Second Generation Swim Team

Faith’s best friend, Abby, joined the HSES swim team this year and we somehow convinced her to join, also. I remember loving swim team as a kid and I thought it would be awesome for Faith to experience so I pushed but didn’t insist. Between Abby and I we ended up getting her to join. From practice on Day 1 she was hooked!! She joined with the caveat that she would NOT do any of the meets; just the practices. And I agreed that was fine, secretly hoping the coaches would get her pumped up to try a meet at some point. 

I was shocked when she came home Thursday from practice and told me she had decided to do the swim meet this Saturday. She signed up for two events: 25 yard breaststroke and the Medley Relay (breaststroke).  My childhood memories of meets came flooding back and so I told her all about my countless Saturdays spent at the pool with towel spread out, surrounded by my friends, with a bag of snack foods to keep me “nourished” between events. I told her about the ribbons that lined my shelves in my bedroom, and about what “heats” mean in swimming, etc… We went out Friday evening to get snacks and packed her bag so it was ready to go for Saturday 745AM.

She woke up nervous and I worried there might be tears… but once we found her friend at the meet she was good to. I signed up to be a timer so I kissed her, wished her luck,  and headed to my lane. It was such a fun day! She swam the relay with no problem and then came in 2^nd in her 25 yd. breaststroke.  I was so proud of her for participating as she is not a real competitive spirit.

The boys slept in but when they woke up at 8:40 they remembered that Faith’s first event was at 9 and so they rode their bikes to the pool on their own and were there in time to watch her swim. Jake put his arm around her and walked her to her lane. They cheered her on alongside Brian and I.  I was so proud of them that, on their own, they decided to support their sister in her new endevour. In between events Brian took them across the street to hit some balls.

Toward the end of the meet the coaches realized they were short a swimmer for the final relay so they asked Faith to do it. She was nervous because it was freestyle and she hasn’t quite mastered the breathing thing yet… but she stepped up and did it and they did awesome! After the meet she said it was so fun and that she couldn’t wait until the next one. I guess my summer Saturdays just got a little more complicated!!

Midweek, Mid-day Game

One of Tanners Christmas presents was Yankees v. Mariners tickets in Seattle for him and I. Originally, the plan was for it to be part of a larger family trip, but with all the back and forth with Pete, the vacation days ended up having to be used differently than planned, so Tanner and I went alone. We had bought tickets to the mid-day game, flying up the night before and back after the game. 

We left after school on the last day of school and flew to Seattle. We got Smashburger in the airport for dinner which was just awesome. Tanner was very excited and as always liked the plane ride because he got soda. We got to the hotel in Federal Way just in time to watch the Mariners manager get thrown out of the game on TV before we hit the sack. 

We were up early the next morning (being back a timezone) and left the hotel to go have breakfast at Dennys. Tanner got his usual chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and bacon. After breakfast we headed up to Seattle and found a place to park (free parking is a HIKE), and got to the park prior to it being open to the public. We found the gate that opened the earliest, which was out in the bullpen and hung out by the Yankees bullpen to kill some time. We stood there and watched Andrew Warren throw a pretty long bullpen session, which Tanner was really impressed with (A. because you are SO close, and B. because the kid threw SO fast). After they finished, we were just standing there talking and Larry Rothschild, the Yankees pitching coach walked up and gave Tanner a ball. Souvenir gotten, a game used, official MLB ball. 

We went to the bullpen store and looked around and as we were coming out, ran into Tanner's friend Evan and their family. We knew that they were going to this game also, but figured finding them wouldn't be as easy as running into them on the concourse. By then the rest of the stadium was opened and so we all went to the BIG Mariners store. Tanner got a new (and 50th or so) Yankees hat. I got a vintage Seattle Rainiers shirt and we picked up a program and scorecard. The big highlight of the trip was I was going to teach Tanner to keep score. 

We went to the "speed pitch" booth and Tanner was able to hit 46 on the gun and throw two out of three for strikes. 

We went to our seats and I showed Tanner how to set up the scorecard; getting the line-ups straight, the weather, first pitch time etc. He sat there with his pencil at the ready while they opened up the roof just in time for first pitch. We ended up sitting right in front of a bunch of other folks who had come in from Boise also. We got some nachos prior to the game getting started and then settled in for a really fun game. Mark Texiera hit a two run home run and there was some good pitching. Tanner kept up his scorecard the whole time. We ran out between innings to get hot dogs and then again to get candy (it's hard to tell with me whether the big draw is the game or the food) but didn't miss logging a pitch. I taught him how to close the book on the pitchers, what the positions were numbered, how to handle substitutions etc. and he seemed to have a really good time. He finalized his scorecard on the plane ride on the way home, figuring the game statistics for each player for both teams. 

We got home pretty late after the game and Tanner proceeded to crash out for the next couple of days.  It was such a short turn around, and so packed full that it took him some time to recover. It was a lot of fun for both of us and time away from the family together is always special.