Before it got really crowded
Adam takes the block
Derek's turn
Adam hugs Helen and shows off his heat-winner lei's
Our neice, Lindsay, was with us for the week. She was very sweet and everyone loved her.Once again, I'm having trouble finding the time to update the blog during the Summer. During the school year, I have some time after everyone goes to school or after they go to bed since they go to bed earlier during the school year.
Swim team has been a big commitment, but the kids seem to enjoy it. Derek even commented to Helen that, "Daddy should have made me do swim team when I was younger." The kids never wanted to do it and I was always hesistant to force them because I knew it would be on Helen to get the kids to practice and she always looked forward to relaxing during the Summer. She agreed to give it a try this year thinking that it would be a good way to get the kids (and her) going in the morning.
The kids swim every weekday morning for an hour and then the team has a meet against another team every Thursday evening. Every kid gets to swim 5 or so heats during the meet. There are about 80 different events with some events having 1-4 heats depending on the number of kids. The younger kid events have more heats because there are so many of them. It's not unusual for the meets to last 5 hours. We usually have to stay for the whole thing because Adam swims in the early heats and Derek finishes with a late relay.
The kids have really improved. Adam couldn't even swim the 25 yard length of the pool without resting before. They are still in the heats with the slower kids, but they're starting to win some of their heats. There are lots of fun things like ribbons, medals, pizza, donuts, etc. It sounds like everyone is committed to doing it again next year.
This week was the last home meet of the season. For the last home meet, there's a tradition where all the graduating seniors on the team each get on a swim block with their parents next to them and the meet announcer talks about each swimmer - how long they've been swimming, any records they hold, where they'll be going to college, etc. We could see the mom's getting teary eyed when these big boys got on the blocks and the announcer talked about how so and so started on the team in 1997 when they were 5 years old and this would be their last home meet. You could play the movie in your mind of all the experiences had along the way and wonder how it was over so fast.
