Swim meet #1

Today was sunny enough that we stayed after morning practice to swim for a bit longer, partly so that I could make Phoebe do some things. When I asked her how futures went (I was in the parking lot giving things away to my friends...) she said that it went very well, that she was very "nice" and just said, "No, thank you!" when she was asked to float on her back.

So we had to practice back floats, obviously. 

Because these sweet little coaches are like, "The little lady said no thank you," whereas I am like an auctioneer: "Can you hold a back float for five seconds? One, two, three, four five! Five bid. Five. Do I hear ten seconds? Ten..."

What I mean is...the back float is happening whether you really want to or not. 

Because I'm a meanie. 

Anyway, she held her back float for ten seconds today. 

But we had to get home to move a bunk bed frame, two mattresses, two desks, two monitors, an office chair, some weighted blankets, and a bunch of stuff...into a friend's truck so they can redo their boys' rooms. Win-win. 

We're getting rather tired of moving furniture over here but...we're nearing the finish line.

The afternoon was sunny-ish, with a chance of thunderstorm. The cloud cover was very welcome when it rolled in and covered the sun. And it didn't ever thunder, so that was lovely. 

Here's Phoebe standing in the splash zone:

Here's Benjamin (bright yellow cap) getting ready to dive in during a relay:

Here's Zoë diving in (lane 1, by the wall):

And here's Alexander (just entering the water over his little relay buddy):

The kids all did well and each got more than one "best time" this evening! 

Benjamin was particularly proud because he has been wanting to get a sub-30 time for his 50 yard freestyle and finally did! He got 30.91 at our mock meet last week and this week he got 29.88! He was pretty excited about that!

He was also quite proud about his IM (individual medley, where he swims a lap of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle in the same event).

According to the time keepers, he got third place overall (though I was watching very closely...on account of...I'm a stroke and turn judge...and I swear he came in second place, just barely...but it's fine). Whatever the case, he took off about 17 seconds from his previous time...and did so without goggles (because they fell off when he dove in)!

It was a pretty good evening!

While we were sweltering in the sunshine before it was swallowed up in clouds, Andrew checked the weather and said, "Hey—it's one degree hotter here than it is in Doha!"

"See?" I said. "We're going to be fine..."

"Of course, it's like 2:00 in the morning there..." he pointed out. "Today's high was...113°F. So...that's hot."

"That's hot, yeah."

"They don't drop below triple digits for the rest of the week."

"For the rest of..."

"Until like the end of October."

It'll be fine.