And That's A Wrap: Benjamin's County Meet

Benjamin was awfully excited for the county swim meet this afternoon. I was both surprised—and not surprised—to look over and see his meet suit underneath his church clothes...

When I asked him about it he told me he had slept in them, too. Boy, was he ever ready for his swim meet!

After church we went home, had lunch, and headed to Georgia Tech once again. Benjamin was happy to have been at the venue yesterday with Zoë because no one was really escorting his age group around. Rather than meet outside in a group, Benjamin was expected to make his way on deck by himself—and he knew just where to go. 

Here's our 11–12 year old team:

Benjamin was the most enthusiastic waver. He was waving across the pool at our family. He was waving across the pool at his team-friends' families. He was waving across the pool at his church-friends' families (some kids in our ward are on a different team). He waved from the team area, he waved from the diving block. He waved and waved and waved. That meant we did a lot of waving as well. 

See if you can spot him—yellow swim cap, both hands high in the air, behind blocks 5/6:

He was so excited to be there, even if he was only swimming one event. Like Zoë, he made it close to the county cut-off in multiple events...but just wasn't quite there. Being on the relay team was a wonderful opportunity for him to get to attend county.

Here's his cheering section all wrapped up in other activities while waiting for his event:

And here he is getting ready to swim his leg of the free relay (or "freelay" as he likes to call it):

He's on block 6, for reference (so above he is standing by block 6 and below he is poised on block 6):

And here he is diving into...lane 6:

His team came in 4th in their heat. We stayed to watch the rest of the relays and then headed out. 

Last night he and I made some cards from the linocut I made earlier this week so that he could give some out to his friends and coaches. He wanted a yellow swim cap (since their caps were yellow). Here he is making the prints:

Here are some of the finished prints:

He made one for his friend Oliver (at church, different team), for each of the head coaches, and one for a friend on the swim team that he wanted to keep in touch with (he stamped a message at the top of each card, like, "Good luck, Oliver!" or "Thank you, Coach Heidi!"). His team-friend was also a relay-only swimmer, so we made sure to meet up with his parents when the relay swimmers were dismissed. We introduced ourselves and I explained that my contact information was in the card and his mom texted me before we even made it to the parking garage (so that I would be sure to have her information as well). 

I'm glad we'll be able to get the boys together a few more times this summer!

Benjamin was proud to have found me a new friend. 

At dinner (leftovers!) we were going around the table asking our Sunday questions (What did you learn at church? What was your favourite part of the day? What do you celebrate?) and Benjamin proudly declared that his celebration was, "Finding a new mom for my friend!"

We all laughed about that because of course he meant "finding a new friend for Mom!"

"What—do you work an orphanage or something?" Rachel asked. She's a witty one (we're sure going to miss her). 

Swim team has been wonderful! It's great that Benjamin is feeling so passionate about something. We're glad to have a few weeks to breathe...and sleep...and recover. Farewell summer swim season 2025!