so ... the "exciting" stuff

the other day i mentioned that the last weekend had been "exciting."

here's why.

remember when i told you about henry's upward trajectory of improvement and involvement in swimming this year? well, a week after that swim meet, we attended the C finals meet. he qualified in a couple of events.

one of those events was the 50 meter freestyle. he was seeded in 32nd place.

then he swam it.

he improved his time so much that he won the event. won. kicked 31 other kids' times out of the way.

so, wow, right?

after that, we knew the summer session was pretty much over. there were the A/B finals the next weekend, which henry didn't swim, and then the state meet at the U of M the following weekend. so we took it easy ... he took a week off of swimming to just chill. then he took a week off for a fencing camp.

well, in the middle of that second week, i got a call from his coach. he said, "sooo ... you know that henry is in two relays at state this weekend, right? we haven't seen him at practice, so i wanted to make sure you knew about it ..."

uh ...

turns out, that 50 free time of his got him on the 200 free relay and the 200 medley relay. and we didn't know about it. and he hadn't been practicing.

so we quick got him in three more practices, then headed to the U at 6:45 a.m. saturday morning.

the atmosphere was amazing. i think henry was truly in awe of the size of the natatorium at the U, and the amount of kids wandering around. he was nervous, but soon he got with his team, did his warm-ups, and settled in.

most of the kids who were there from his team swim in the level just above where henry swims, so he didn't know any of them. luckily, during warm-ups there were some times to be silly and relax. like when all the girls danced the macarena and the boys tried to hide:

(sidenote: people still know the macarena?! huh.)

then practically every one of the 300+ 13 & under swimmers in the arena danced along to YMCA.

not henry, mind you. he may take after his mom in the pool, but when it comes to dancing, he's all his father. ie, he doesn't. but he did crack a smile, at least.

(oh, and how cool is this? the meet was selling olympic caps - with "lochte" and "phelps" printed on them. there were also caps that said "bootsma" ... rachel bootsma is a local girl who just graduated from high school and made the olympic team. all the girls on the team sitting in front of me were wearing "bootsma" caps. i don't know if they swam for her old club, or if the girls were just supporting a local hero. either way, it was fun to see.)

then it was time to get down to business.

i know he was nervous and overwhelmed, and he'd been having trouble with his goggles coming apart at the nosepiece during starts, which made him pretty tentative off the blocks. but he did a great job. and his 200 medley relay ended up placing 10th. (don't know about the other relay ... the results weren't up before we left.)

he was proud of himself, and i think the fact that he even made it to state his first year out put a little extra sparkle in his eye.

and then ... then ... more exciting.

not only was henry a swimming fool that weekend, but harper also had a fun meet at her swim school.

her pool is about 20 yards long, and because it's a school, there was an instructor in every lane keeping an eye on the kids. but that harper ... she swam in four events.

a "50" free ...

a "50" backstroke ... during which she gave me a big smile before as she turned ...

(the kid smiles the whole time she swims. i love it.)

then a surprise "25" butterfly ...

which we didn't know she was swimming, but she got 2nd place in her heat!

and then she turned right around and headed back for a "100" IM ...

amazing. she kicked little kid booty. and had a blast.

icing on the cake is that my mom was in town for a work event, and had been planning to head home on friday, but was able to extend her visit by a day to go to both events. the kids were thrilled. they never get grandparents at any of their events, so i know her being there meant a lot to them both.

it was an exhausting day for them both, but i think the excitement of it all kept them going. my little swimmers.

Comments

[lisa truesdell]

that is awesome!

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Wow! Your kids are amazing water babies! I'm lucky if I can get mine to take a bath. It looks like Harper has a great role model to look at with her awesome brother.

[Bernice]

That's so awesome! Good job, both of them! And that little part about your son dancing like his father (i.e., he doesn't) made me laugh!