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!

North Georgia GAPS Ride

We have been meaning to head to the North Georgia Mountains to ride the "GAPS" for several years now and finally took the initiative this past week. What started out as just a few of us grew into a nice size group ride. Most of this group are strictly cyclists, so we had our work cut out for us! Yes, Ann was the only female participating.

It's too bad photographs don't show elevation very well because we completed four climbs through some gorgeous terrain with some beautiful overlooks. It doesn't look like too many riders are behind Ann...

Here we are quickly posing after climbing Wolf Pen GAP. Bring on the descent!

Ann finishing her climb up Woody's GAP.

We may look kind of dorky in these pictures, but we had a great day in the Mountains and are heading back up over Memorial weekend for another day of suffering!

Last Days of School

Well here is our annual first and last day of school pictures. The year always seems to go by so quickly... once it's over!

Our rising 4th and 1st graders.

Displaying our Mustang pride outside of school. In a few years, the kids won't be caught dead letting us take their picture in front of the school.

We promised (bribed) Jax that if he completed the year with straight A's we would buy him the Nintendo DS3 as a reward. Guess how it turned out???

Jackson always takes it upon himself to dress for success on awards day!

Jackson accepting his "Triple A" and Spanish award. We are not sure where the Spanish award came from. Put it this way, Steve did not even know Jax was taking Spanish.

Ms. Aycock or "my school mommy" as Catie calls her, held her Kindergarten graduation as a picnic on the front lawn of the school. We were treated to pizza, juice, an awards ceremony and songs performed by the whole class.

Catie and her buddy Kayla hamming it up for the camera. Steve was pretending not to listen but their entire conversation was around what kind of pet they were going to get!

Catie was proud to accept her awards from Ms. Aycock.  She won the busy bee award... go figure!

We feel so fortunate that Ms. Aycock has taught both Jackson and Catie. She is a gifted teacher always displaying her drive and passion for her profession. Keep your fingers crossed for Abigail...

Our Little Princess

Catherine Cooper had her ballet recital at the Tucker High School Auditorium last week. The girls had been practicing their dance for weeks and put on a beautiful performance on the big stage. She was proud of her "princess" costume and made us very proud. She did not want dad to come watch because she was fearful he would chant "Catieeee Cooooper" over and over again like he does during the basketball games. Dad managed to keep quiet the whole performance.

 

Milwaukee in May... Burrrrr!!!

Welcome to Milwaukee and the land of the cheeseheads. The kids immediately took to their new surroundings and blended in like the natives.

Ann had her 15 year medical school reunion. It was a weekend filled with exciting activities like an awards dinner attended by graduates from as far back as the 1940's! Stiv must have loved it because he said it was one of the longest 3 hours of his life!

Abby and Catie had fun playing at the beach with their friend Halle.

The med school reunion included a dinner inside the Big Cat exhibit at the Milwaukee Zoo. 

Catie loves lions and was in heaven as we ate dinner only feet away from lions, cheetahs,  leopards, and tigers! It was very cool!

Outside Grandma Schwartz's house, people are always walking by with their dogs and Catie befriended a neighbor's golden retriever! She got to walk him around the block and play fetch. She was in her element! First lions and now dogs, what a weekend! Too bad "mean dad animal hater" won't let her get a dog of her own!!!

Jackson and Grandma are relaxing with a good book Sunday morning.

We all had a great weekend at Grandma's, but even Catie was ready to get back home after being exposed to the land of cheese.

The following week back in ATL, Catie was showing off her art work that was selected for the big art show at Tucker High School. She was very proud of her work!

The kids enjoying the playground at Piedmont Park during the big Emory residents vs. faculty kickball game.

Catie is spinning Jax and some random kid.

Abby had her first ballet recital and was so cute in her performance outfit! She had a wonderful time and loved getting all dressed up. Unfortunately, the lighting was poor and we did not get any good action shots.

As most of you know we have quite the array of animals that frequent our backyard. Regulars include foxes, coyotes, deer, racoons, opossums, a one legged goose and now a giant snapping turtle! We have named him "Snappy."