Yesterday we spent 6 1/2 hours at the swim meet which started about 6:30 and our last race was at 1pm. Man it was painful. Today we’re back at it headed up the hill at about 6am for another meet. Both boys did really well considering they have had virtually no experience swimming on a team at all. The oldest won his first ever race which was a 50 meter freestyle. The rest of the day brought him back to reality as he was usually 3rd or 4th. He still did great as he was going against kids who’ve been swimming competitively for a long time. The youngest would have won his backstroke race but he turned over on his stomach at the last minute and was disqualified. The oldest was also dq’d on his last race which was breaststroke because he only touched the wall at the end with one hand. Seems you have to touch with two hands at the same time or you’re out. Oh well, live and learn. A friend of ours kid (who used to babysit the boys and who they’ve looked up to for years) is now 13 years old and holds a number of state records. He’s such a good kid and went up to both boys often during the day to offer advice and console them when they didn’t do as well as they had hoped. The youngest was particularly broken up over being disqualified, tears and all until Jack told him that he too had dq’s about a billion times! That and a jamba juice quickly helped him get over it. Anyhow it was a fun day, lots of social interaction between races, at little drama not worth going into to, and lots of sun. I can’t believe we’re doing it all over again today, we sure are good parents!
I then ran to the grocery store while Mom showered the germs from the pool (which was really gross) off both boys. We then headed off to the Old West Show where we got to see the 2″ X 3″ tin photograph of Billy the Kid. 3 hours after we left this supposedly one and only photo of Billy the Kid sold at auction for $2.3 million dollars! It was so small and faded you had to get really close to even make it out. The rest of the show was fun with all kinds of relics from the old west. There’s something about historical items from the west that are timeless and conjure up dreams of being a cowboy, life on the range and a simpler time that bring out the kid in everyone. They really had some neat stuff, we were wishing our friend who has the $5o million dollar ranch in Saratoga was here or had hired us to buy some things for his ranch and lodge as we saw tons of stuff that would have looked really good at his place. We managed to do a pretty good deal with a guy from Steamboat for a couple of small pillows (Mom’s been looking for these for a long time) that will change the whole decor of our living room. She’s headed for the Ralph Lauren western theme, ever since we saw his ranch on Oprah, slowly but surely.
Time to go as we need to leave in about 15 or 20 minutes and I need to shower first. The little guy is up but the oldest is still fast asleep. Hope everyone has a great day and as John Wayne once said, we’re burning daylight. God Bless,