It’s been a minute (or, er, a year) since my last “life” post. For blog purposes, I’ll just say that a bunch of stuff happened (waves arms in the air) and life continues to do its thing.
We are just past the midpoint of summer, which for me is defined as the 11-12 weeks where the kids are out of school. (They finished on May 22 and go back August 13.) Late May and June were a whirlwind of swim practices, swim meets, camps, and a mid-month vacation to Colorado…
Both girls had a great swim season. Emma applied for and was selected to be a junior coach for the first time, and in the water she breezed to yet another “champ sweep” — beating the top time standard in all of the individual events. Charlotte aged up into swimming 50s (i.e. down and back instead of just one length of the pool) this year, which is always a challenging transition. Nonetheless, she pulled off a champ time in one stroke and reserve times in two others.
Summer swim is hot and early and loud, but we really love it. I hope the girls will continue to want to swim for several more years — they are so good at it, and I love seeing them excel. Champ times means both girls qualified for the champ meet, so we enjoyed a full day swim meet extravaganza at the end of the month to cap off the season.
Amidst all the swimming, we spent a week in Colorado! This was our third time staying at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, right next to Rocky Mountain National Park, and yet again we had a wonderful time. (Also check out the difference in those kids from 2021 to 2025. Whew.) We’ve described the Y as “family camp” to several friends, and it really does feel like that — a great outdoorsy location, simple but comfortable cabins, and a ton of fun activities from swimming to bingo to trivia to the craft cabin.
We did our toughest family hike to date in RMNP, going from Bear Lake up to Emerald Lake — a distance of just over 3 miles with an elevation gain of about 700 feet. While we did a hike with more elevation gain earlier this year in Utah (mental note that I should blog about that trip!), this one felt harder to me, no doubt because of the altitude! Our spring hike in Zion National Park gained about 1000 feet, but topped out at around 5,000 feet altitude. Emerald Lake is at more than 10,000 feet, and even though we had been in Colorado for a few days by that point, our sea level lungs were not prepared! But the payoff was worth it — Emerald Lake was gorgeous.
But my favorite hike of this trip was one that we hadn’t planned to do until the day before. Jose and I wanted to do one final hike with decent distance but nothing crazy strenuous. We ended up taking the park shuttle bus up to Bear Lake and then hiking back to the parking lot past Bierstadt Lake, a distance of nearly 4 miles but mostly downhill. (My knees don’t love lots of downhill, but it was certainly easier on the lungs.) We passed mayyybe 20 people total the whole way, got to walk through a lovely quiet section of forest, and were literally the ONLY people at Bierstadt Lake. It was so cool to have this whole beautiful lake to ourselves!
Other highlights included many afternoon coffee breaks, a trivia win, learning some orienteering skills, and seeing a hawk grab a fish out of a mountain lake. I’m sure we’ll find our way back to Colorado again in another year or two, and already look forward to that time.
And now we are into July! We had a low key but nice holiday last week, and enjoyed the annual neighborhood bike parade and pool party. Charlotte is at a youth choir camp this week that she will hopefully enjoy, while Emma is leaning into her impending teenage-hood and having a couple lazy weeks at home. Later this month we head to North Carolina for a week with my family and then before we know it, back to school time will be here!
Reading about your support for your girls and their swimming is healing for me. I’ve commented about it to Michael several times; I only swam one season because my parents were incredibly unsupportive. I love the way you talk about seeing your girls strengths. Your trip to Colorado sounds fantastic. I live at 4,000 feet and I can tell you that sometimes the altitude still catches me unaware when I jog up the slight hill of our street. I love that you all had Bierstadt Lake all to yourselves. It really is amazing how few people go very far down trails.
Summer swim is a short but intense season — I can understand while some parents wouldn’t like the level of commitment, but I’m really sorry you had a poor experience when you were younger. We do have a huge convenience in the fact that we live within short walking distance of the pool, which obviously helps with the weekday practices. But even as adults, Jose and I have really enjoyed the sense of community that the swim team gives. I have happy memories of swimming when I was a kid, and I’m glad that my girls are enjoying it too.
Looks like you had a great trip to Colorado! Josh and I live in Denver now with our 3 kids, we would love to see you guys the next time you’re in town. Josh has also talked about organizing a mini NASA reunion here between folks in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Boulder… not sure when that will happen though. 🤪
Melanie! Hey! I had no idea you all were in that area now — would be so fun to catch up the next time we’re out there!
Isn’t 10,000 feet the point at which they pressurize aircraft cabins? Yow!
I, too, enjoy reading your family activities.
I think for commercial airplanes, their cabins are pressurized to 8,000 feet or less — so we were higher than that!
Glad to hear the girls are doing so well with their swim. They both look so grown up! Does Emma swim in winter at all? She clearly is a natural talent. L is not swimming this year due to gym, but I’m hoping she’ll come back to it in the future. We are still at the pool every day for Saoirse (lessons) and Bri (swim team). Tonight is actually the last meet prior to the champs meets.
I’m jealous of your long summers. You know Isla didn’t get out of school until 6/22 or something like that and they go back at the very beginning of September.