Short Course Sectionals 2014

March is crazy with all the big meets, but finally Samantha got to go to sectionals in Federal Way, WA. She has worked really hard and has been waiting for this meet ever since she qualified last summer. We decided to take Scott and Amy along to watch. Although Samantha didn't swim as well as we'd hoped, it gave her some good experience racing at big meets. It also gave us some ideas on things we can tweak in her training, like getting stronger. After the meet, we spent some time in downtown Seattle. They had beautiful spring flowers at Pike Place Market.

 Tons of fresh fish. I so wanted to buy some to take home and cook, but obviously that wouldn't have worked.

 The gum wall was disgusting. The kids were determined to see it. We also had to go by the very first Starbucks for Samantha. I really didn't care about it so I only took a picture of Samantha in front of it on her phone.

 The Troll under the Bridge. I have to say: kind of creepy.

 We left Seattle for Hood River, Oregon to see Marshall's brother and his family. We had hoped to be able to stop by Ephrata to see our good friends, the Pughs, but we could only manage one stop since the kids had already missed an entire week of school. We stayed the night with Milton and they treated us to a great breakfast at a local diner. We stopped by a park along the river to stretch our legs before making the long drive back home. It was an exhausting trip and after we got back it took another week to get everyone caught up with their school work before the term ended.

 Samantha and Amy warming up at the pool in Federal Way. Can't wait for Amy to be able to compete as well.

 Mongolian BBQ.

 Seattle