Jamahl's 1st swim meet!

Saturday was Jamahl's first swim meet and we were all very excited. He started practices right after Thanksgiving on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays so he was anxiously awaiting the first meet. He had to be on deck at 7:45 that morning and before he left he told us that he had his strategy all figured out, but he wouldn't share it with us! I was a nervous wreck but he was very calm, cool, and collected. He swam the 25 meter free style, 25 meter back stroke, and was in the 100 meter free relay. He did really great. He placed 8th out of 16 in the free style, 7th out of 16 in the back stroke, and his relay team placed 3rd out of 4. The most exciting thing is that his time in the back stoke is less than a second off of the "A" time. He felt good about how he finished and we are SO proud of him.

So here starts our endless hours in the hot sauna like pools. I know you can envision it...Paul getting there early to hold some seats for us (of course, that didn't really go as planned!), me arriving with four identically dressed five years olds, us girls traipsing across the crowded bleachers and everyone pointing and asking if the girls are two sets of twins, next we have to get the girls all up to near the top where Paul was able to find seats...three of the girls walk up, Keyan walks right in front of me so that I can keep track of all of her tubes...she of course falls on the stairs. Paul decides he better carry her which is no easy feat since she WANTS to walk and she has a nine pound back pack on her back. We squeeze past the family that refuses to stand up to let us all get by, and get everyone settled in. I finally sit down and take count to make sure everyone made it, breath a sigh of relief that we haven't lost anyone or had any injuries, and then....you guessed it, "Mommy, I have to go potty!" I'll leave the rest to your imagination!

Jamahl is the one crouched down in lane 5 getting ready to dive in

The score board after his 1st race

Grammie was a time keeper for the meet...she is right above lane 7in the white t-shirt