Seattle - Day 1 - Space Needle

Stephanie was the best hostess!  She planned for us to eat lunch at the Space Needle after we flew in so we started off our trip with a bang.  Unfortunately I wasn't so good at planning pictures and Steph and I never even took one together.

 This was the set-up

 for these...

Park in front of the Space Needle.  Reminds me of a sculpture we'd have in The Woodlands.

 Glass garden next to the Space Needle.  We will do this when the kids are older!

 Beau and Jake

State Swim meet

Emilia had her 2nd fastest times of the year at this meet but those kids were fast!  She finished 23rd in back and 30th in free.

BACKSTROKE

FREESTYLE

Beau was so tired but he didn't fall asleep until 10 minutes before Emilia swam her 2nd event.

Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi

So Saturday morning, we went to the Texas State Aquarium.  I was wearing Emilia's swim team picture badge so we even got a discount!  There were 12 TAAF meets going on in Corpus that weekend so not only was the swimming taking place there but so was track and field, baseball, softball, judo, etc.

 Stingrays

 Seahorses

 Lobster

 Before the dolphin show

Corpus Christi mini-vacation before the vacation

Emilia qualified for the TAAF State Swim meet at Divisionals.  We didn't have any expectations since only the top 4 swimmers qualify in each event.  She was ranked 7th in back and maybe 12th in freestyle.  So we were a little shocked when she came home with this bronze medal in backstroke!  So we signed her up for the state meet.  We figured she probably won't qualify next year since she'll be the younger one in the 7-8 age group.  Later that night we received a phone call from her coach asking if she would be interested in going to state in freestyle.  She was 7th but some people dropped out.  She had her best times of the year!  So that's how she ended up swimming in 2 events.

I guess I should explain that we planned our vacation  for the 1st week in August since we knew that she would have swim practice through July.  Her session was early Saturday afternoon so we drove down to Corpus on Friday so we could at least enjoy the beach and sites a little bit.

We didn't take a tour of the USS Lexington but my kids love to pose with things and it was a quick walk down from our hotel!

Beau's 2 year pictures