Goodbye to Groundhog Day

Six weeks of daily swim lessons came to an end, and the 2010 "Mini-Marlins" celebrated with a meet and awards ceremony on the last day of July. Joey inexplicably came away with one blue ribbon -- he had a late start in the breathing underwater contest, and very lenient judges -- and had a second, third, and fourth place finish in the rest of his events!

Here he is taking a breather, SuperGoggles and all.

I'm not sure what warmed him to the water more this season... his goggles, or his cute high school instructors, especially Samantha, who knocked his socks off. Luckily, the feeling was mutual, and she went out of her way to help him in all of his events.

The last event of the day was diving for coins, which Joey excelled at... he's nothing if not mercenary. This booty went directly into his piggy bank!