String Quartet and Candlelight Concert with Jess and Bomb Cyclone Power Outage

 Invigorating night out with Jess seeing an intimate candlelight string quartet concert at the Arctic Club’s Northern Lights Dome Room in downtown Seattle. The show list was Coldplay and Imagine Dragons all arranged for strings. It felt like we had popped into a Bridgerton scene. We’d seen these advertised in our social feed and we both give it two thumbs way up! Not cheesy or an Insta stunt. It was really well done! 

In other news the Tuesday "Bomb Cyclone" has left us without power for four days now. I know there is a lot of damage to repair and I fully understand- it’s also really hard to get in a house with no heat or electricity. Thank you to my mom for taking us in.

Girls State Swim Meet - Charlotte's Freshman Year

 Proud Mama Post - Charlotte has had an incredible freshman high school swim season. I have so much appreciation for the Shorecrest coaches who have trained the swimmers for this moment (their coach, Bill Murray was recognized as the 3A Washington State Coach of the Year today)! Her teammates have been so kind, especially the seniors. They have demonstrated how to be a teammate and competitor and also have welcomed these new swimmers into this sisterhood. This weekend was the Washington State 3A Championship swim meet. Charlotte swam "lights out" at prelims on Friday - capturing 3 personal records! Her two relay teams made the A finals!!!

To kick it off at prelims, her 200 Medley Relay team swam awesome to qualify for finals. Though she had some nerves in the 200 Free, but got back on track for other races. I’m so proud of her! She finished 19th in 200 Free and 20th in 500 Free overall for state 3 A - I'm so impressed!

Today was Finals and her 200 Medley Relay was competing (she was the freestyle leg) and the also the 400 Free Relay (lead off leg). She and her teammates had solid swims and it was so fun to see them up on the state podium!!!

Personal records this season: 50 FR: 25.63 (relay split), 200 FR (202.34), 500 FR (5:31.13), 100 FR: 56.13 (lead off relay leg). Charlotte started summer swim league on the Aqua Club team at age 7 - it is fun to think of that little girl who is going after her big dreams in the pool.

Girls Swim Districts - Charlotte's Freshman Year and Nana's Birthday

 Charlotte and the Shorecrest Girls Swim & Dive Team had an incredible Districts Swim Meet this weekend! Shout out to our coaches who have prepared the swimmers so well for this meet and to our senior swimmers who have led the team with kindness and enthusiasm all season! It was so fun to sit with all the parents and fans to cheer for the girls! The team who finished second in the meet overall, getting barely outscored by Edmonds-Woodway. Charlotte's hard work all season had a big pay off tonight: she finished 2nd in the 200 FR, 3rd in the 500 FR and her 400 FR Relay team are first place district champions! She is moving onto State in those events. Amazing work Shorecrest swimmers!

I got to chat with MY former high school teammates who are now coaches: Rita at Stanwood and Tracy at Lynnwood. They both are so kind to me and my daughter - Rita even got to give Charlotte her 500 Free ribbon. Charlotte is now inducted into the WESCO Girls Swimming Club.... it is a powerful and wonderful thing to be part of! We also celebrated Nana's birthday with a lunch at LFP Bar and Grill. Such a great day!

For Charlotte, Prelims was a mixed bag with highs and lows. She swam hard and got herself into the "A" Finals for both her individual events the 200 Free and 500 Free, getting a PR (personal record) in her 200 with a 2:04 in the process but adding 5 seconds in her 500 Free. Her relay teams for the 200 Free and 400 Free swam hard and finished first in both, but sadly, the officials DQ'd the 200 Free Relay for an early take off.

Charlotte rested up, ate well, and turned it on for Finals! She swan her heart out in the 200 Free, dropping another two seconds and earned a 2:02.34 and second place. She had almost written off her 500 Free, but was feeling good enough to give it everything she had. She dropped five seconds off her best time for a PR of 5:33.59, swimming in a crowd and touching out another swimmer to earn 3rd place. Finally, everyone on the 400 Free Relay team had incredible swims and they dropped another couple seconds to finish fist: WESCO District Champions at 3:43.85! Top four finishers in each event move onto state! So Charlotte will have a great meet to look forward to next weekend with her teammates. Many of her teammates had time drops today and are also going to state. In fact their team finished second at Districts, just behind Edmonds-Woodway by 14 points, even without points being scored by their 200 Free Relay. To celebrate, Charlotte and her teammates went to Red Robin. I know realize I need to thank my mother for enduring all the post-swim-meet team dinners at Red Robin from my high school days. LOL!