Celebrating Swim

I'm writing a post for August in August! WOOOO! 

Technically, this all happened in July, though. July 30th to be exact.

Shane and I went to the 9:30 AM church service. He asked to go into the service with me instead of youth group. He said he felt like he was being micromanaged in youth group and couldn't say a peep when Liz was talking even if it was to ask a friend a quiet question.

To be fair, Shane can be way more distracting that he realizes. However, he has grown over the past year and was able to elaborate how he felt. I could understand why he felt micromanaged and could sympathize (even if I could also see how he'd helped make that bed for himself!).

I told Shane I was always happy for him to come into the service with me, gave him a hug, and we went in.

In hindsight, we could have gone to the 11 AM service. We normally go to the 9:30 AM so Shane can do Youth Group. It was around 10:40 AM, we were in the car, and we needed to fill time until the End of Swim Picnic Celebration at 12:30 PM.

I needed gas and to buy something to bring to the picnic so we went by Costco. Shane started reading some graphic novels (Wings of Fire, I think), and, I kid you not, stayed there for over an hour. I eventually popped in my earbuds, started an audiobook and wandered the store some!

It was a cheap and effective way to fill the time! I bought some muffins and we headed over to the celebration.

I took a selfie.  

Shane hauled up the muffins.

We arrived a little after 12:34 PM (Shane called it!). Shane was huuungry. He could smell the fried chicken and wanted to know why everyone wasn't eating yet.

We took a selfie to keep distracted and I sent Carrie a few updates.

Food was served after a little while. Shane rushed up to get in line while I waited for everyone else to go through first (most of the other dads did the same from what I saw).

I didn't realize Shane was such a big fan of Kroger fried chicken. He had some macaroni salad and a bunch of cherries, as well.

After everyone ate, the coaches recognized all the volunteers and started to pass out tongue-in-cheek, paper plate awards to all the kids.

Shane acted so embarrassed when it was his turn, but it was spot on.

Maybe he was embarrassed a little bit, but Shane really likes everyone focused on him!

Shane was "the question machine." Coach Lilly said it was because he was always asking so many questions in practice (and probably twice as many comments, but I like questions better! Ha ha!).

The coaches gave everyone a certificate and a prize after the awards. No one was supposed to open their prize before the end, because they were all the same and it would ruin the surprise.

The prize as a pair of goggles. Pretty fitting for a swim team where everyone is always breaking or losing them!

Shane surprised me by continuously grabbing cherries. Historically, he's complained when one shows up on a milkshake or what have you. He started a chocolate muffin, said he was full, put it down, and then kept cherry picking the rest of the time we were there!

The coach congratulated everyone for coming in 17th place at Regionals. They cheered and laughed. Shane said, "Wait. How many teams were there?" (Go mathematical mind!). Ella looked over and said, "17!"

But we were first in Sportmanship! Apparently for 2 or 3 years running. I guess that means we're the smallest team and the lovable losers for our league.

It was a far cry from the beach, but it was great to have something to do. Shane got a ton of electronics time over the weekend, because we need him to. This broke that up a little (I think we were gone from the house from 9 AM - 2:30 PM with drive time included).

And with that I'm basically caught up! I did five and a half months worth in just under a month. It is 11:20 AM on Thursday, August 3rd. 

Shane left with Carrie this morning to go to Grandma and Grandpa's. He's going flounder fishing with Grandpa Friday. I want to post on that before I redefine the blog, so maybe I'll keep things going at the current rate until summer ends.