No, I'm not talking about Thanksgiving when I say Gobbler... I'm talking about the Gobbler Classic Swim Meet hosted by the Sierra Marlins!! Christian swam with the Marlins in the Spooktacular back in October and this is the second (and last) swim meet he can swim in as part of the Fall clinic he is attending with the Marlins.
Leading up to the meet the weather was not looking too good. As in, rain, cold, wind... Not fun to be outdoor wearing a speedo for a boy who has no body fat to insulate him from the cold. Worse when your very emotional and cannot tolerate any discomfort whatsoever with moaning and crying about...
In talking with another swim parent I got an idea on how to stay warm and dry --- use a camping tent! So I went out and bought a decent 6-person camping tent that is somewhat easy to setup and take down and it worked out great! It didn't really rain while we were out there, but it did overnight. The beginning of Saturday was actually nice and sunny, but by the end of the afternoon it was gett windy and cold. Sunday started cool, got warmer, ended cool with a light drizzle.
Christian playing his DS in the tent
This is one of those classic videos... Christian is getting ready to start the 25 Butterfly. They are not on starting blocks and when he goes down to get set, he loses his balance and falls in... No worries, he thought it was funny and got back and swam a good race!
Now when it came to swimming he did well. His first race, 50 Freestyle, we left the tent with plenty of time. Met with his coach as he is supposed to do before each race for tips/pointers. They were on heats 16-17 and he was heat 21 and we were right around the corner... But things fly at these meets and as we walked up to the block I thought he still had 4 in front of him, but they were calling him up right then - they waited about 15 seconds and let him get undressed and onto the block. We barely made it, but we did!! He swam a great 50 Free getting his best Marlins 50 Free time. He also swam great in the 25 Free (video below) getting his best time EVER of 20.57 seconds! So close to breaking that 20 seconds barrier, I'm sure he'll be there by his next meet for the Otters!!
This weekend Christian went with the cub scouts to the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier. If you know me, then you know I'm not a fan of being being closed in, closed off, up high, etc, etc... And while the Hornet would be better than the Pampanito I didn't want to take a chance so I did not go. Anthony gracioulsy took Christian with Zach.
Since I wasn't there I do not currently have any pictures, but Anthony took some so once I get them from him I will post them. I dropped him off at Anthonys at 1:30 yesterday
As expected, Christian had a blast. Arrived, checked-in, went through orientation, stowed their gear, ate dinner and explored the ship... Did the flight simulator, saw jets, etc... Went to bed anywhere between 11 and midnight and woke up around 6:45 to help serve breakfast (he handed out either bananas or ... hmmm, I forget what it was, but the bananas were the popular item). Explored the ship more and came home around 3pm today... Was really tired, but we had popcorn to deliver and I was worried that if he took a nap it would be hard for him to fall asleep at night.
Put him to bed early (7pm) and he slept --- HARD! He was out and slept 12.5 hours! Woke up feeling good.
When I get the pictures I'll make a new post with them...
Our tradition (going on 4+ years now) is to attend the Folsom Veteran's Day Parade... Of couse, last year and this year we have been walking in the parade with the scouts. It makes me proud when I see Christian going over to the side of the road during the parade when he sees a veteran and salutes them, saying Thanks!
I had my nice dSLR camera out there to take some good pictures --- FAIL! The camera is no longer taking pictures. After 7 years and about 30,000 pictures the shutter is no longer taking photos - so now I need to send it off for repair or consider getting new equipment. We'll see. But in the meantime, here are pictures others took of Christian - Thanks Wendy and Karen!!
I've already talked about the most painful part of every week, and I know I shouldn't judge my parenting skills on whether or not I cook dinner - but I have certainly been failing in this regard lately.
This week was supposed to be a low-key week. I even started off this week by reviewing recipes and making plans for dinners most nights. But plans require action and, well, planning. The week started off great as on Sunday I made some baked pasta that was a hit. I found a baked ziti recipe online but didn't have the same ingredients so I just threw something simlar together and we both enjoyed it enough to have it both on Sunday and Monday for dinner.
Tuesday hit and it was a LONG day... I didn't feel like cooking dinner so I gave in and we went to McDonalds.
Wednesday was similar, I hemmed and hawed and just didn't plan anything for dinner so when it came time for dinner it was just easier to head out - SmashBurger...
Thursday came up quickly. We had planned to head out to the football game (FHS playoff game) but we were both tired so I didn't even bring it to his attention. We went out to Islands...
Fail, fail and fail!!
But on the bright side, Christian believes in eating healthy so I must be doing something right... Want to know how much Halloween candy he has eaten? Hmmm, maybe 5 pieces in 10 days --- and those only because I remind him about it. So that's good, but then I also got told by him that I can't put so much unhealthy things in his lunch when I make it... WHAT??? His last lunch consisted of PB&J, Yogurt, Chocolate Milk, a bag of chips, fruit roll-up and a Rice Krispy Treat. So he told me I should not put the chips, fruit roll-up AND Rice Krispy Treat in his lunch, only 1 treat - not 3. When I made his lunch today I checked with him to make sure it was okay - Chips, fruit cup, PBJ, Yogurt and Chocolate Milk - got his seal of approval.
I'm quite pleased that he is concerned about making sure he is healthy overall, makes my failure at making dinner seem a little bit better.
Today was the day for the Candy King --- Halloween! Sunday we carved our 3 pumpkins – two we bought and one Christian won as a prize from Student Care. Disney had sent out pumpkin templates that can be used and I thought Christian would like to make something from them. For his main pumpkin he picked Phineas. For my pumpkin I picked Mickey Mouse --- but then after carving Phineas and it turned out great I decided to do Ferb to match Christian’s Phineas. Christian took Anthony’s suggestion of making his smaller round pumpkin into an eye.
Halloween night we hooked up with Zachary and several kids from their soccer teams and siblings, had spaghetti and meatballs dinner --- I mean, gizzards and brains… Went out and did the loop around 2 circles in the neighborhood and Christian filled up his small bucket and dumped it into my backpack four times! Crazy candy amounts and we don’t eat a lot of it!! Hopefully we can get rid of it at the Veteran’s Day Parade again this year!
Pictures: Christian and Rachel in costume (he had a mustache, but it itched so he took it off, and gloves but he took those off too), Phineas Pumpkin, eye Pumpkin (it looked better on paper) and Ferb Pumpkin.
