SUMMER 2009 SO FAR!!

Well as of last weekend it didn't seem like summer-we have had a cool start to the summer vacation with some rain and thunderstorms off and on the last few weeks. But this past weekend summer arrived! The weather warmed up into the upper 80's and low 90's which means SUMMER IS HERE! Haylea, Addee and Sophia cooled off last Thursday with the water hose in our back yard. It was still plenty warm outside up until 9pm or so. As you can see by the pictures, they were having a lot of fun! Along with the girls, Tate enjoyed spraying Parker with the sprinkler! And anyone else who dared come in his way!





We finally got a basketball hoop up for the "kids" to shoot hoops on! As you can see all the "kids" are getting great use of the hoop! Thanks to Ty and the kids, the hoop only took about 12 or so hours to complete putting it together-but as you can see, it was well worth it! I am not exactly sure on how high the basket is set at though (LOL)!


After running around in the water Tate and Ty decided to play a little game of 1-1. Not exactly sure who won but that really doesn't matter anyway!


Patriot Farm Blue Devils had a great "learning experience" in baseball this year. They won 1 game in the season and won 1 game in the tournament. We were definitely the cinderella team! They improved tremendously from the beginning of the season through the end of the season. Tate mostly played 1st. He was a very good 1st baseman. He also play short stop, third base and some outfield. He was one of the better fielders and hitters on the team. It will be fun to watch next year as they will be much bigger and stronger. The league he played in is considered minors/machine pitch. The machine pitches at 35mph. They do have a 9/10 majors and 9 year olds can try out and depending on how many extra players they need to fulfill the teams, that is how many 9 years olds can make the team. Not very many make it! Tate will probably stick to minors next year again to be able to play more and get more experience and be ready for majors as a 10 year old. He did very well this year! Great job Tate! And Ty was at every single game as an assistant coach. His main job was to place the baseballs in the machine when our team was up to bat! He was a great asset to the team in their improved this year! Thank you Ty for being patient and helping the young kids become better baseball players!


Here is Tate getting ready to field as the 1st baseman in one of his games. He caught EVERY ball thrown to him! Caught most of the ones NOT thrown to him!! He had some great plays this year. One play in particular-in the tournament--right fielder threw it to Tate at 1st base, Tate threw it to the catcher and he tagged the runner out at home!! Best play of the season, and we needed it-it was in the tournament! HUGE play at the moment! Great job!


Missoula, MT sunset! Isn't it gorgeous! These sunset pictures were taken within 2-3 minutes of each other. It is amazing how the sky changes so quickly! Not many sunsets like this. It was absolutely beautiful!




We were in Missoula last weekend for OUR swim meet (Haylea's and Heather's). The Firecracker swimmeet was the last 50 meter meet Haylea had to qualify for state in Long Course (50 meters) this year. This was an important meet for her. The setting for the pool was absolutely gorgeous too! Mountains surrounded the pool in every direction. The weather was HOT and beautiful! I started swimming regularly back in November with the idea of completing a 1/2 ironman. A 1/2 Ironman is swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and run 13.1 miles. So, I needed to get into shape swimming. As I continued to swim, I learned there are some meets where Masters can swim also. As a USMS member (United States Masters Swimmer), I was allowed to swim in the same meet Haylea swam in this past weekend in Missoula. I was a little nervous about swimming though. I wasn't sure how many other master swimmers (over 19 years old usually) there would be swimming also. But I decided to do it anyway. I used it as a training tool for my open water swim in the 1/2 ironman. I entered the meet to swim the 1500m, 800m, 400m, 100m and 50m. My biggest concern was getting lapped repeatedly in the longer swims. The 1500m swim is 30 lengths of the pool or down and back 15 times! That is a long way!! But our age group is 13 and over-so that means I swim against 13, 14, 15, 16....year olds who have been swimming for several years!!! And when you are swimming that many lengths, there is an enormous chance of getting lapped SEVERAL times! But I finished the 1500 swim in 28:21 minutes--better than I thought I would do. My goal was under 30 min. I don't know how many times I was lapped in that race but I am sure it was at least 3-4 times. The 800m on Sunday morning was quite embarrassing because I know I was lapped at least by 200m. I was getting ready to flip turn at the 600m mark and the 14 year next to me was already done!!! OH WELL! I had a great swim for ME and my goal was under 16 min and I swam 15:03. The 400m on Saturday night was not so good. Haylea swam the 400m earlier in the day with a time of 6:48! So of course my goal was to come in at least with in a few seconds of her. I truly thought I could do it...well Haylea timed my race for me because in the 400, 800 and 1500 the swimmers are required to provide their own timers, so Haylea was one of my timers and boy did she let me know what my time was the second I touched the wall....7:28 min! I don't think she could have been any happier in beating me! She absolutely smoked me! OH WELL--it was a hard race for me since I had swam the 1500 the night before and swam the 100m earlier in the day also. By the way, I beat Haylea in the 100m and 50m freestyle (barely, tenths and hundreths of seconds)! Overall it was a great experience swimming and I would definitely do it again!




Here is a picture of the swimmers warming up before the afternoon session yesterday! Man it was hot and the water felt great while swimming!


A lot of the swimmers write on their arms and backs..Haylea wrote "Go Mom" on her arm Friday night. I loved this picture! I am standing here just before my 100m freestyle race. I am not sure what I placed in my heat, but I took next to last overall! I did not like this race at all! It brought back "unpleasant memories" of running the 400 m in track! BUT WORSE! It is sprinting w/o breathing for 1:25 minutes!!!! NUMB feeling all over your body! My least favorite race of the weekend! My 50m free was a much better experience. It was only 1 time down in an all out sprint. I actually took 2nd in my heat against all teenagers and another master swimmer. The masters swimmer is who beat me! She was 43 years old--but she did not look it...she had a beautiful body and was in great shape! Inspiring! I took next to last overall in this race too (I think I was next to last or dead last in all of my events)


I was told I need to work on my starts! Apparently I am little high! This is a picture of my swimming 100m freestyle. My friend Bridget took the pics of me...thank you Bridget for letting us stay at your house! I can't wait for our 1/2 ironman together!!!



Haylea had an incredible weekend swimming! She took seconds off of every race she swam. She also swam for the first time the 200IM (fly, back, breast free--50m each)! She did awesome! She swam a 3:26 which is a B time in MT-which means if she qualifies for state in any event, she can also swim this event at state. Our goal this weekend was to qualify! Her best events are 50 back and 50 free. These are the two events she has the greatest chance to qualify in. The good this was the 50 back was the first event for her yesterday afternoon. Her previous time was 43 secs. She needed 42.29 to qualify....and she swam a 39.39!! I started crying when she finished! I was so proud of her! She placed first in her heat and 4th overall out of 48 swimmers! She did awesome! Now the pressure was off to qualify and her next event was the 50 free. She needed to take 4 seconds off to get a qualifying time in the 50 free. She needed a 36.39 and she swam 36.43!! .04 seconds off! But she gets to swim it at state since she as a B time! But it is always a confidence booster when you get a state time. She will also be swimming in the 100 back, 200 back, 100 free, 200IM, 50 free and 50 back! The state meet is the last weekend in July in Bozeman, MT! I can't wait to watch her swim!! I think she can place in the 50 back! Go Haylea!


On Saturday, Haylea started the 200m medley relay with the 50m back stroke. She is getting ready to start here in this picture!



This is her during the 200IM on Friday night. She is doing the breaststroke here (her least favorite stroke)



Backstroke yesterday in the 200m back. She took 6 seconds off! Swam 3:20! I think the backstroke is very hard and she makes it look easy. She is so much faster than me in the backstroke!

She is warming up yesterday before her meets starts!


It was a long hot day yesterday! Haylea looked so pretty in her pink hat and pink suit. It was easy to see her in the sky blue water while she swam!


I love this picture of Haylea doing the fly! This was Friday night in the 200IM! She did great!


She didn't even know she was looking to the right..she must have been looking to see who was ahead of her....awesome pic!



This is Haylea swimming the 50 fly on Saturday morning. She will also swim in this event at state!


So this has been our summer so far. Tate has also gone to football camp where he learned the positions on offense and defense. They actually took a test on it! He passed!! If they didn't they were going to have to run 300 yards. The Billings Outlaws (indoor football team) quarterback puts on a camp for young kids. Tate did very well...the quarterback said Tate will be very good, he is fast and has great hands as receiver! Tate was the only 8 year old there and he did great! We are off to Red Lodge, MT this weekend for the 4th. Camping at KOA and spending time with friends we only see over the 4th. Haylea has a week at NBC basketball camp held at Rocky Mountain College here in Billings. Most of her teammates will be there along with my friend Sonja's daughter. In addition, Sonja gets to stay with me all week long! Sorry this blog is so long, but it I like to explain the what has been going on here with us! Take care and lots of love sent to all! Love, Ty, Heather, Haylea and Tate Elkin

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER!!!!

We have been very busy the last few weeks before summer officially begins. We started out spring fever outings on Memorial Day by going fishing at a small pond/lake here in Billings. Needless to say, when you fish in a small pond or lake your are probably only going to catch small fish. Indeed we caught 2 very small sun fish-as you can see in the picture.




But someone else at the lake stumbled across something not so small! Their hook got caught on the foot of a really big turtle. I tried to get a good picture of it, but this was the best I could do. Of course, the kids that is was "awesome" and were quite inquisitive about the turtle. I think Tate asked about 50 questions in a 30 second time span when they were reeling in the turtle. The turtle broke free without any damage to its foot and swam away. Also, this bee was inside my flower pot with its legs totally wrapped around a flower petal. At first we were not sure what it was, so we disturbed it to see what it was. It was really neat to watch it attack the flower. I have never seen a bee like this before, but it was fascinating to watch.

This past weekend I fly down to Elko, Nevada for my nephew Kyle's graduation. I met my sister Sarah in SLC and we drove up from there. My parents drove all the way from Conway, Arkansas to help Kyle move his stuff down there. He plans to attend University of Central Arkansas in the fall. He is looking forward to playing a lot of golf! It was great to see everyone! Lori and Brian, Brett and Kyle, Sarah and my mom and dad. We all took off on Sunday morning bright and early. Mom, dad and Kyle were 5 minutes behind us pulling out of Elko to make the long drive back to Conway. Sarah and I drove back to SLC to catch our flights back home.
(Above)--Here is Lori and Sarah on Thursday night. We just hung out together for the first time in a very long time. It was nice just to sit and talk to each other. Also, here is Lori as we wait for the graduation to start. The weather was starting to storm and thankfully we missed the rain. (Below)-- Kyle is walking in at the beginning of the graduation ceremony. I can't believe he has graduated from high school already! Kyle wasn't the only one busy that night. Brett (Kyle's brother (15))-plays the trumpet in the band. The theme (class song) to Kyle's graduation was "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey! Great song!! So to all the 80's rock fans-this class of 2009 has great taste in songs!

The next day (Saturday)-there was a picnic celebrating Kyle's graduation and 18th birthday (June 7th)! But of course, a storm came in with wind after a hot morning and cooled it off-too much wind though!! After a few hours, here comes the rain! We had to pack up real fast and run to the cars so we didn't get rained on. Otherwise it was great Mexican food and punch for an early dinner. Lots of pictures of sisters, mom, dad and Kyle. Congratulations Kyle! We are very proud of you!