Welcome to Day 6 of our 2016 HAC / GCAC Arizona Training Trip!
Kept you all in suspense today didn't we :)
We're having too much fun today :p (Or too much pain?... is there a difference?)
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| Breakfast time was a ghost town, even the coaches moaned to get up today! Coach Carmen even had to go upstairs to get everyone moving. Too much fun last night :) |
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| The boys were the first ones down. That says something! |
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| This is how everything looks at 5:45am... specially now that we have fully adapted to the local time. |
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Leaving dark and early... what day is it today? Monday? We get to see the sunrise ALMOST everyday!
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| It was c-h-i-l-l-y this morning! |
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| Guess who the swimmer in the white cap is? |
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... it's Cesar Cielo! His group came in about 30 minutes before we were done, and we offered to give them some lanes but they said no, that's okay. They uncovered the whole 25yd pool so we could finish. That's so nice of them eh? We wrapped our practice up and Cesar's group moved over. (We ate our snacks before our hike on deck so we could watch them.) I actually had my water bottle on the back lane 3, and when Cesar was doing sprints (which I filmed), and he moved it. OMG! He like totally touched my water bottle :) [Can you tell I'm spending way too much time with these girls? LOL...]
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| This is Phoenix Swim Club's Senior Coach Garrett (owner/co-founder of SwimSwam). He's a really nice guy! He also brings his baby to work with him almost everyday! Awe isn't that cute? (... yuk...) |
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| Our sunscreen buffet before we went on our hiking adventure! |
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| We arrived at the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, Squaw Peak (I think)! Geared up and ready to go! |
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| Emme and Daniel led the whole way. Brave souls!!! |
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Sarah, Caitlin, Sydney, Alisha, Brenden, Nolan and Coach Carmen. Maybe we should have grabbed a map? Nah, we navigate back and forth, up and down the pool/pool deck everyday. We can handle this!
(Yeah, so I looked at the board/map after... It should have taken us only 30mins.) JK!
Why do I use "..." so much. Geez... Ughh... I can't stop! (...) |
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| Sarah and Alisha, Carmen and stoic Nolan in the background! |
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| Thumbs up Virag! Hungary is very proud! |
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| Hannah built an inukshuk.. Viva Canada!!!! |
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| The whole group! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... do you see any swimmers stuck to a cactus down there? No? Yeah, we're all here. |
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Literally everywhere you look is the same: rocks, dirt, cacti, bushes, trees. It's very dry which makes the trail dusty & slippery. (As a side note, every time we passed something with pointy edges our very own Ellagator had to touch it. Everytime, I'm not kidding. Do you know how many bushes/cacti/trees felt like "plastic"? I do. 232 of them.
Well, not actually. I got to 139 and said, "Hey, look over there," then bolted to the front of the pack. (hehe JK mom!) |
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| Sydney, O'gradytime and Avacado in the parking lot after we were done. Towards the end of our walk, I asked Emma if she was tired because she was kind of tripping over the smaller rocks. She said, "No my feet are just big." See, she's not clumsy mom, she just has big feet. We'll remember that next time she walks into a wall or swims into a lane line... LOL! |
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| Alisha --my bandanna twin-- post-hike: "I'm like, tired." |
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| The boys faded out as soon as we got back to the car! |
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| Finally home! After a 2hr LC swim and 1hr 45min hike... what an awesome bunch! These kids are really building their character handling the challenges: 10 swims plus 4 dryland's (the young ones 9/3) + 1 hike in 6 days...SO FAR. HAC has done this before; our GCAC kids probably had an idea what this would be like but they had NO idea... I'm so proud! |
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| Emme, Daniel, and Brenden relaxing after having a bite. |
The GoPro had to stay home to charge, but we had a mini excursion to the mall. Not the main one in town, but the "other mall" that was closer to home... the kids didn't really love it but I got some new socks & had a massage. Yahoo! I'm going back again tomorrow. And the day after that... and the day after that....
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| Virag and Lauren hanging out in the sun room before dinner! |
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| The Ellis' came over and organized a BBQ for us! THANK YOU it was mmm mmm delicious! |
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| Caitlin found the camera, excuse my mess please! Great shot of the Gatorade bottle, windows and Alisha :) |
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| The kids have literally been GLUED to the TV for 'The Flash' during their downtime. |
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| We got the TV back, woo hoo! Time for Jeopardy + The Bachelor Finale! Hey, where did everyone go? |
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| The house's completely quiet, and look what time it is! The kids actually put themselves to bed around 9pm. Not sure if they were tired or angry or both... I mean, when Ben picked the apparently "fake" blonde woman over Jo Jo... you should have heard the reaction! We only caught the beginning of the show and then the very end, but Emme was the best commentator..., "Why did he hug her and give her a kiss on the cheek after- when he just dumped her? That's cold man, you don't do that. That's just wrong." (Good boy Emme!) You know if Ben had picked Jo Jo we'd be knee deep in the After the Final Rose special right now! Ha! |
