
In other Phoenix news, she started basketball and has her first game tomorrow. We have a 3 day swim meet starting Friday and Phoenix's 5th grade show next Thursday and Friday. We have more on our plate than we would like, but we are loving supporting our kiddos and helping them thrive and grow. We are already looking forward to ski week break the 2nd week of February. It will be nice to be home with the kids and spend some downtime together. I likely won't write until then, but thanks for reading!
