It's What You Do in the Dark...

...that puts you in the light (according to a famous Michael Phelps commercial).  Over the summer, Emily and her closest soccer friends hit the track two nights a week - regardless of heat and humidity or how many hours of camp they had put in that day.  Lee and I created different workouts for them, alternating between speed and middle distance, as well as some agility.  These girls worked hard!  The core girls were there, week in and week out, and others joined when they could.  They socialized between sets, laughed together and pushed each other.  The last week, they worked three nights in a row and finished their final workout with a sub-80 400, after doing numerous "suicides" and 400s before that.  I am impressed with the work they put in, their desire to get better as individuals and as a team.  Hard work pays off and I hope these girls reap the benefits of their work this fall.

Final 400. All of these girls did amazing middle distance work.  But as a point of pride - at the end of a 40 minute workout that included several 400s at varying speeds in pretty oppressive heat, Emily crushed the final 400 of the summer, finishing in an impressive 78 seconds.  With some left in the tank. She might be taking after her Aunty Kathy if she ends up running track.

Just love these girls and their commitment.

TWIST

The third weekend in August, Emily and her summer soccer team played in the Twist tournament, a local tournament that is a lot of fun and easy to get to (thankfully!).  The team played an age group up again, to get used to the new field size and strategies, and did okay.  It was definitely not their best showing, Emily included.  They won their first game, but then lost their next three, all by a score of 3-0.  The teams they played were pretty tough - all ranked in the top twenty in Connecticut in the 05 age group - but if the girls had put it all together, they could have won every game.  Their coach was definitely frustrated and some of the girls were out of shape, so it will be interesting to see how things play out for this team, including Emily, when the fall begins.

Ingersoll Goodbye

This year was Elizabeth's last year going to Camp Ingersoll.  As a 9th grader, she ages out of Ingersoll unless she wants to return as a CIT - and at this time, that's not something she's really interested in doing.  She spent the last session as she's spent the last five years - with her best friend Katie in Fort Building.  They had a great two weeks together and we loved seeing their fort and spending time with them at our final Family Night.

With only a few days left at camp, Fort Building went to "high ropes" and the camp photographer just happened to be there at the same time.  I was able to grab these great photos of Elizabeth and Katie from Facebook. 

Fort Building.  In a wild coincidence, the counselor for this camp was the next door neighbor of one of my dearest friends and Elizabeth bonded with him immediately. 

Family Night 

Elizabeth and Emily at the fort.

Elizabeth and Katie, just before placing their candles on the raft to end Family Night.

Vacation Odds and Ends

We had two rain days, so we spent some time doing boring stuff, like shopping and watching movies. The girls spent some time with Grammy and her dogs, which they loved.  We also had a few nice evenings in Portsmouth and just enjoyed the down time of hanging out.

Reading during the long ride to Freeport. 

Our tour guide... 

Emily: He has a goatee....get it? 

Hampton Beach

The girls love going to Hampton Beach and so whenever we have an overcast afternoon, we head there for some Blink's Fry Doe, shopping and fun at the arcades.

The Best of Vacation 2018

We enjoyed all of our time on the beach and in the water. We took our morning and evening walks almost every day, meeting tons of dogs along the way.  The water was great - not too cold - and the waves were big every day.  It was a great week to be at the beach.