Watch Your Back, Michael Phelps

That's my boy!

Desperate to channel their boundless energy into something positive, I signed the boys up for swim team for the first time this year. I've thought about it in the past, but never followed through with it. They worked really hard at practice and quickly began to rise to the top of the best swimmers on the team. In fact, Dylan was the only one of probably 30 or more kids to advance to the semi-finals in his age group, and he did it all the three strokes he was eligible for.

Jake's age group was fortunate to have enough great swimmers to assemble an unbeatable relay team. See that kid at the end of the line.. That's Costen. Remember that name because this kid is going to be a force to contend with. I was glad to have him and couple other ringers on the team because Jake has a habit of rising to his competition. Jake has always had an iron will and it has caused me a lot of heartburn through the years, but as he gets older it is a heck of a lot of fun to see him excel.
So it was no surprise tonight that in the City of Mesa Championship Meet, he shaved a full 1.1 seconds off his best ever time to move up three slots from last week to capture a fourth place finish in Freestyle. Unfortunately, just like in the Olympics, only the top three get medals. But I'm an awfully proud mom tonight. For a kid who thought a butterfly is something you chase around the backyard a couple months ago, this is an amazing feat. He beat out several hundred kids, most of whom had been on swim team before. He also beat his Butterfly time moving up to sixth place. Don't think for a second that there was no time for fun in their practices. Their swim coaches ran an excellent program. They were great!
And finally, this little girl deserves a medal for being the most patient long suffering fan of all. She was a sweetheart about spending hours and hours in the blazing hot summer heat, watching her brothers swim. I asked her if she wanted to swim next year. She thought when she was 6 or maybe 9.