We had a couple birthdays this week. First, Ashley turned the big 5-3. Wow--she's old! But she still looks like a lithe 20-something :-)
Bode and I even sang Happy Birthday. We are grossly out of tune. An even scarier video is up next. We sang for Bode on his 16th birthday, but that video is on Ashley's phone, and it has proven to be very difficult to get files from it (even Bode couldn't figure it out). This video is the first time Bode drove without a parent in the car; here he is leaving for swim practice. Bode drove himself to school today, and is currently out in Destin at swim practice. It seems quiet in the house without him, but I'm sure he'll be wanting to talk to us when he gets home :-) Rowdy had a bad morning a few days ago...not sure what he was thinking.
Fortunately we were able to get the stuffing back into the pillows, so the overall damage was minimal. Still, maybe we need a new sofa...or perhaps a new car?
We have had a wonderful last two weeks (minus the Iron Bowl ending, but we won't discuss that). Bode had a big swim meet two weekends ago. He swam the best he's ever swum including an amazing 4:57 in the 500-free along with a 1:49.65 in the 200-free. Below is the video of this race (and I will post the video as soon as I get it off Ashley's phone).
He got sixth overall and was quite pleased with his time, although he did say he was dead afterwards.
We also had the end-of-year Choctaw swim banquet. Bode was the high-point swimmer for the boys (the swimmer that scored the most points at all the meets over the course of the season). Here he is with Coach Jasson and Coach Tifany.
The team also posed for a large group photo; the theme for the evening was pajamas, which is why everyone is so underdressed.
On Thanksgiving morning, Bode and Ashley ran a 5k (I played pickleball); I think Ashley won her age group, but we won't mention what that is exactly :-)
Ashley cooked a great turkey, and JoAnne and Frank came over and feasted with us (sadly, no pictures were taken). I did manage to find the time to put up some Christmas lights, and I think our house looks great. We are now sitting around watching some television and waiting for the work-week to start (boo). The dogs, for some reason, are wiped out.
This week will be a special one as two members of our family have birthdays! Stay tuned :-)
After the morning session, some of the adults went and bought a tray of sandwiches for the boys, as they needed fuel before the night session. Here's a shot of the boys shoveling food into their mouths before Coach Jasson told them to go to their hotel rooms and lie down.
Before we knew it, we were back at the pool. Here's a cute shot of Bode after doing a warm up.
Here's another picture of him working on his start.
The boys' first event of the night session was the B-final for the 200 Medley relay. As in the morning, Bode swam the butterfly leg, and he swam a best time of 24.38.It was a tight finish, but the boys managed to finish 15th with a best time of 1:44.20. Bode had about an hour break before the B-final of the 100-fly. He was hoping to break the 53-second barrier, but he said he was a bit tired after the long day. Ultimately, he finished 13th with a time of 53.38 (he said he was not happy with his start :-( Below is the video, and we could not be prouder of how Bode did this season. Here is a link to the overall results. Afterwards, we had time for a few more photos. First, the boys and their coach.
Next, we have a shot of Ashley, me, Bode, and Grandpa (Janet took the picture). Grandpa and Janet were nice enough to drive down from South Carolina for the big meet, and it was great seeing them and having them there although we do feel bad in that we didn't really do anything other than watch swimming and get ready for swimming. Nana and Papa also made the trip down, but I couldn't find any pictures :-(
We then headed back to the hotel for more food.
We had a great time at state, and we sure hope we can go back next year. We made it home safely to a couple dogs that were happy to see us.
It is hard to believe that Bode turns sixteen in a couple weeks :-)
Everyone safely made it to Ocala. The boys stayed at their hotel with the coach--we didn't plan ahead enough to book rooms at the same hotel, so I don't have any pictures from breakfast. We all made it to the venue, and Bode was nice enough to snap a picture with me after his warmup.
Our other coaches were not able to attend the meet, so I was lucky enough to get deck-access while Ashley was up in the stands. I tried to get some pictures of the boys, but I'm not a good photog. Here's a decent one of the boys and Coach Jasson before their first event.
The first event was the preliminaries for the 200 Medley Relay. The boys came in seeded 19th, and the top 16 make the finals, so they had some work to do. Bode swims the third leg (the butterfly), and he swam a very fast 50 (24.89 seconds).The results are usually posted quickly so teams know if they made the finals. However, these results took forever; evidently TWO teams DQ'd, and both teams were faster than our boys, so we ended up making the B-final by finishing 16th :-)
Bode had a bit of a rest before his first event (the 100-fly). He swam the fastest he had ever swum a week ago at Regionals with a time of 53.74. Here's his race. I was standing next to Coach Jasson, and we originally though Bode was going slow because the boy in lane 1 was beating him. However the boy in lane 2 had a much faster qualifying time than Bode, and he was keeping pace with him.
Ashley also got a good picture of Bode mid-swim.
Bode finished in a best-ever time of 53.14; he was 12th after the preliminaries and made the B-final! His next event was the 100-back. He swam a personal best of 57.03, but he ended up 19th (of 24) after the prelims, so he didn't make the B-final for this event.
The last event of the morning session was the 4x100 freestyle relay. Here are the boys staying loose before the race.
The boys came in seeded 19th, so we knew it was a long-shot for them to make the finals. Below is the video--Bode swam the lead-off leg, and he swam a personal best of 50.44.
All the boys swam the fastest they had ever swum, but the team finished 17th, 0.91 seconds behind the 16th place team. This ended the morning sessions. We were fortunate in that both Bode and Zach qualified for the B-final in their events (Zach swims the 50-free) as well as the medley relay. Thus, we had to figure out what to do for three hours before we had to be back at the pool. Stay tuned.
The big state swim meet was last weekend. It has taken me awhile to gather all the pictures and videos from our separate phones, but I think I now have everything I need in order to properly document the meet. The day before the meet, the team met at the high-school for a big send off and some obligatory pictures.
The athletic director does a great job of getting the other students to come out and support all the sports teams (I guess missing class is a nice motivation :-) The school had made a nice sign, and there were lots of kids out supporting the team.
Here is a shot of the boys with Coach Thigpen, the AD.
Finally, it was time for the drive-out. Bode is in the back-right seat of the van.
