This is my tennis team!

About 4 of the ladies are missing from this picture. We are all beginners, and slowly improving. Our tennis coaches, Stacy and Genaro are wonderful and encouraging and make learning the game fun! I've always wanted to play tennis, but when I failed it in college, I decided it wasn't for me. I was very intimidated to join a team because I knew I was really bad and didn't even understand how to play the game. Amy, my new neighbor, encouraged me to play saying, "We're all beginners... everyone has to start somewhere." I'm so glad I listened to her because I am really loving the game! 

Amy is 3rd from the left. On top of our regular group lessons on Thursdays, and our matches on Tuesdays, we tacked on 4 private lessons (or semi-private, since we do them together) on Fridays. We just needed someone to show us the basic strokes and how to serve. We have been taking the kids up to the neighborhood courts in the afternoons with us about once a week. The kids play so well together and are enjoying it and we are getting in some extra practice. Our husbands are both really good tennis players, so the 4 of us go up to the courts on the weekends and play. They are about 10 years younger than us, so they kill us! 

Today I played my first doubles match. We lost, but not without a fight. We took it to 3 sets! We killed them on the first set 6-1, but then they came back strong and won the second set 4-6. Since we were tied, it took us into a third set, which they won 3-6.  (So my first match lasted 26 games, whew!) It was so much fun though! I'm so glad to have my first match behind me because I've been nervous about it all week. Thankfully, everyone is very gracious and encouraging.

I signed up Ellie and Emma for 4 private lessons. They had their first one on Sunday and absolutely loved it. Much better than the group lessons they had in the past. Although, they were much younger then and mostly just ran around and played. I was surprised at how well they did at their first lesson. Hopefully, we can all get good enough to play together as a family at some point. It's great exercise and a great way to spend some family time.