2008 Long Course State Championships

This first picture is actually from Finals last week and was taken by my friend and fellow swim mom, Tammy... I LOVE this picture, it's probably one of my most favorite of him ever, and definitely my favorite swimming one.



Here it is with a little edits, but I think I like the original better...



What a week! Our state fun started on Tuesday with a "carbo loading" spaghetti dinner with about 70 swimmers/family members. It was a blast, even if I did have a heart attack at the prospect of Caden spilling cherry slushie all over the Roberts' white carpet!

The highlight of the evening was the gift bags assembled by the coaches, which included an AWESOME apparel item, along with cool "good luck" gifts from the other families. Thanks to Tammy for some of these pictures, as my camera's battery died! (by the way Tammy, in my family we call that ocean salt stuff "slick sh!t" - well... I guess I call it that, my kids know better even if I don't!)









The jackets are SO cool! We had to deal with a tad bit of little sister jealousy when we got home, but she's happy and proud of William like the rest of us, and was cheering for him louder than anyone today.

Today I drove William to Rochester and back (about 4.5 hours total) so that he could swim in the boys' 11-12 400 Medley Relay. I teased him that he was lucky I liked him enough to drive 5 hours to watch him swim a 2 minute race... BUT he knows as well as I do that I wouldn't have missed it for the world.



This is most of the boys' relay team, chatting before warmups:



Getting ready for warmups...



I had my camera in moron mode, as usual, and ended up with a bunch of blurry pics... but I kinda liked this one, it makes him look like he's going SUPER fast (he was cruising pretty good, but was "just" warming up)...



THE BIG RACE!





William's Splits:





This was a good time for him! It's not an official time, since it was a relay start, but his first 50 was his fastest ever by about 1.5 seconds, which was AWESOME. His 100 was within .61 seconds of his fastest time from last weekend, so all in all, it was a great race!

We had to come straight back home today, since I have to work... We hadn't planned on him making the state team, so we had to do a lot of last minute rearranging in order to accommodate it but we are so glad for the opportunity. Most of the team will be heading up tomorrow for the weekend. GOOD LUCK SEA DEVILS!!!

WILLIAM'S GOING TO STATE!!!!!!!!!!

YAY! Omigosh... what a day today was! We had a great weekend in Winona, and the kids both did SO incredibly well at A/B/C Finals. Madison got her chance to swim today and dropped a good chunk of time on her 50 Free! Way to go Madison!





William had another phoenomenal day as well, dropping time on everything that he swam.





Shortly after leaving the meet, we received a call from William's coaches... based on his performance this weekend, he was invited to accompany the team to STATE championships this coming week in Rochester! He and I will be driving down this Thursday so that he can swim the 100 Breast leg of the 400 Medley Relay. He is so incredibly excited, and I think that I am possibly even more excited than he is... He has come so incredibly far over the past year. To think at this time last year, he was so far from even a C time, and now he's going to STATE! We are so thankful for this opportunity, I think that it will be great for him to see first hand what this is all about, and to help him visualize his goals to qualify for state on an individual level in the coming seasons. I seriously get teary eyed thinking about it, he has worked so hard for this and I am so proud of him.

Caden and Brent joined us at the pool today, and thankfully there was a playground on site to keep the boy entertained.... he had a blast! Please ignore the fact that he's wearing Madison's shirt.... that's what happens when you leave your husband behind to get the little one dressed and checked out the of hotel...









After leaving the meet, we took a drive up the bluffs that overlook Winona... it was so beautiful, and I couldn't pass up a photo op... Excuse William's closed eyes, I am too jittery to mess around with photoshop to fix right now :)

















Then on the way home, we had to stop by an AWESOME toy store that one of the other swim mom's told me about - wow! This place was SOOOOOOO cool. Lots of vintage and up to date toys, but the best part was this amazing carousel inside the store... Each "horse" was a unique hand carved and painted animal, and it was seriously one of the coolest things I've seen. William wouldn't ride on it, but Madison, Cade, and Brent all took a turn... Caden rode the "dwagon" and Madison the unicorn.













They also had this AWESOME ride on "car" called the PlasmaCar - wow, was that thing ever cool! Caden jumped on and was whizzing around like a pro immediately, and the older two were impressed as well. I really have no clue how it works, but it was fun to watch the kids zooming and spinning around! I am SO getting one for Caden's birthday in Septemper.







Ok, that's probably an overload, but it was a BUSY day! Hope ya'll have a GREAT WEEK!!

Winona... Day ONE!

Oh. My. Gosh. What a GREAT day we had at the Swim Meet today. William swam 4 events. He has 3 more tomorrow, and Madison has 2 tomorrow. MY SON dropped MEGA time in every event he swam, including 10 SECONDS in the 100 Breast, and 14 seconds in the 400 Free! I am SO proud of him! He took 1st place in his division for the 100 Breast, and 2nd Place in the 200 IM. I left before the placings were finalized for the 400 Free, but I know he did well on that one too. Great Job William!!!

He was very focused for the meet, and he had me razor shave his head for the meet last night. He also wore his fast skin (a special swimsuit) for the first time, and WOW!

Here's some pictures from today. I've decided that it's MUCH easier to take pictures in natural light (outdoors), I love the colors, and I didn't have to do a darn thing to get them! I'm always fiddling around with my camera setting to get the right balance under the horrible lighting in most indoor pools. And since I really haven't the slightest clue what the heck ISO, White Balance, and F Stops are, it's pretty much a crap shoot.

Here's my baldie...



Getting Ready...







He was so fast on his breaststroke today I had a hard time getting a pic! I have about 8 of these pics, I was too slow to get him, yay!



Backstroke...



Freestyle...





I was thrilled to get a call from California during the meet. I have a new niece! Welcome to the world Madilyn Rose, and Congrats to Ray and Tracy!

The Great Shave Down...

This weekend is A/B/C Finals for our team's swim club. We'll be in Winona Friday-Sunday, but any would-be burglars (since I'm sure they would be reading my blog) should know that:

1 - My only valuables (computer, ipod, and camera) are with me.
2 - Our house is being watched by 3 very ferocious labrador retrievers (and our neighbor), and...
3 - one very ornery cat named Jack. Jack is a very loving kitty to his family, but he has been known to attack unsuspecting visitors, so proceed with caution. Don't forget to take out the garbage, we forgot to haul it before leaving.

William was very excited because I'd promised him that he could shave his head bald for the occasion. This is a long standing ritual that many swimmers (typically male :) - do for the last big meets of the season.