Go O's!

 

While I will always run true blue for my Chicago Cubs, I have now lived 19 years of my life in the Baltimore area and have adopted the Orioles as my American League team.  They are currently in first place in the American League, so Dave and I, along with our neighbors and good friends Marc and Lauren snagged 4 tickets to last night's game against the Yankees (so I got to see my beloved Rizzo!) to cheer them on.  Unfortunately, they lost against the Yankees, but they're still in first place and it was still a lot of fun to cheer them on in front of a packed crowd and to see the stadium completely filled with fans! ⚾

Professional Tennis Comes to DC

 

To celebrate Lacey getting her drivers license, we went straight from the DMV to the Mubadala Citi Classic Tennis Tournament in DC.  With Lacey playing Varsity HS tennis, I thought this would be a great opportunity for her to see a professional tennis tournament and meet some professional players and see them in action!

Here we are watching Gracheva and Leylah Fernandez.  Fernandez was the runner up in the 2021 US Open.

Leylah signing autographs after her win.

Lacey practicing her serve.  🎾

We had fun watching some of the bigger names on the practice courts.  Here is Ben Shelton.  He is just 20 years old and has already reached a ranking of #35 in the world and reached the Quarterfinals in the Australian Open earlier this year.

We also saw Gael Monfils.  He was previously ranked #6 in the world.  He reached two major semifinals, the 2008 French Open and the 2016 US Open.  He has also reached at least one ATP Tour singles final every year since 2005. 

We also had fun getting some autographs and pictures with the tennis players as they left the practice courts and as we saw them walking around the ground.  Here is Lacey with Marcelo Arevalo, currently ranked #18 in the World for doubles. 

It was HOT!  Like in the mid 90's and sunny and humid!  But we had a great day together which started with my first born getting her drivers license followed by all day at her very first professional tennis tournament.  Lots of firsts and lots of fun! 🎾

Lacey has her License!

 

Although Lacey turned 16 back in January, the law here in Maryland is that you can't get your license until you are 16..... and a half!  So now that Lacey has reached the 16.5 year mark, we made our way to the DMV yesterday and took the driving test!  Lacey was soooooo nervous.  But we've logged our 60 hours.  We've had her drive at night, in rain, on the highways, etc.  So I knew she was ready and she did great!

There she goes with the instructor......  Good luck Lacey! 🚗

She did it!

Congrats, Lacey!  Welcome to the world of freedom and independence!  And lots and lots of responsiblity!

Scout Camp

 

Tanner just returned from his annual week long overnight Scout camp.  This is a highlight for him every summer and something he always looks forward to!

Here he is with good friend John packing up and getting ready to go.

I told Tanner to take pictures throughout the week and this is what I got.....

Looks like he's having fun!

Order of the Arrow co-hort.

His digs for the week.

Tanner and his buddy found a snake   🐍😳

And now with a chicken.... 

Tanner and his tent-mate, John.

It was a HOT week! In the 90's and humid all day every day.  Tanner said the only way to escape the heat was to take a dip in the pool or wait for the sun to go down.  But despite the heat and humidity, he still had a good time and got lots of merit badges!  

Swim Team..... That's a Wrap!

 

Shipley's Choice Dolphins 2023

In the 2nd row, there are three girls; Ella is in the middle.

In the 3rd row, Riley is 6th from the left. 

Sisters

Glad they got to have this swim season together cheering each other on!

Riley lined up and ready to go during her last regular meet of the season.

Ella's relay team got first place..... and great news that they made the qualifying time to go to Straehle!!

Everyone jumped in the water to celebrate the win and the end of swim season.

And the next day, we attended the Swim Team banquet.

Riley and Coach Sean sporting her "Legend Chaser" paper plate award.

He gave this award to her because she is always in the fastest heat at every meet and is the only non-year-round swimmer.  So she's always up against the fastest girls who are in year round swim clubs and trying her hardest to keep up!

Riley and her good friend Izzy.  Swim team is always more fun with friends!

Ella showing off her medal.

The banquet signified the end of the season for most of the team, but for those that Straehle-qualifed times or were swimming in Divisionals, they had one more week to go.

Ella and her relay teammates Ashley, Jenna and Caroline were SO excited that their 200m Freestyle relay team qualified for Straehle.  Here they are, ready to go and excited for this opportunity.  They swam their little hearts out with a time of 2:45.96

And then yesterday was Divisionals which was the very last meet of the season.  

Instead of just swimming against one other team, all the teams in the Division swim against each other, so this is a big deal!  In fact, they give trophies to those that place 1st, 2nd or 3rd and they give big fancy ribbons to those that place 4th-8th.  

Riley swam Freestyle, Back and Butterfly and Ella also swam those same events plus a relay.

Ella got 2nd place in Freestyle with a time of 40.71 seconds 🥈

Riley didn't place but was happy with her time of 37.75 seconds. 

I'm not sure how Ella did in back, but Riley got 7th place overall, which was good enough for a ribbon!

And in Fly, Ella placed third 🥉 with a time of 21.19 seconds.  And to top it off, her relay team got first place!  Way to go girls!  This calls for an ice cream celebration!

We went and picked up their trophies and ribbons later in the day and, after a good nights sleep, got pics of the girls with their spoils this morning.

Ella with her 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies.

And Riley with her 7th place ribbon.

Keep on swimming, girls! 🐠🏊

Summer Days

 

Here's what we've been up to this past week.....

Lacey and I did a spur of the moment mother/daughter beach trip because we realized we had a free hotel night with points that was about to expire (and was non-transferable as well, so we had to be the ones to use it).  We were hoping the whole family could go, but alas due to it being so last minute we were the only two without other commitments.  So, we hopped in the car, headed to the Atlantic Ocean and Lacey drove the whole way!

First order of business.... dinner!

The next morning, we picked up some watermelon and cold drinks and headed to Rehoboth Beach!

Rita's break!

We spent lots of time in the water and a decent amount of time relaxing on the beach as well.  Fun to have some quality mother/daughter time!

In the meantime, Tanner went with his Scout Troop to the Advanced Vertical Lift Center (AVLC) in Arlington, VA.

They toured the facility and learned about the Future Vertical Lift program and how that effort is driving new innovation in aircraft design, Augmented Reality (AR) and simulation.

Yet another cool scouting experience for Tanner!

And both Riley and Ella had a swim meet in the same pool (Meadowbrook) where Michael Phelps swam, trained and competed for many years.  It was where here, where he started as an 8 year old swimmer and met his lifelong coach Bob Bowman and then of course went on to become the most decorated Olympian in history with 28 Olympic medals.  

Ella and her friends also put together a pretty epic lemonade stand.

And we all attended a luau at our neighborhood pool.

Keeping busy and having fun as we hit the halfway point of summer!