Bode had a high school swim meet on Wednesday. He swam the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard backstroke as well as two relays. The only picture from this meet that I got was during warmups; I had intended to take more pictures, but I got roped into timing.
He swam amazingly well. In the 100-fly, he got second, and was 0.1 seconds away from breaking the elusive 1-minute barrier.
Additionally, Bode WON the 100-back, which is one event I would not have expected him to win :-)
Bode had a Coast swim meet today, and he is also swimming three events tomorrow. His first event was the 200-yard freestyle. Here he is at the start; his buddy, Jai, is in the lane next to him.
Here is a good one of the two of them right after the start.
Bode swam a PR of 2:02, four seconds faster than his previous best. Even better, he nosed out Jai at the finish. However, in the 100-back, Jai got the better of Bode, which set up a rubber match in the 200-medley. Here is a picture of the two of them before the start.
I recorded the whole race. It is hard to tell who wins (I think it was Bode, but I am biased). Ashley said the electronic scoreboard showed Bode winning as well, but you can never be sure with those--while I trust the Olympic timing systems, our systems are sometimes a little shaky. Bode is the second lane from the right in the video. He swam another PR in the medley finishing in 2:19. I think we all need a nap now, although we can't really sleep until the end of the Auburn game; here's hoping for a victory :-)
Ashley and I got to watch the Choctaw vs Niceville football game last night. It was a fun way to celebrate our anniversary while also watching Bode in action. Before the game, we managed to snag a couple pictures. First, here is Bode with his mother.
We also got a picture of Bode with his friend, Brad, who is also a trumpet player.
Ashley and I took our seats, and we really enjoyed watching the band enter the stadium. For a high school game, it is a pretty fun atmosphere. Choctaw was actually in front 13 - 9, so the halftime performance was quite festive. First, here is a still shot of the band taking the field.
Next, here is a movie of the performance. The video quality isn't very good, and the audio isn't that great either, but it is the best I could do.
Sadly, Choctaw could not hold on to the lead and ended up losing 23 - 13, which I consider a moral victory. The paper predicted Niceville would win 42 - 7 :-)
Bode had swim meets scheduled for the previous two weekends; sadly, each meet was cancelled due to rain and lightening. Fortunately, yesterday's meet was completed, and all events were successfully swum.
Bode's first event was the butterfly leg of the 200-medley relay. Ashley did the filming, while you can see me standing at the other end of the pool. I was a volunteer timer.
His split was 26.7 seconds, which was his fastest time ever. His next event was the 100-yard butterfly. It's really hard to hear Ashley cheering :-) Bode's next event was the lead-off leg of the 200-freestyle relay. The kid in lane 3 was very fast--he swam a 24.5 or so; Bode's split was 25.5, which was probably the fastest he's ever swum that length. It was nice to have the boy next to him. Ashley didn't record the entire race, but I must say Bode's team ultimately won the race. Finally, Bode swam a leg of the 100-free relay. I think his split was around 57; he swam in the low 56's last week, so not a best, but still a very good swim. I think Choctaw won this tri-meet; there were two other teams, but they had very small swim teams. Bode's school swims against Fort Walton on Wednesday, and that will be tough. Many of the very fast boys on the Coast swim team swim for the Vikings, so it will be nice to see Bode get pushed. Pleasant week to all.
The high school band takes up a lot of Bode's time. He has marching practice twice a week from 5 - 8 pm, which really cuts into his leisure activities. The first football game of the season was in late August, it really rained, so there was no half-time performance. The next home football game, the band wore their uniforms and they looked amazing. Sadly, Ashley and I volunteered to sell popcorn to support the band booster club. We thought selling popcorn would have been very easy, but over the course of three hours, we hardly have a break. We did stop when the band entered the field, and I did my best to take a picture and a movie; below are the best that I could do.
In the above picture, you can see the band all lined up. They march into the stadium and come around the track. It looks amazing, especially with those headdresses. I took a movie as they marched by, but I think I got interrupted and had to return to my popcorn duties. They had a great half-time performance; we heard all of it but didn't see anything; popcorn sales go through the roof during the game break :-) Hopefully this weekend we can actually watch the whole show and get some good film. Pleasant week to all.
Over Labor Day, Dad and Janet came down for a visit. We had a wonderful time, but we probably ate too much :-) On Saturday, Dad and I went to play pickleball; we were worried because it had rained the night before, but the courts were dry, and we played for close to three hours with my friends. Sadly, no pictures were taken. We did get some lovely sunset pictures on the dock. First up is Bode and Grandpa.
Next is a nice one of Bode, Grandpa, and Janet.
Here is one of Dad and me.
And finally, one of Janet, Dad, and me. I think Ashley was busy cooking, which is why she is not pictured.
We did play a few hands of gin. I think Grandpa was the big winner, although I think Bode destroyed the score sheet :-)
We had a wonderful visit, and we have promised to make the trip up to South Carolina, although now that Bode is in high school, his schedule seems to dictate a lot of what we do :-)
This is a very late post; it is hard for me to get images from Ashley's phone, and this was the only place we had Bode's first day of school picture; he started back on 10 August, and I'm posting this in mid-September. I will promise to do better.
He was obviously thrilled to be going back. He is taking a lot of classes, and he has swim practice at 0500, so we are sleepy all the time :-)
