National Anthem

We've been going to a lot of sporting events lately and hearing the National Anthem sung a lot.  Gray has learned he needs to stand up and he puts his hand over his heart (though he's stubborn sometimes - he is two).

He's also started singing the phrase "By the dawn's early" (often with his hand over his heart).  Here was an interesting version from tonight ...

He basically says ...

"Watch this
By the dawn's ... gibberish ... hit Carter
By the dawn's ... gibberish ... hit Rylan
By the dawn's ... gibberish ... hit Mommy
By the dawn's ... gibberish ... hit Daddy, hit Gray, hit Charlotte"

We still think it's pretty cute, even if he wants to hit us :)

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a relaxing day - nothing too much planned.  We took the kids to the park and played tennis.  This evening we roasted hot dogs and went to Crockett Park to watch the fireworks.  Hope everyone had a good one!

Swimmer of the Year

Rylan received a super special award last night at the end-of-season swim team party.

Our team gives a "Swimmer of the Year" award to a boy and girl in each age group.  To receive this award, you have to receive the most points for the team at the dual swim meets throughout the season.  If you aren't familiar with swim team ... if you are one of the top finishers in an event, you receive points (7 pts for 1st, 5 pts for 2nd, etc) and these points are totaled to determine which team wins a meet.

Rylan was the high points winner for the 6 and under boys!!!

What is even cooler ... instead of a trophy or plaque, our coach (who is also an artist and teaches at Brentwood Academy) painted a canvas for each winner.  It is really awesome!  And Rylan is SO EXCITED!!!  Carter is still trying to deal with it - he won the same kind of award when he was this age when he swam for the F.A.S.T. Frogs but the plaque he received doesn't mean as much to our little artist!

The award:

Branson (he was on Rylan's soccer team when they were 3 and I still coached!) won the award for the 7-8 boys:

Championship Swim Meet

The county wide championship swim meet was this weekend.  All the teams in the county (there are 20) compete against one another at this meet.  It is huge and spread across two days.

Rylan's age group (6 and under) was Friday evening.  Here is a group picture of our team after warmups in the pool ...

Rylan was extremely nervous about the meet.  He wanted to win a high points trophy so badly.  He wanted it so bad that he just tried way to hard in his first event (freestyle) and it caused him to go slower.  Instead of good, smooth strokes, he tried to muscle it and it worked against him.  He still did great but was 3.45 seconds off his best time.  However, he had his best time ever in backstroke and placed 8th overall in that event (which earned him a medal!).  AWESOME!!!  Rylan's relay also did well (though they didn't have all their best swimmers because some were out of town) and they placed third (which earned him another medal).

Coach Jim and Rylan thought there was a slight chance Rylan could still end up a high point winner with his great backstroke performance so we stuck around for awards.  Unfortunately he didn't win but Rylan did get to hold the trophy that our team won for winning the 5A regular season!

Rylan's events and times:

Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Freestyle - 32.92 seconds (25th)
Boys 6 & Under - 25 Yard Backstroke - 29.59 second (8th) - BEST TIME BY 1.62 SEC
Boys 6 & Under - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 2:17.73 (3rd)

Carter's age group (7-8) was Saturday morning.  Here is his team after warmups ...

Carter swam all the individual events (no IM) and both relays.  He did a great job for him but as you get older, it just gets more competitive so he didn't win anything except for placing fourth in both the relays.  However he did set two PRs - both significant improvements!!!  We are super proud of his effort and for doing so many events!

Carter's events and times:

Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Freestyle Relay - 1:29.09 (4th)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Butterfly - 42.49 seconds (36th)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Backstroke - 25.41 seconds (24th) - BEST TIME BY 3.82 SEC
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Breaststroke - 34.35 seconds (29th) - BEST TIME BY 2.29 SEC
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 25 Yard Freestyle - 23.66 seconds (39th)
Boys 7-8 Years Old - 100 Yard Medley Relay - 1:50.20 (4th)

We are so sad the season is over!  We are going to miss having somewhere to be each morning.  The boys never complain about going and always work so hard each morning (even though the water has been freezing all season).  We all love it and can't wait for next summer already!

Seven!

Happy Birthday, Rylan!!!

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!