Swim Meet #4

Carter and Rylan had their 4th swim meet of the summer today against the Longview Seadragons this morning.  They are another really large team and our team's biggest competition (they won the county meet last summer while Nolensville won it the year before).  The meet started this morning at 8am and we had to be there by 6:45am for warmups.  We were there by 6:30am though to claim a spot under the center of the giant umbrellas.  I was glad we did because we dealt with light rain showers for a couple of hours.  It was freezing at the start of the meet (it only got up to about 80F today) and didn't feel like the end of June at all.  But it eventually cleared up and was beautiful.

The boys did a great job, as always!  They even got a few PRs today!

Carter's events and times:
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 1:26.31 (1st)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 36.64 seconds (8th) - BEST TIME BY 0.72 SEC

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Butterfly - 39.42 seconds (6th) - BEST TIME BY 2.79 SEC
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 1:56.60 (2nd)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Individual Medley - 2:37.11 (6th)

Rylan's events and times:
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Freestyle - 32.23 seconds (8th)
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Backstroke - 31.21 second (3rd) - BEST TIME BY 3.63 SEC
Boys 6 & Under - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 2:15.22 (2nd)

Rylan's relay team ...

NSC

We went to another Nashville Soccer Club game last night.  There is only one more home game (next Saturday) and we're going to be so sad to not be going to games anymore this summer!  It's been so much fun watching the U23 team play.  The boys know a lot of the cheers (including Gray) and still pay attention to the entire game.  The team had 8 home games this summer and the second half have been at Vandy's soccer/lacrosse stadium.  We definitely like the football stadium better because we can sit right up front (there is a walkway in front of the bleachers at this field), it's louder and you can hear the cheers better, and the player benches are on the same side of the field as the fans so we get to listen to everything the coaches say.  That being said, we still love the games at the soccer/lacrosse stadium!

Last night there was a t-shirt toss at half time (it's the first time they've done that).  You had to dance to try to get a shirt.  Rylan went crazy with some mad dancing and the guy with shirts came up and gave him one (no throwing that one - he wanted to make sure Rylan got it)!

Carter was sad he didn't get one but some popcorn and the promise that he'd get the team scarf at the next game perked him back up.

Near the end of the game we let the boys stand at the glass to watch the game (a lot of kids do that but it blocks the view for some people and we try not to do it for long).

Nashville SC beat Derby City 2-1!  The boys were very excited to see a win after Nashville lost their first home game on Wednesday (they missed a PK in the last few minutes that would have tied the game - it was very disappointing to the boys).

Swimmer of the Week

On Fridays at swim team practice, a girl and boy in each age group gets awarded "Swimmer of the Week".  With our short season that means "Swimmer of the Week" is only awarded 4 times (maybe 5 if it's given out this coming Thursday, the last practice).  This summer our team is huge too - about 270 swimmers.

Guess who has gotten this award?!?!?

Rylan got it on June 9th.

And Carter got it this past Friday (June 23rd).

They were both so, so excited!  They don't get a big award or anything but the recognition is awesome and they are so proud (as are we, of course)!!!

Swim Meets #2 and #3

The boys had swim meets last week and this week. Unfortunately the meet on June 13th against the Franklin YMCA got moved to 4pm and to a pool in the middle Maryland Farms (an office park). We had to leave after only an hour to get to a Nashville Sounds game with Rylan's baseball team so the boys only got to swim their freestyle events.

They did great though! The pool is a 25 meter pool instead of a 25 yard pool so their times were a bit higher than the previous week.

Carter:
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Backstroke - 27.94 seconds (10th)

Rylan:
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Freestyle - 32.01 seconds (1st)

At this point Rylan had gotten first place in every event he'd done!

The meet on June 20th was against the Brentwood YMCA. This time the boys could stay for the entire meet (we were able to leave around 1pm - we got there at 8am for warmups).  Again they did awesome :)  Carter didn't DQ in anything either - including the IM!  He's figuring out breast and fly this summer!  Yay!

Carter's events and times:
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Backstroke - 29.23 seconds (3rd)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 1:31.44 (2nd)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 37.36 seconds (2nd)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 1:59.46 (2nd)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Individual Medley - 2:35.20 (4th)

Rylan's events and times:
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Freestyle - 30.05 seconds (2nd)
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Backstroke - 35.21 second (5th)
Boys 6 & Under - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 2:30.57 (2nd)

The boys have one more regular meet on Tuesday and then the county meet on Friday/Saturday.  It's been a short season this summer and we aren't ready for swim team to be over already!

Nolensville 5K

I ran my first 5K in a LONG time this morning.  It's been over 4 years (I've done other longer races but not a 5K).  I have not run in at least 3 or 4 months but I just completed the 9 week Insanity program so I figured I would do okay.  I had hoped to do better, but I finished in 24:57.  I was second place in my age group and received this fun cookie medal.

Rylan keeps saying he wants to fun a 5K.  He wants to do it by himself so I just need to find a good one for him!

Go Preds!

Our mini-fan ...

Let's Go Predators!!!

Pool Lounging

We stayed at the pool for awhile after swim team practice today.  However, it wasn't very warm today (maybe 80F) and the water was cold.  Rylan decided he preferred lounging instead.  This kid is all about his look right now :)

Carter and Rylan practice at different times this year.  Carter LOVES that Lofton will sit with him during Rylan's practice and cuddle with him.  He really wants a baby sister because he thinks she would do the same thing (he's been informed that's not happening!).  These two make a cute pair of redheads!

Swim Meet #1

The boys had their first swim meet of the season yesterday.  The boys are swimming with the same team this year - the Nolensville Hurricanes. The team only had seven practices before the first meet (with some of those being super short because of the low water temperature).  Carter and Rylan had a week of swim lessons last week in addition to swim team practice with the people they've taking lessons with for the last few years.

This year Williamson County shortened the summer swim season.  There are only four meets plus the county meet.  And the first meet isn't scored.  Which is unfortunate because our boys had their best meet ever (and may never have one as good).  They placed first overall in every single event they were in!  They may have even gotten high points winner for their age groups if the meet was scored (which would be insane).  The boys are extremely disappointed that they won't be getting place ribbons for this meet but they did win plenty of heat ribbons at the meet.  I promised to make them several blue ribbons for their scrapbooks.

Carter's events and times:

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Freestyle - 22.45 seconds
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - time not recorded
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Butterfly - 42.21 seconds
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 2:03.98

Rylan's events and times:

Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Freestyle - 29.47 seconds
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Backstroke - 34.84 second
Boys 6 & Under - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 2:41.03

Carter was not excited about having to do butterfly because he DQ'd in it (I think) every time he swam it last summer.  But he went slow and concentrated on doing everything right and it paid off because he was the only one not to DQ and thus got first place!

We are super proud of our kiddos for giving it their all at the swim meet.  But that they also won every event is pretty cool too :)

Here are a few videos I took ...

Rylan - 25 Yard Freestyle

Carter - 25 Yard Freestyle

Rylan - 25 Yard Backstroke

Carter - 25 Yard Butterfly

Happy Anniversary!

Brian and I had a great anniversary (12 years!) camping and hiking with our boys at Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia this weekend.  The last time we went there was February 14, 2004 - a couple of months before we got engaged.  We apparently think it's a romantic place :)

I'll post more soon but here is a picture of one of the sweet baby ponies we saw there!

Soccer Season

Soccer ended for the boys a couple of weeks ago.  The last Saturday of games was a little crazy as Rylan's baseball tournament started that same day (and that game overlapped with Carter's soccer game), Carter had his only overlap of baseball and soccer, and Rylan's team had two soccer games that day.  Between Brian and I, we were able to get the kids to all five of their games (with Carter only missing 15 minutes of his baseball game) and one of us coached every game that Brian is the head coach for.

Rylan's soccer team ended up only losing one of their nine games this season.  Carter's team had 4 wins, 1 loss, and 3 ties.  Both teams are great but Rylan's is definitely a stronger overall team.  They are very consistent and each player has become a major contributor to the team.  They have become a really fun team to watch.  The players on Carter's team are less consistent (most have good games and bad games) and we have a couple that are still beginner players.  They are still a great group of kids and could have potentially won every game they played this season.  We really love both of our boys' soccer teams.

Because we had such a crazy day for our last games, we decided to have a celebration on Sunday evening at Crockett.  We invited both teams, ate pizza and cupcakes, gave out trophies, and let the kids play on the playground and surrounding fields.  I try to do something a little different every season for the cupcakes and this is what I did this season ...

All the players from both teams showed up (AMAZING!!!).  Brian said something about each player as he handed out the trophies (this is the eighth season of the exact same participation trophies - we really need to request that the Y change things up!).

Hopefully all these boys will be back next season!