Sarasota

So it turns out that we hadn't been to Sarasota in a while (well, at least Sam and I hadn't), so we decided to make a quick visit on our way to The River.  I bet you're going to tell me that Sarasota isn't on the way to The River and you are absolutely correct.  Chris will tell you, "Once you're in the car for 12 hours, what's another 4?"  My answer to that is, "Another 4 hours in the car with my children, plus an additional 4 hours back to the river."  But alas, it was easier/cheaper than buying plane tickets for a separate trip!

We were mostly there to visit people, and with our visit falling over 4th of July weekend, that turned out to be pretty easy!  One pizza party at Great Grandma's nursing home, one family party hosted by Dave and Debbie, and one family outing to see Fireworks.  (Yes, Annabelle is still afraid of fireworks.  But she had a plan that involved Grammy's lap and her hands over her ears.)

Sam pointed out to us, by way of asking if we could go to "big fireworks" again next year, that this was our kids' first time to see a proper fireworks display.  Very different than the ones we set off on our own.  Maybe we'll have to venture downtown for the big show next year.

And it looks like someone new has made a claim to what used to be Aunt Becky's room.  Turns out that Aunt Becky is perfectly happy to share with her fellow curly-headed HunniGal.

Go Gators!

Finally, a sport that Mommy is/was good at!  I know something about swimming, and not just because I forcefully dragged to countless weekend-long USS meets boasting conditions mildly resembling those used "coerce the enemy."  No, I actually know how to swim, have been taught and coached and succeeded in a past life. 

Lets not pretend that my skill, knowledge or experience was enough to convince my 6-year-old that Mommy had anything helpful to offer him.  No no, it was at least half way through the season before he started listening to my tips and instructions.  And wouldn't you know it, at the meet held a few days after he and I spent time in our own pool working on his racing start, the head scorekeeper (not knowing he was my son) commented "Wow?  Nice Dive!"  I can't catch a football or make a 3-point shot to save my life, but I can swim.

But I guess Sam's first season on swim team really isn't about me, sigh.  Although I did enjoy myself.  Yes the meets were long and the practices were every day, but they were only a half hour and it insured that I would get to chat with a friend every single day.  And Annabelle would get a mini-playdate every day (yay for sports siblings!).  And it got us to the playground, conveniently located just outside the pool gates, every single day.  While this did make for a busy end to the school year, especially on the few night that we went straight from swimming to baseball, it proved to be invaluable once school let out.  The scheduled practice and built-in park time gave us structure to our mornings.  The physical activity first thing in the morning took the edge off of everyone's pent-up summer energy.  The social interaction kept us from getting sick of each other.  It was a very good thing.

Chris did not love swim team this year.  He was only responsible for one practice (I was out of town) and five meets, but the meets proved to be too much for him.  Apparently he "wasn't properly warned" about what swim team would entail.  How on Earth does a boy who grew up in Florida not understand how swim team works?  Alas, he did not.  And he did not enjoy entertaining a bored 3 year old for a few hours while we waited around to watch Sam swim for a total of 1:40 while I fulfilled our family's volunteer responsibility.  I think next year we might let him do the volunteer jobs so that he feels he has a bit more purpose with his time at the pool.

Now Sam.  He both enjoyed and succeeded at swim team.  Turns out, this was his first sport that was scored.  And the beauty of swim team is that you get a ribbon for every. single. time. you get in the water at a meet, even if you finish dead last.  That sat very well with Sam.  Should we talk about how adorable it was that so many 6 and unders were more concerned with “collecting all the colors” or getting “a pink one!” than they were with getting a blue one?!

The 6 and under age group only swims Freestyle and Backstroke.  This worked out really well for Sam, who has not yet been taught the other strokes.  Mind you, by the end of the season he had convinced himself he could do Butterfly and consistently chose it on his “free choice” lap at the end of practice.  I assure you, his Butterfly would only be legal during a Freestyle race at this point in the game.

So Sam swam freestyle, backstroke and landed himself a spot of a free relay in every meet.  We got to watch him swim 3 times and were done before the half-time break.  It appears that our time and money invested in swim lessons paid off, because he was consistently in the first heat of both strokes and finished well at every meet.  At the third meet he dropped his freestyle time by several seconds – down in the 27 second range!  Consistency is not his strong suit yet, and his times vary by a second or two depending on his mood, the weather, or how the game of Trouble went in the ready bench tent right before he swam.  Oh, and how motivated he was to go spend his dollar at the concession stand.

We were fortunate to have all four dual meets at our neighborhood pool, even the one where we were the “away” team.  This all changed when Sam qualified for Meet of Champs at the end of the season, to be held in a high school natatorium (I think I have PTSD) halfway across Katy.  Team tents were set up in the parking lot.  Due to limited seating, you were only allowed into the natatorium one event prior to the one your child was swimming (Ok so it was a bit of a pain, but that did mean that everyone inside got a FULL SEAT, it wasn’t 8000 degrees, and you could see the pool).  It took a few events for the league ready bench volunteers to get their jobs figured out, which made for some awkward moments for us team ready bench volunteers.  In one particularly chaotic, disorganized moment when I was being told to just “leave the kids here” my mama heart nearly panicked.  Until a woman wearing the same t-shirt as me, who must have been the mom of an older swimmer as we’d never met, looked me in the eye and said “I’ve got them.”

Sam earned a medal for his backstroke at Meet of Champs.  (Maybe next year he’ll let me teach him to count his strokes from the flags and we can cut a few more seconds off his time.)  And it was exactly the right time to end things.  We were ready to be done and move on to our other big summer plans…

Oh, Sam and I competed in the parent-child relay at the end of the season party.  It took some convincing (by his beloved Senior Swimmers) to get him to participate, but he was glad that he did.  An hour laster, as I was about to tell him to dry off, time to go, I look over and see him playing, laughing, loving a group of senior swimmers.  I just didn't have the heart to pull him away.  What's another ten minutes, right?

Sarah's Wedding/Hello Elizabeth!

Let's just call it the summer of quick wedding trips.  I guess I'll take any excuse I can get to hang out with my dear friends that I just don't have an excuse to travel to very often.

BONUS: If we fly up for the wedding, we get to meet BABY ELIZABETH!

And so we went.  Pull Sam out of school after attendance on Friday morning (yes, he had perfect attendance in kindergarten!) and flew to Chicago.  Then we waiting in a rental car line for 1.5 hours because they didn't have any cars to hand out.  Then we drove to South Bend in peace and quiet, two kids passed out in the back seat.

Gommy and Papa scored a adjoining room at the hotel, still clutch with kids who go to bed earlier than 10pm.  But I tell you, my kiddos rocked the hotel.  They shared a pull out sofa bed that I'm not sure was even as wide as a full-size bed.  Only once during our two night stay did we hear a peep from them, and that was only because Annabelle had inched her way onto Sam's pillows and was more or less sleeping on his head.  He wasn't even mad - just asking her to move!  (Sorry, the picture was taken in the dark with a phone!)

 The kids loved Elizabeth immediately.  I mean, we all did, of course.  But it was awesome to see them attach to her so quickly.  When she would get upset, they would both hurry to bring their own lovies to her, certain that the treasured possessions would soothe the overwhelmed two-month-old.  We all loved on her as much as we could those two days, but totally understood why mom and dad left her with Aunt Chrissy for the reception.

The wedding was fit for a magazine.  Yes, my children struggled a bit through the ceremony and I did go through every last emergency snack and set of restaurant crayons I had in my purse, but I think the "party" made up for it.  Not only were there yummy drinks and food, there were lawn games and big open fields and other kids to play with.  By the end of the night Annabelle had made besties with one of the flower girls (Adam's daughter.  He and I got married in my basement once.) and there was a bit of a sad hug goodbye.

There was lots of dancing.  I was able to coax my husband and daughter out onto the dance floor, but not my son.  Annabelle and I did some couples dancing and she also dominated the Cupid Shuffle.

And despite our best efforts, we did not set ourselves - or the wheat! - on fire with either the paper hot air balloons or the sparklers.

On Sunday we were able to enjoy Father's Day brunch with my family (minus the Stegmillers) and then hang out with the Fergusons and Len and DeLisa's for a bit before heading back to the airport.

It was an insanely quick trip, but I don't regret it at all.  And did you know that Southwest not only provides wifi on its flights now, they'll also give you a free beer if you're flying with your kids on Father's Day?

Royals Baseball

If there is one sport that Daddy has an opinion about when it comes to Sam's participation, it would be baseball.  Something about his own years playing the game, feeling experienced, etc.  Chris had left every other sport registration decision up to me, as long as it met the "one sport per season" rule that is still ruling our roust.  But he was clear on this: Sam will play baseball, and he will not start until he has aged out of t-ball, which is a waste of time.  Ok, then!  Queue: Coach Pitch Baseball in spring of his Kindergarten year!

The team was pretty disorganized at the outset, but we were able to pull together a handful of mostly-available coaches and a clueless team mom (Hi!).  The drives over to the ball park during rush hour traffic were less than ideal, but at least we had a buddy on the team!  And Chris was motivated to meet us there in the evenings, so at least we were all together.  If not freezing.  There were some cold and windy evenings at the ballpark this season!  Don't get me wrong, I'll take it over sitting in 100 degree humidity, but one must ALWAYS remember that it is 10 degrees colder and much, much windier at the ball park.

Little kid baseball is, of course, adorable.  As much as they practiced passing and catching the ball, they weren't great at it.  Sam quickly learned that he was much more likely to make an out if he ran the ball the first base rather than throwing it.  Things to work on for next year, I suppose.  At least they all knew which was to run the bases and understood the concept of the game.

The Royals turned out to be a pretty good team!  Our coaches were keenly aware that next year these boys are moving to the machine pitch league where the competition is much more intense.  So although our games were not scored (on paper, mental scores were kept) and you were allowed to bring out the tee if a player just could not get a hit, our players were pushed to the next level in a very encouraging way.  It was refreshing to see the challenge placed in front of them; these boys are ready to move past the "participation" stage of sports an into some real competition!  Its time for them to learn that they don't always win, and more importantly, how to handle themselves when they don't.  Big picture/life lessons here, folks!

There was one game where the competition actually got a bit ugly and it reminded me how quickly things can turn, even in little kids sports.  Its also the primary reason that sports need unbiased refs rather than coach-monitored play.  Fortunately, due to rain outs, we didn't have to face that team again and an awkward encounter was spared.

Speaking of rain outs, we had lots of them.  At the beginning of the season we were trying our best to reschedule games, but there were so many at the end that we just couldn't keep up.  It was unfortunate, but the season really petered out at the end, culminating in consecutive canceled, un-made up games.  And a poorly attended, post school-year pool party celebration.  BUT everyone had a good season and lots of them plan to be back next year, and we're hoping to keep most of the team together.

Sam's third organized sport in the books!

*It is important to note that Annabelle did not feel forced to be at her brothers practices and games.  In fact, little sister has developed a solid ability to make real friends with the other younger siblings at Sam's sporting events.  This was true at swim team as well over the summer.  They all honestly did have fun together!