martinzoo

….. when you bring a buddy!

A buddy can also ensure that you swim your best times EVER! Because it’s important to impress your friends.

Because of O-man’s presence, GB came away from the meet with three first place heat wins (50 meter backstroke, 100 meter freestyle, and a freestyle relay) and a second place butterfly. The relay was one of the most exciting races I’ve ever seen GB involved in. He was really instrumental in bringing them a victory.

GB and O-man were on such a swim meet high that they decided that they should extend their sleepover to another night. Once we got home, they went off to GB’s room and played video games the rest of the night. Sleepovers are so easy with these two.

GB’s swimming is taking off!

We had a swim meet this afternoon and GB was ON FIRE!

He only got to do two events because we were going out to celebrate Jabem’s 20th birthday with the clan.

But those two events went ’swimmingly’…..LOL!

His first event was a toughie. He had to do a 100 meter Individual Medley. That means he did 25 meters of each stroke; butterfly, back, breast and freestyle. This is a grueling event that really tires the young kiddos out. GB’s best time in this event was 2. 04:66. He dropped down over three seconds to 2.01:00. That’s a lot of time in swimming.

You can see GB in the center lane here. He has just finished the hardest stroke, the butterfly, and is now mid-backstroke. I don’t know what place he came in, since I was taking pictures, but you can see that he is quite competitive at this point in the race. I believe he got second place, but I’m not sure.

He also did a backstroke event and dropped a couple of seconds in that, too. At first we were suspicious that he was dropping so much time because it was a yard pool instead of a meter pool. But I went and checked and it was a meter pool. So, he really was doing great.

This is how he spent the majority of our time at the meet……..LOL! When you look around the room, this is how the rest of the kids are engaged also. Good fun!

I bought one of these a couple of weeks ago from GoShot Camera’s online site. We are going on a cruise next week, and many of the activities we will be doing involve water. And you all know me………… I want pictures! And I love my camera, so I want to use MY camera. This underwater housing allows me to use my camera in wet conditions without damaging the camera.

Cool!

So, today GB and I decided to give it a test run up at the pool. It does everything it says it’s going to. We had a blast taking underwater pictures with it.

Look at that grin! I could just eat him with a spoon!

This one has kind of strange colorations. I’m hoping that as I get more comfortable with the housing (it is a bit bulkier than I’m used to) I’ll get clearer pictures. You’ll see that the following pictures actually get better. That’s because I was getting used to it.

How funny are those air bubbles? He’s just hamming it up. This was one time that he wasn’t shying away from the camera. He was just too darn curious about what he’d look like under water….LOL!

I may be partial, but I think this is such a sweet shot. Don’t you?

Look at that troll hair! This picture cracks me up because it reminds me of my baby sister. She used to always hold her nose when she went under the water. It became a habit that she had a hard time breaking. And boy did she look silly grabbing her nose every time she jumped in!

For $35. I think this is way worth it! To buy a throw-away underwater camera would cost about $15. - $18. Plus, you have to get it developed. Plus, you don’t know what you’re getting. Since it’s not digital, you could have a bunch of shots like the ones I’ve already deleted.

Plus, with my own camera, I can take video! How cool would that be? Can you imagine me, off the South American coastline, swimming in the coral with my camera capturing the whole thing?

Oh! I can’t wait!!

This weekend was the culmination of our summer swim league. We’ve been building up to it all week. We had intensive practices, a pasta supper to give added energy to our swimmers, and lots of pep talks……… all leading up to the most important swims of the season at the 2008 Summer Swim Championships. In the photo above, our coaches are leading a team chant with all the littles on our team. Next year, because GB will be 11, he will move into the older kid bracket and swim the next day.

Our *VERY* early morning began with a secret pal gift exchange. GB was very lucky to get one of his friends as a secret pal. Our bag for him held lots of things from the dollar store. Gotta love the dollar store! We had a bag of small soldiers, airheads, water footballs, two packs of playing cards, magical absorbent towels, and some sport balls filled with gum. In return, his secret pal gave him practically the same thing, except that he got skittles and starbursts for the candy.

Here, GB is waiting at the clerk of course, and trying to avoid my ever-present camera………….te he! ***notice the concrete blocks in the background as a visual for the following story.

This is GB doing his freestyle event. He dropped time and swam his fastest freestyle ever!

It’s hard to tell from this photo, but GB is in agonizing pain. He’s getting ready to head off for his backstroke event. I’ll admit up front that prior to this picture being taken I was in the negligent mommy category. It was 12:10 and I figured we’d go eat lunch after this event. But I should have been thinking about GB’s problem with fluctuating blood sugar levels. He was too hungry (although he swears he wasn’t - he had to have been), it had been five hours since he had eaten breakfast. We brought him to the clerk of course in plenty of time for his event, but while he was waiting his turn, which can sometimes take between a half hour and three quarters of an hour because they call them so early, he injured the back of his ankle quite badly. There just happened to be a concrete block right there and he stepped up on it and his foot fell right through the hole on top. It scraped quite badly. When one of the clerks noticed all the blood, she told me that he wouldn’t be allowed to swim if I didn’t get a bandage on it soon. But as I was trying to help GB away to bandage him up, he got faint. Believe me, it runs in the family. When he said he couldn’t see and his hearing was wierd, I knew exactly what was going on. Luckily for us, there was a doctor walking by at that moment. She checked his pulse and his pupils and then she and I rushed off to look for bandages and water, leaving my dh with a distraught GB. I was quite annoyed that there was no first aid area anywhere, so I had to ask a bunch of parents. Eventually, I decided that he’d never make his event, so I was going to bring him some water to drink and bring him back to our tent. But when I got back to GB and my dh the doctor was also back and she had brought bandages, water and a magic pill (sweet tarts) to get his sugar back up. GB felt a lot better and was insisting that he HAD to go swim his backstroke. I thought it had taken us so long that he’d never make it, so I wasn’t rushing. But when we got up there, his heat was just going to the blocks to begin.

Here he is at the start. His ankle was throbbing at this point. But he had a lot of determination.

I can tell from this photo that he is in pain, because his form is way off. But look at the intensity in that face. I was super-proud of him for doing his event. He swam five seconds slower than he usually does, but to me that didn’t matter in the least. My heart still swells when I think of it.

After his backstroke we took him to McDonald’s for lunch because we had a three hour break. And it was just what GB needed to get back in the game. In this photo, he and his buddies are playing with their secret pal toys.

This was another proud moment in our day. GB’s relay team got the gold medal, in good part, because of GB’s efforts. I mean to tell you, the kid was on fire. The first kid led off and the team was in second place when GB jumped in next. By the end of his lap GB had brought them into first place by three body lengths. The next swimmer on the team lost a bit of ground and was barely ahead when our anchor jumped in. She’s a tiny little thing with lots of fire, and she finished our kids off as winners - gold medals all around. GB is showing his heat winner ribbon in the photo above.

Does this look like a kid who’ll be swimming the best times he’s ever swam? Look at him.

He’s a strange one. He loves his history of wars so much that he’s reading about the War of 1812 at a swim meet.

What kid does that? None in our league. And I don’t make him. He’s just so interested.  I got this book at the library today for him, along with another book about the Barbary Wars. For him, this is not schoolish, it’s just interesting. Honestly, he knows more about these wars than I do. He was teaching ME the whole beginning of the meet…..LOL!

Then he goes on to swim his best time ever in freestyle, earning him a first place in his division. He got fourth in his backstroke. And he took second in the breast stroke. His relay team got first place also. He was so excited as we left the pool tonight. He said, “I think this was the best meet I ever had!”

I love that. I want him to always feel that way. He’s not obsessed by the swimming like his older brother, Jabem, was. But I’d love to see him achieve some level of success. That just makes you feel so good about yourself. And I love to see him happy.

And then, just for giggles, I took this funny little picture. Don’t the clouds look cool? I love how the sunbeams even come in front of my fingers. I’m not sure how that happens, but I thought it looked cool.

I hope you all had a wonderful day, too!