The Elkin Family

State Swim Meet

2011-02-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Good Morning to Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! We had an amazing weekend in Butte/Missoula. First of all, the State swim meet was supposed to be in Butte Fri-Sun, well when the teams showed up for warm ups on Friday morning, the temp was between 69-72 degrees and the water was so cloudy you could not see the bottom or the wall. After a few hours of making calls around the state we ended up driving to Missoul and cramming the events from Friday into Saturday and Sunday. What a day!

Boy the cards did not fall into Haylea's favor. She had 6 events to swim on Friday...hard ones! But to say the least...I was SO proud of her! She dropped 8 secs EACH in the 200IM and 200 Back and taking 8th and 3rd place, dropped a whole second in the 50 back and took 4th, their relay smoked Bozeman and got a Sectionals time in the 4x100 relay taking 1st place, 7th in the 50 free (at the end of the day barely taking any time off, .01) so hard to do after racing so many races and at the end of the evening swimming the 500 Free shaving 13 secs off with a race with the girl next to her the last 150...Haylea edged her out at the end. All of this on Friday..I was exhausted. The pool was jammed packed with people and extremely loud! So to swim that hard with all those races I don't think I could be anymore proud of her.

Sunday was so much better only 4 races 100 free and 100IM and 2 relays. They were trying for another sectional time in the relays....we got it in 1 of the other relays...but to take 2nd place to Bozeman (boo). The 100 free (4th place) Haylea took another half second off and to finish off her individual events she took 1.3 secs - off her 100IM-3rd Place...The girls team took 1st overall and the Team took first! Great job BAC!

We are hoping to head out to Seattle in a few weeks to swim at Sectionals. We are waiting to see if the other girls parents wishes are. They are allowed to swim in a Time Trial on Friday and Saturday also. So they could swim in the 2 relays and 1 event on Friday and Saturday each. Just the experience would be a blast!

When I get the results from swim connection I will fwd those on.

Love, Heather

Where did the summer go?

2010-09-16T15:09:00.000-06:00

Wow! I cannot believe we are 1/2 way through Sept.! I am so behind on pics and keeping people updated on what is going on in our world. I am going to do my best to catch up in small doses. I apologize if I go out of order of our events over the last 5 months or so.

To start out Haylea is in 7th grade this year at Will James Jr. High and Tate is in 4th grade at Arrowhead Elementary. They are doing very well - so far. Haylea is running cross country and Tate is playing football...oh yes, he started swimming this week too! It is mainly to give him something to do during the winter months. Haylea will start swimming in December after cross country and Jr. High basketball.

Tate has played in 2 football games so far and has scored 3 TD's for the Hill Masonry Blockers. They are a team of "the only place you can go is up"! They are working very hard and it is exciting and fun to watch. I have a couple videos on here of Tate running the ball in one of his games. I am hoping to get the full game film so I can cut plays that are fun to watch. Tate has surprised me in football. He literally takes on the defense HEAD ON! Not in a good way either...we are hoping he can use his competitiveness to keep his head up when he runs...but anyway say your prayers for those little guys out there as we do not ever want anyone getting hurt!

Ty and I are getting ready for probably our final year in officiating. We have had a time frame in the back of our minds for the last few years and I believe this is the last year. With both kids becoming very active, we will be spending our weekends chasing them around. I feel very blessed to have experienced the life of officiating NCAA Women's Basketball the past 7 years or so. It has enabled us to still be a part of basketball at many different levels and are very lucky we have been able to do what we have. We are looking to complete our basement this winter and once that is complete, our officiating days will put on hold or terminated.

That is all for now...I will bring everyone up to date on pics in the next week or so.

Take care all and God bless!

April-May!

2010-06-07T15:42:00.000-06:00

We have been very busy! I thought after basketball season things would slow down...well not even close! Haylea turned 12 on April 3rd and has been busy with Long Course Swimming. Tate has had baseball 3 nights a week (unless it rained!) which it has done quite a bit lately! But all in all, we have stayed quite busy 6 nights/days of the week. We took a trip to Denver Memorial Day weekend for the Denver Zoo and 2 Rockies games. You will see some pics of the zoo and Haylea and her friend Janae at the Rockies games. Also, Tate brought his friend Blake and the 3 boys (Ty, Tate and Blake) are showing off their Rockies shirts! On Sunday, after the game...Haylea stubbed her toe on the walk back to the hotel...boy you would have thought her foot was cut off! There was a lot of blood, I do have to admit, it does hurt when you stub your toe and this was a pretty bad cut on her toe. Sorry about how the pics are laid out on here...I got tired of trying to move them around! I also participated in a triathlon in Missoula in April. Ty and I (and another friend Mike) ran in Peaks to Prairie and the picture of the trees with snow on them was in Red Lodge on the way up to the Beartooth Pass.

Tate is doing great in baseball. He plays a lot of 1st base and outfield. He is one of the best 1st baseman on the team. He gets on base over 50 % of the time and is having a lot of fun. His tournament starts in a week or so, we will keep you up to date on how that goes!

Haylea finished up her last days as an elementary student on Friday...Here are some pics of her and her friends at the awards assembly last Wednesday. Her music class also put on a "Top 40" music program a few weeks ago. It was really good.

I hope all is well and we love you all!

Love, Elkin's

BTW...I will be in Boise, ID Saturday June 12th 2pm start for 1/2 Ironman. www.ironman.com is where you can follow me if you would like...I hope to have a better race this year than last!

UPDATE!

2010-03-25T17:39:00.000-06:00

It has been awhile since I have updated our blog..the last few months have been very busy with refereeing, Haylea's swimming/basketball and Tate's basketball. It is all finally OVER!! But boy does it make the winters fly by! We finished up our very busy winter with Haylea's last basketball tournament last weekend in Columbus..They were champions. Their team name is RUKUS! They are the shortest team in 6th grade but they are the scrappiest team. They have improved so much from November and they actually looked like a basketball team, making game winning hook shots, free throws and fast break lay-ups! Our biggest girl is probably 5'1" 105lbs and then there is Haylea...5'0" 85 lbs. They had to guard 5'8 160lbs!!! These girls were HUGE for 6th grade!!! And the guards for our team are very short! But boy did we make it difficult for the other team to get the ball down the court. The Rukus will be very good once they all go through their growth spurts next year. It will be exciting to watch them grow over the summer!

Haylea finished her swim season the first weekend in March at the State Short Course (25 yard pool) Swim Meet in Butte, MT. She did very well! She finished 9th 50 back, 9th 200IM, 8th 200 back, 4th 400IM, 6th 50 fly, 7th 100 back, 12th 100IM, and 1st in the 200 FR Relay! She took time off all of her swims! A very long weekend and the top 8 swam in the finals (except the 400IM). She is on a break from swimming right now and will start back up in a few weeks.

Tate played basketball this winter too! He has just started to play on a traveling basketball team. They have practiced about 4 times together and will play tomorrow night in a tournament. We will miss the games on Sat and Sun because we will be in Helena...I am taking on the challenge/embarrassment of swimming in the Montana Masters State Swim Meet this weekend. It is more for fun, a couple of us from my swimming group that I swim with are going (and Ty and the kids) and we are just going to have fun...and swim in a relay or two together. I know Haylea's times are going to be WAY faster than mine so it will be a weekend for her to feel good about beating me in something!

Tate has just started baseball this week too. He made the 9-10 majors! The 9 year olds have a chance to try out for majors and play with the 10 year olds...and Tate made it! His first practice is tonight. I think he is a little nervous, but I am sure he will do just fine. I will have pics up from his games when they start! I hope all is well with everyone and we love you all!

I have put some pics from the State Swim Meet in Butte on here...not very many of her swimming, but you get the idea of what a swim meet entails. Enjoy the spring time weather...before you know it we will be complaining of how hot it is!

Haylea is the one in the rainbow swim cap...she swam her best time in the 50 fly...she took 1.4 secs off! that is a lot in a 50!! She won her heat in her age group....

Lane 3 Place 7: 100 back time- 1:16.61

Love, Elkin's

Happy 2010

2010-01-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well I spent WAY too much time trying to put these photos in order in which they happened! I uploaded them in order and before you know it, they are all scrambled up! But to update you on what we have been doing the last 2 weeks here I go!

Dec 20th- Tate's "friend"birthday party at a bowling alley! It was easy, fairly inexpensive and absolutely no clean up! The kids were great and they all had fun!

Dec 23rd- Tate's 9th birthday! Cam, Erik and Reece flew in on the 22nd from Seattle so we had a dual birthday celebration. Reece's birthday is on Dec 17th!

Dec 25th- Christ's Birthday! What a day we had! Lots of family and friends came over and we spent the whole day opening of gifts and eating lots of food! We had such a great time just hanging out! For my birthday on Dec 5th - Ty bought me a plane ticket to Oklahoma to see my grandparents. My grandpa turns 90 on Jan. 5th and I have a Papa who is very sick with cancer. He surprised me with a ticket to go see ALL 4 of my grandparents. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of my visit with my Papa, it just didn't feel like the right time to be taking pictures. He is on his way to be with Christ! I was able to spend one of his last days with him, tell him I love him and give him a hug! What a bittersweet experience the past weekend was. What we all fear is death to some degree, but he was anxious and awaiting his arrival into Heaven! I have been blessed with 2 sets of grandparents who follow Christ for a lifetime! I was there to say good-bye to one and to wish a Happy 90th to another!

I have pictures of my Grandpa Rainwater who will be 90 tomorrow. His beautiful wife Lorene put together his party for him! There is a picture of him (Paul) and his twin sister Pauline. I do not know how old they are in this picture but boy was he a handsome young man! I love him dearly and miss him more than my heart can explain.

I was also able to see my parents, Uncle Rob and Aunt Christy, cousin Billy his 4 kids (Kara pictured below with Kyle) and my sister Sarah (who are all pictured below). Also in attendance my cousin Paul Allen. Boy how time flies when you are having fun (I guess). To all my family, I love and miss you very, very much! Happy New Year to All!

Love, Heather

Christmaas Concert!

2009-12-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here is Haylea's Christmas Concert last Friday....

And here is Tate's concert...

OOPS....

2009-12-19T21:45:00.002-07:00

OK-that last blog isn't working...you probably can't open the videos...i will try again....

Tate and Haylea's Music Concert Dec 18, 2009!

2009-12-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

Here are the video's from Tate and Haylea's music concert last Friday. The battery went dead on the last song for Tate! And Haylea's was in the dark with black lights and no singing. Just music and dancing. Kind of cool, much better in person because you could see the whole thing. But this gives you an idea of what it looked like....Love to all!!

file:///Users/heatherelkin/Desktop/Items%20for%20uploading%20December%2019%202009/2009-12-19%2021%2022%2024.mp4

file:///Users/heatherelkin/Desktop/Items%20for%20uploading%20December%2019%202009/2009-12-18%2009%2000%2026.MP4

Gillette Swim Meet Dec 5-6....

2009-12-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a few clips from Haylea's swim meet this past weekend in Gillette. We only recorded 3 of the races...she raced in 10 plus 2 relays. She did AWESOME!! Took time off all 10 events!! Enjoy!!

California 2009!

2009-10-09T07:15:00.011-06:00

OK-finally some time to put the pictures on the blog and sit down and commentate on the pictures. We were in Newport Beach, California last weekend for Chris Millard's wedding (Ty's cousin)....since the kids have been begging us to take them to Disneyland, we decided to make it a mini-vacation since we were already there. We had a blast!! I do not have pics of Disneyland though. I did not want to haul my camera around all day so we bought the disposable cameras to use. We have not used all the pics yet, but when I do get them developed I will put them on! I did my best to group the pics according to events, so I apologize if they are mixed up somewhere.

The mother of the groom-Julie Millard with Anne. We ate at Ruby's Friday night which was on a Pier on Newport Beach! We had a blast and they have great milk shakes. (Actually this pic should be down below!)--oops!

While we were in California, Ty's cousin was able to get us great seats to the Dodger/Rockies game. Our tickets allowed us to sit right behind the on deck batter for the Rockies, have all you can eat buffet of food, drinks, peanuts, pistachios, ice cream, the best cookies EVER etc....plus we saw Tommy Lasorda and Emily Osment (Lilly on Hannah Montana)...she was nice enough to let us take her picture! It was a beautiful day and very relaxing.

At Ruby's again (our last day here), Tate was able to feed the birds. He loved seeing the wild life, especially the fish! There are lots of people of fish off the pier. Tate went from person to person for about an hour asking lots of questions!! It was so cute to see him wander from person to person!

Our first afternoon there in California, we went straight to the beach! The beach was just a few blocks from where we were staying. Off course, Haylea opted to be the one buried in the sand. Ty had the honors---no way would I do that! I hate the feelingof sand on me...I could barely stand it while we were in the water!
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I love these pictures of Haylea! They had so much fun in the sand and in the water!!

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Tate wasn't so sure about the waves in the ocean...the picture above here was actually taken at the WEDGE. It is at the end of Newport Beach and it is known for massive waves for surfers, boogie boards and body surfers. Ty and were foolish enough to try it and it was made very clear we were definitely in over our heads!! There was a time were I was actuall scared!!!! The waves hit so hard and pull you back in so fast!!! There are more pics of the wedge at the end of the blog.

This is the house where we stayed. It was great...bikes, roller blades, boogie boards all included. This pictures is looking down towards the bay and up the street behind us was the beach 2-3 blocks away. Great location!

This is Reece...she wasn't real sure what to think at first, but I think she started to like it after a while.....and of course Tate playing in the sand.

Ok, these pics are from the first day we arrived. Ty burying Haylea and Ty boogie boarding! It was a lot of fun once we got the hand of it! I liked to body surf more than the boogie board.

Friday night at Ruby's a lot of us gathered together for dinner. Here is Reece with Erik and Jenny with her daughter Nicole. I had not seen Jenny in several years and this was the first time to meet Nicole. She is a very sweet girl!

Ty took this picture of the sun setting at Newport Beach. It was a beautiful night...a total California picture!! Palm trees and sunset!!
Tate spend much of the evening at Ruby's bouncing back and forth from fisherman to fisherman. He loved watching the sea lions trying to eat the bait off of the hooks. I tried to get a picture of them, but it was too dark!

Our last day there on Tuesday we went back to Ruby's for another great cheeseburger and shake. It was so pretty that day!! It was warm, sunny and you couldn't ask for a better day!

OK, here is the WEDGE...you can se how high the waves get (the pics on the right is actually just off the pier of Ruby's, not the wedge, but big waves!

HUGE waves knock you down and throw you into the bottom of the ocean. It is not very deep and the waves pull the sand back and push it back up over and over again!

To the right are yachts that were parked in the bay next to the Balboa Bay Club and Resort! They are huge!

You can't see them very well, but there are crabs on this rock. We went looking for them off of the WEDGE...Ty finally caught one and Tate is holding it here! He loved looking for crabs, but they are so fast and very hard to catch!

All in all, we had a blast and would go back in a heartbeat! Although we are glad to be home, we had such fun! We hope everyone is doing well and are safe and healthy! God bless you all!

COMING SOON......

2009-10-08T11:48:00.002-06:00

Well it has been over a month since I have published a blog...to be honest I have not had enough time to sit down and upload "lots" of pics and then sort them out to be published. But, we have had a great first few weeks of school, swimming, football and weddings! We just returned for Newport Beach, CA for a wedding, Dodger/Rockies game (dug out club seats-THANK YOU PAUL JORDAN)!! and Disneyland...oh and "The Wedge"-that was quite the experience!!-I will be posting pictures soon to fill everyone in! I hope everyone is doing well and are healthy and safe!! Love to ALL!!! The Elkin's

The End of Summer........

2009-08-29T12:59:00.009-06:00

Well Summer has finally come to an end with all of activities! I will try and sum up the last few weeks in as little words as possible. The end of July was celebrated with Haylea receiving the Most Improved Swimmer from her swim team. She did amazing! Earning a spot on the winning relay team in the 200m freestyle relay! With it being her very first year of swimming, we are looking forward to much of the same success next season (which actually starts back up in 2 weeks)!

The week after the state swim meet we headed to Spokane, WA to meet Cam, Erik and Reece. But the main reason was for my friend Bridget and I to participate in our fire Half Ironman! If you are unfamiliar with what that is: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 run. We had been training since spring and were excited but very nervous. Spokane is only 4 hours or so for Cam and Erik so it was a great opportunity to see them as well, so they made the trip down! Here are some pictures of the trip!

Reece and Haylea!

Reece's famous facial expression!

I thought this was such a cute picture of Tate, Erik and Haylea! Good thing they all three have nice legs!!!

Cam and Reece!

Reece, Mee Mee and Haylea...

This is such a great pic of Tate doing Reece's hair. I believe this is when they are just waiting for me to finish on the bike...

Erik and Mee Mee

Just before taking the plunge into the water, Bridget and I talk about how "crazy and insane" we are!!! But we are sooooo glad we did it!

The start of the swim!

I am finishing up the swim 40 minutes!! Better than I thought!! Feeling great here!

Asking if Bridget had made it out yet! She was right behind me...

Here is Bridget...she did awesome!

Getting ready for the 56 mile bike...

Here we go!!!

Bridget getting ready for the bike!

I am just coming in after the bike in downtown Spokane...boy was I ready to get OFF!!! By the way it was 100 degrees!! Now the 13 mile run....

Bridget was just a few minutes behind me!

Yeah Bridget is finishing just under 7 hours!! GREAT JOB!! She is so happy!!!!

Not so with me...I ended up having to walk almost the whole 13.1 miles...I had some cramping in my abdominals and that would not go away! It was awful..but Ty came looking for me and walked the last 2-21/2 miles with me. Very disappointing, but I will definitely do another next year!! Finished just under 8 hours!!

Tate is in Might Mite Football this year. 8-9 year olds playing full tacke. pads, helmet and all! He plays WR and he is doing great. These pictures are from his scrimmage last week. He is the WR in silver pants and white jersey. They had their first game yesterday. He caught one pass, and ran another. They lost 22-28! But their defense did not allow a TD in the 2nd half. They did very well for their first game. We will have more pics every weekend!

Our last HOORAY for the summer was last weekend in Denver. We went down for 3 Rockies games. The game on sunday was not planned, but we decided to stay and watch Lincicum for the Giants pitch! I am so glad we did, we had great seats and we won!! We did some school clothes shopping and had a great time just being with each other!

I love this picture of Tate looking up to Ty!! I couldn't resist!!

Troy Tulowitzki is our favorite player! SS for Rockies!

And of course we had to get a picture for the first day of school for the 2009-2010 school year! I hope everyone had a grea summer and we love and miss you all! Keep in touch and I will do my best to keep everyone updated on our lives. God bless and love, Elkins!

4th of July 2009

2009-07-27T17:15:00.008-06:00

OK-Finally I have some pics up from the 4th of July...If you received my email from Shutterfly, you have probably already seen these pictures...but I had to get some of them on the blog. We have been pretty busy the last few weekends with Big Sky State Games (July 17-19), Haylea's State swim meet (July 24-26) and this past weekend in Spokane, WA for my 1/2 Ironman. Pics are coming from all 3 of those weekends. I hope all are doing great and love to all! The Elkin's

Carsen (Chad and Janell's son) Mike, Sophie and Tyden (Mike and Annie's kids)

ty and tate at the 4th of july parade in red lodge, mt!

ty road the 4 wheeler down to the parade..

tate and haylea having fun with the sparklers.

we stayed at the koa campground in red lodge...you may see this pic again on a christmas card!

aunt linda (DeeDa) and anne (mee mee)

Haylea, Hudson (Chad and Janells son) and Priscilla (Mike and Annie's daughter)

cute pic! Haylea and Priscilla...they are becoming good friends!

Outside the KOA camp house...

Both Tate and Haylea getting ready for the parade.

Budweiser Clydesdales and of course the Dalamation!

Chris, Ty and Mike

Chris, Chad, Ty, Jamie and Mike

Addee Jeanne Elkin

Charlie and Alina Waples!

SUMMER 2009 SO FAR!!

2009-06-29T09:06:00.007-06:00

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!!!!

2009-06-04T18:52:00.010-06:00

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!

1st LONG COURSE MEET!

2009-05-17T18:18:00.004-06:00

200 m Backstroke-3:26 min

Haylea had her first Long Course Swim Meet in Bozeman this past weekend. For those of you who have no idea what "Long Course" means: Well, last fall and winter they swam Short Course-which is a 25 yard pool. This is what they practice in and what they are used to. All of the meets they attended were 25 yard pools. Long Course is a 50 meter pool-just like the one in the Olympics! So it is longer and harder for them because their arms do not get a break during a flip turn which they normally would have in a 25 yard pool. So this weekend was the first 50 meter pool Haylea has even seen or swam in. There is a big difference in the pools! And Haylea found out exactly what it was like to swim in it! She swam the 400 freestyle (down AND back 4 times)!! She did AWESOME!! Especially for her first time swimming that distance and in a meter pool. She also swam the 50 Fly--if you know anything about swimming, the Fly is very difficult and to go 50 meters without a break at a wall for a turn is very hard! She did very well it that event too! She came within 3 seconds of qualifying for state in the 100 backstroke and 1 second away from qualifying in the 50 backstroke. They have "motivational" times to train for and they are classified a B, BB, A, AA, AAA, AAAA times. The BB times are qualifiers for state. The B times are times to shoot for b/c if they qualify for state in ONE event, but have B times in other events, they can swim those events at state. Haylea had qualified for state in Short Course and was going to swim in 7 individual events and 3 relays back in March-BUT she became very sick the week of state and was unable to swim. Also, she turned 11 in April so now she moved up to 11-12 year olds-all the hard work she put into qualifying for state as a 10 year old was voided out from being sick!! Now her qualifying times are A LOT faster! So Haylea has 2-B times and just seconds off BB times for state. She was also promoted to the next practice team. She has been practicing in the Advanced Beginner group 1 hr 15 min 3-4 days per week. She will now be in Age group which practices 3 days a week @ 1 1/2 hrs each. This promotion will allow her to swim with faster swimmers and swim more at each practice. This will help her qualify for state at the next Long Course meet. This is also important b/c you can only qualify for state at a Long Course meet and we will only go to one more meet. Hopefully she can get at least 1 state time! Well I have taken up too much time already-We hope all is well with all of you and we miss and love you all!

50 Fr--:39.58 sec (39.19 is a B time)
100 FR--1:28.13 (1:25.79 is a B time)
400 Fr--6:58.66 (6:27.79 is a B time)
100 Back--1:35.07 (1:31.09 is a BB-state time)
200 Back--3:26.01 (3:15 is a BB-state time)
50 Fly--:47.02 (:42.39 is a B time)
50 Back--:? can't remember, it was the last race so I didn't wait for the official time. I think it was :42.?? She was very close to a state time which is :42.29.

I hope I didn't confuse or bore you with all the numbers, but it is hard to understand sometimes!

Just after the turn on the 200 backstroke!

The start before the 200 backstroke...long race (up AND back 2 times)--She almost qualified for State!!! The backstroke is her strongest stroke.....

All smiles BEFORE the 400 Free! YIKES...by the way she swam the 400fr in 6:58 minutes!!

Swimming the 100 Freestyle-1:28 min

Finishing up the 50 Fly! At the end she is getting tired, but she did GREAT! I was so so proud of her!! :47.02 secs

50 Fly! She did great! She had great form all the way! Got tired at the end--I don't blame her!

Haylea placed 3rd in her age group!!!!

2009-05-11T11:37:00.002-06:00

Just an update on the last blog--Haylea took 3rd place in her age group of 9-12 year olds!! Way to go Haylea!!! Her friend was right with her in 4th place...Haylea ran the 2 miles in 16:10 min!! 1 min 10 sec off of the winner--I know she can run faster!!! I am so proud of her! And she didn't even train for it!! Love to All!!

Band Concert/Women's Run/Etc...

2009-05-09T19:40:00.007-06:00

Here is Ty loading the pitching machine during one of Tate's games last week. Tate played today and did great! 4-4 at bat!! Hit first pitch on all 4 at bats! 2 of his hits were very solid hits into the outfield! Great job Tate!

Finally spring is here so WELCOME SPRING TIME!

Haylea and her friend Courtney ran the 2 mile-unfortunately they started when the 5 milers started, then ran back over the timing pad and started over! Not quite sure how that all ended up with their time, but we will wait and see what the official results say!! Too funny! They got a little confused...oh well-but they ran very well-we are guessing somewhere around 17 minutes or so in finishing-SUPER!!

The Montana Women's Run is held every Saturday before Mother's Day-nearly 7000 women young and beautifully aged women participated this year! Haylea ran the 2 mile, I ran the 5 mile and Meemz walked the 2 mile. It is always fun to do, I always see people I ONLY see at the Women's Run. This morning could not have been any better with the weather! Beautiful sunshine to compliment all the beautiful women who came out to participate this year. Lots of sons, husbands and dads cheering us all on!

I am finishing the five mile here--thank God I was finished. I had been sick all week and made the decision to run this morning. The great weather had a lot to do with my decision--I am so glad I ran! Not a PR-but a great run!

Meemz finishes strong in the 2 mile walk! Can't you tell she is EXHAUSTED!! Great job Mee Mee!

Haylea had a band concert this week...she does a very good job playing the trumpet! It was a typical 5th grade band concert...they have a lot of kids in band so they actually played and sounded very well!

Cold day of baseball! Brrrr!

2009-04-30T07:03:00.006-06:00

It was a cold day of baseball yesterday! No warmer than 40 degrees, but the kids did well and had fun!

Tate is playing first base...unfortunately he didn't have much action, but her sure tried!

Tate hit the ball straight down the 3rd baseline and got a double! Nice hit TATE!

Of course Tate smiling silly and a great picture of Ty and Haylea....I hope all is well-I have more pics to post...I will post more later! Love, Elkin's

Just testing and trying to figure out this BLOG thing!

2009-04-26T12:53:00.007-06:00

An updated photo for Ty..he was in the paper recently for becoming a member of an Economic Group here in Billings...

This is at The Top of the Hill Restaurant in Chapel Hill..of course we are the ONLY one's wearing Duke attire...

This was taken in Seattle at Seattle Pacific University...the KW is in remembrance of a co-official who passed away from cancer.

2009-04-25T21:56:00.001-06:00

Hello-just testing to see you if you all receive the blog update! Let me know if you did! Love - Heather

Tate's Baseball Game

2009-04-25T21:25:00.000-06:00

Tate had a baseball game today and he did very well. Papa Ron came to watch him play. He is in machine pitch and today they were only allowed 6 pitches and he made it to base 3/4 times! He did very well! Hope all is well with everyone..Love, Elkin's

NEW BLOG!

2009-04-25T21:00:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone! I had already typed out my first Blog and obviously something went wrong and it did not save! So I am not going to retype it right now, but I will summarize it...I got a new camera! Yeah, so I thought I would start a blog to update everyone on how we are doing here in MT...although it will not be as "cute, adorable and sweet" as Miss Reece, but I will do my best to match the quality shots of Tate and Haylea doing their "thing". I will post pics soon! Love to all!!!