Not Feelin' It

While my birthday boy puts together some new legos in the other room, I'll quick bloggity blog...

So back to Kingman.

BTW, I had an AWESOME run in Kingman. But that blog entry is next. You'll have to wait!! Sorry if I'm totally boring you rambling on and on about my little swimmers. I've had a couple of peeps already jump ship. I'm down to a whopping 21 followers. Soon there will be crickets chirping as I talk to myself here. Lol!

Alright. Back to business.

You've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, this one says it all.

Ooozing positivity and enthusiasm. Can you feel it?

(Also, I'm not sure why he looks like a ghost. The video camera picture function SUCKS!)

It just wasn't happening on Saturday. At all. For the following reasons:

1) Pool water still too cold.

2) Too much chlorine, which irritated his MILD sunburn...

3) And made his skin super itchy.

4) Still doesn't like backstroke.
5) Times were OFF. Like 3-8 seconds off from his PRs. This happened to nearly everyone though. Our city is not very supportive of the swim team and only gives the kiddos one hour to practice each afternoon. That's 1/2 the time that they swim each day fall-spring. They simply lose fitness. Bummer.

5) Too many events.

6) TIRED

Ok, I will give him 5 and 6. I'll even give him 4. These swim meets are challenging for little kids (and their parents). And by little kids, I don't just mean the competitors. Their siblings, by the end of the day, aren't feelin' it either.

In my little fantasy world, Tyler, Colin, Mom and Dad all cheer gleefully for Evan during his events. Between events, the little ones sit quietly and play. We have some snacks. We have some laughs. Everyone is happy. We're all outside in the fresh air and all is well.

In reality, Coach Dad hangs with Evan and makes sure he's staying on track. He walks him to the starting blocks, makes sure his goggles are all set, and gives him advice on his stroke techniques, his underwater pullouts and all that sh*t that I really know nothing about.

Meanwhile... I'm:

 Making sure these two don't kill each other. 

 Watching them as they stalk swimmer chicks. 

(How you doin'?)

Making sure they get along with other random kids that they befriend because they have cool legos. (Tyler tried to set up a sleepover with this little guy even though he lives 3 hours away in Lake Havasu.)

Other duties:

1) Keeping them OUT of our snack cooler. You don't need a snack every 3 minutes!!!! GET OUT!!

2) Making sure they don't kill themselves playing on the bleachers.

3) Keeping them (mostly Colin) OUT of the competition pool. NO! YOU CAN'T STICK YOUR FEET IN THERE! OUT!!!

4) Changing a really disgusting poopy diaper or taking Tyler to go poop in the bathroom, of course, 3 minutes before Evan's event.

Now that I'm typing this out, I realize that, I too, am not feelin' it by the end of the day.

At any rate, it was a LONG Saturday (1 event in the morning at Regionals, 5 events in the afternoon). There was a lot of tears (from all of our kiddos) and lots of lecturing on having a good attitude and being mentally tough (totally futile but we had to try).

Evan still rocked his 50m breaststroke. 

He's on the far R. Totally not sure how I got this action shot with the crappy video camera, but I'll take it! (No, the pool is not really Wizard of Oz green)

I know winning isn't everything, but it's really cool seeing this, especially after a pretty lousy day. Great note to end on.

When all was said and done, we (ok, really just me) stuffed ourselves with Papa John's pizza back in the hotel room, Mike and Evan went off to meet the rest of the team for a 7 pm showing of the new Harry Potter movie, and I got the little ones off to bed. I needed some shut-eye before my challenging 14-miler the following morning. It was one of the nicest long runs I've ever done. Can't wait to tell you all about it!