Summer Swim Team 2011

This year I signed the kids up for the summer swim team. Thanks to so many encouraging moms in our neighborhood I went through with it. Neither of the kids were strong swimmers at the start of the summer. I didn't think I could sign them up unless they were already excellent swimmers. Several parents convinced me otherwise. I am SO glad I signed them up! It was great exercise, it gave us a structured daily activity, and the kids became more physically fit because of it!

They had practice Monday-Thursday for an hour each morning. The swim meets were on Thursdays nights, thus our days on Thursdays were basically consumed by swim. I can see where it would have been very difficult as a working parent to pull it off. The kids would have practice for an hour Thursday morning, then go home, rest and have lunch, then we would need to be back at the pool by 4:30 to sign in and the meet could last until 11:00pm. There was no practice on Friday, just "Fun Friday" where all the kids came to the pool to swim, get doughnuts and ribbons. I was usually exhausted by Friday. In order to keep the program going parents (which usually was interpreted into "Moms") were required to volunteer for a certain number of hours each season.

Despite the commitment and stressful moments I am so glad we signed up. Just so I can document it, below are the kids times for this season. Hopefully next season the kids can improve even more. I told them that the ribbons they received for each meet were not as important as trying to improve on their times at each meet.

25 Yard Freestyle: Aislin Blaine

6/2- 1:08:93 --

6/9- 56.09 35.53

6/16- 53.34 30.72

6/23 - 59.25 35.10

6/30- 1:11:81 37.65

Backstroke (Blaine):

6/23 50.66

6/30 45.16

Butterfly (Blaine):

6/30 50.19

They both participated in Relays as well, but we didn't get the individual times for those. Finally some pictures from the season:

Memorable moments from the season:

• Listening to Blaine cheer Aislin on at her first meet. He cheered so loudly and hard for her, too precious.
• Watching Aislin hold onto to the lane line and smile at the crowd the whole way down the lane. Even though her coach assured me that she could swim the full 25 yards without touching the line, Aislin insisted on holding on in order to take a breath and smile at all her "fans".
• Watching Blaine's confidence soar after learning the different strokes.
• Having numerous people at the meet ask me what kind of "goggles" Blaine was wearing...
• Watching Blaine and Aislin's excitement when earning the ribbons.
• Finally having Blaine come up to me one morning while I was cooking breakfast, about half way through the season and stating: "Mom I'm getting ripped." Me: "Oh, did someone say you were looking muscular?" Blaine: "No!" (As he rips his shirt off.) "Just look at me!" :)