Last meet of the year!

We did it! We made it through the swim season! 

Our final meet was tonight and it was a little...touch and go in the beginning. A thunder storm rolled in just as we were setting up so we spent the next 1.5+ hours waiting it out. We got our meet started at 6:30 pm and the officiants really moved through things quickly!

I worked the first half of the meet, which meant Andrew was on Phoebe duty. Lucky for her (both of them, really) the clubhouse welcomed children playing on the playground. Phoebe had a blast at the playground in between spurts of cheering.

The kids swam well again. Alexander competed in both breaststroke and butterfly for the first time today! He got DQ'd in butterfly (which was not unexpected) but really did quite well with his breaststroke! I was proud of him for trying something new and for pushing himself forward at such a late hour.

Our meet didn't end until 10:45 pm! And as you can see our heat wave has fizzled out...today we were getting chilly on deck. I was glad that I had a blanket in the car to throw over Alexander who was having a hard time getting warm after the sun went down.

Here's Benjamin, who swam a 100 metre freestyle this evening: 

He competed 100 yards one time last year and wanted to try it again. I'm...not sure about his results...but he swam well. He came to the meet a little bit late because he and Andrew got stuck in the huge storm that rolled over us before the meet (Andrew was picking him up from his woodworking class). While we only got poured on, they got way-sided by flooded roads and were pelted with marble-sized hailstones. His tardiness didn't really matter, though, because we were all just sitting in our cars, anyway. He made it with plenty of time to be ready for the meet to start.

Speaking of which, his swimsuit went "missing" when he was trying to get ready for the swim meet before leaving for his woodworking class. 

"Mom!" he moaned. "For some reason I can't find my meet suit!"

And...I don't know why, but for some reason whenever he says "meet suit" it cracks me up because I think of "meat suit." Lady Gaga. Edgar. I dunno. It's just funny to me. 

"Have you looked for it?" I asked (because oddly that is the first question I have to ask when my kids tell me they can't find something—they answer "no" surprisingly often).

"Kind of..." he hedged. 

"Well, why don't you start by picking up all the dirty clothes in your room," I suggested. 

He did, but didn't find his...meet suit. Then he had the brilliant idea to empty his laundry basket and found his...meet suit...near the bottom. Mission accomplished!

Anyway, the kids were all a little blindsided by the extra length of the pool. 

I told them that when I was younger I always trained in 25 metre pools (uphill, both ways...in the snow). They weren't impressed. 

Here are Alexander and Zoë watching the last few events after they finished all their races:

Benjamin still had a race to do and then they wanted to watch the coach race at the end, which was silly and fun. It was a really good season! The kids improved a lot and had a lot of fun!