Swim Season Finale

The fearsome Schwartz kids ready to destroy Twin Lakes!

After 10 intense weeks, the 2011 swim season has finally come to an end. The kids had a great year and loved hanging out with their friends between events. Their swim events are actually just an interruption of their social time!

Eat something...please!

Catie was real proud of her blue tongue.

Catie, Harrison and their friends hung out and caused all kinds of trouble.

 Moe,  Larry and Curly!

Jax on deck for his breaststroke heat.

Jackson keeps improving every year and is hypercompetitive about the penguins and himself winning. Once he gets some meat on his bones he is going to grow into a force in the pool.

"Check out my backstroke form! Can you say PR?"

"My strategy is to kick butt...how about you?"

Catie pulling away into second.

Catie had a great year in the pool as she placed in the top three of almost every event she participated and was always a good sport about her performance.

Catie Cooper peeking during her 25 Free. "I might win this thing!"

High five with coach after a successful 25 free!!

Summer Begins!

The little princess chilling.

We spent the morning at Mary Alice Beach on Lake Lanier over Memorial Day weekend. Mom and Dad got to do an open water swim, and the kids had a blast playing in the sand and lake.

Good buddies!

Check out my form!

Jackson and Stiv had another serious battle playing our new bean bag toss game! As usual the battle had tears and cheers from both participants as they waged a fierce bean bag war!

Catie and Grandpa wait patiently to pull the string!

Grandma and Grandpa Stien visited for the week to watch the kids. They ran the kids to all their activities and kept them busy in the afternoons... no easy task! Grandpa had another one of his "great ideas" and helped Catie make a trap for the naughty squirrels. She loved trying to catch them in the box.

The trap is all ready!

Steve heading back to T2 on the bike.

The Stien Mountain triathlon team headed down to Macon for our annual trip to the Coliseum Rock and Rollman triathlon. This year Ann, John and Ann Stien participated in the sprint and Steve did the half ironman. As usual, the heat was stifling for the race. In fact, it has been so hot, the lake water temperature was 86 degrees! We had a great showing as John took 2nd in masters, Ann Stien 3rd in her age group, and Ann battled through food poisoning and still took third in masters!

Almost done!

Do you ever think you have a good idea to do something and when the time comes you wonder what you were thinking? Stiv decided to do the half ironman on four weeks of training and a "taper" week. Normally he would have put in about 12 weeks to prep for a race this long. With a history of trouble in the heat you can probably guess how the day went. After a long day of suffering, he was able to finish with a smile on his face and a big dose of reality! 

Ann and John's new wheels.

While Stiv was out on the race course all day. John, Ann and Ann got to chill out in the plush interior of the new motor home. After checking it out, the kids thought it was so cool because it has more TV's than our house! We hope it's comfortable on the road, because Grandma and Grandpa got a nice 16 hour ride home in it! We are sure that the ride felt like a vacation after watching the kids all week!