A Ton of Fun in 2021: Week 28 Recap

Cedar Point and Soak City- Divide and Conquer. Olivia would rather spend the day at Soak City with all the water slide.  Isaac is a die-hard rollercoaster junkie.  So we now each take one and go our separate ways.  Because we were able to go up earlier than Jerm to the lake house for the holiday weekend, we had two separate cars.  Even better because when we had enough sun, we got in the car and headed back to Lima. The worst part was having no where to put our keys and phone, so we had to rent a $15 locker for the day (highway robbery!), but other than going back to check my phone to make sure the boys were getting along ok in the park, it was a great day in the hot sun. 

Another cool thing about being in Ada for swim practice in the morning is discovering all the cool things that they have like the Traveling Zoo in Ada Park. My fellow momma Ann had told me about it, but I had forgotten about it until we were there the morning of.  How cool was this? The kids got to pet most of them (except the lynx, which looked like a cheetah) and they were amazed at the variety as you can see in the pictures. 

Tuesday night brought us the Baseball Lima Area World Series! And Isaac's team (Elida Orange) played for the title against a very equally talented Bath team.  They were neck and neck throughout the game and ended up losing by one run. Isaac got hit by a pitch and got to take a base, but ended up striking out the next two times at bat. The pitch he got hit by left a mark for a few days, but he was a pretty tough dude. 5-4. But what an amazing season these boys had. We are going to host a pool party for the boys at our house in a few weeks to celebrate their runner-up championship!

More 4-H Cooking. I mean Isaac is working on his projects too, but Olivia has to take pictures and keep a portfolio for judging, so we have this binder in process with lots of pictures of her cooking. Most of the recipes have been pretty good.  Her favorite has been the Yogurt Pops and her least favorite has been the trail mix.  I really enjoyed her veggie pizza and since no one else eats it, I polished off the entire pan myself. LOL. 

Every summer we buy a kids bowl free summer pass that allows us to bowl with the kids (2 games per day) for free. They got their own bowling balls from Poppy and Grandma Julie for Christmas last year and we got them their own bowling shoes for Easter. Amazingly this is only the second time we've been there this summer.  

Swim Champs. I could write paragraphs about this year's first outdoor swim champs that took place on Friday and Saturday. Jeremy took Friday off so he could watch. Being our first year we had no idea what we were doing. Well, because Ada was the closest to Kenton (where champs took place), we had the first warm-up time at 7:30-7:50.  Coach asked us to arrive by 7:15 a.m., which means we left the house around 6:15 in the morning. YIKES.  Jerm complained he had to get up and leave earlier for champs then he does on a regular work day. 😂 Truth. So we read all the recommendations and got there to set up our tent and folding chairs.  Good thing we brought blankets. It was all but 60 degrees and misting- you know that annoying rain that is just enough to get things wet- sideways. Kids warmed up and we thought the meet would start by 9.  WRONG. They have a really cool parade- Ada did a gators/swamp theme-but that didn't even begin until 9:30. OMG, did we really get up at 5:45 to not even start swimming until 10. Yep. But we did get to watch both kiddos do a few events. 

Top 3 relays and top 6 individuals make the podium and get a medal. The first day here were the results for our kiddos:

Isaac

50 meter free- ranked 8 and placed 8 with a time of 42.95. Super disappointed because Isaac is very good at the free and this was a terrible time. I don't know if he was tired or what, but in indoor championships he swam 39.06, so I have no idea what happened today. 

200 meter medley relay- Isaac swam anchor, free style. They placed 4th, only for us to pack up and leave (because it was the last event of the day) and then one of the top three teams got DQ'ed, so all the other boys got to stand on the podium and get their medals.  Poor Isaac was in the car on the way home because we had got up at the butt crack of dawn and were exhausted. 

Olivia

50 meter free. Ranked 8, finished 7 with a time of 41.75...first one to miss the podium. Yes, she swam faster than Isaac.

Butterfly-ranked 5 with an entry time of 57.31 and this is by far her best event and the one she enjoys the most. Don't know what happened. She had a brain freeze and did two free style strokes after she started, forgetting what event she was doing?! DQ'ed. She was in tears and sobbing at her failure. We tried to calm her down before her relay competed, which thank goodness she had that left!

200 meter medley relay- ranked second.  Finished sixth. What the heck?! They added nearly 56 seconds to their time. I have no idea what happened here.  

This was day one of champs. Freezing, way too early in the morning start, epic failures, and so many tears.  Not really the way were wanted to end our swim season....but there is always day 2 right? Thank goodness the weather was a bit better on Saturday. Overall the entire day was much better. First of all we had the same warm up time, but because we learned that we are not morning people and the kids really didn't need the warm up time anyhow, we skipped it. Didn't arrive until 9 am and let everyone sleep in, a much smarter plan. Here was Day 2 results:

Isaac

100 meter free. He was ranked 10, so he wasn't in the fast heat. We told him if he won his heat he'd have a chance. He took 3.31 seconds off his time and swam in 1:38.20 winning his heat! He ended up placing 8th overall.  We were super proud of him for winning his heat. He got a goodie package for winning his heat. 

200 meter free relay. What a race! Isaac is the anchor for his team. His first teammates split was 53.15. When Isaac got to start, they were in fifth! He swam 35.24 split and the team earned 3rd place to get on the podium with medals!

Olivia

50 meter breast. She was pumped up to say the least. Ranked 10, she needed to take off some significant time to medal. After her disappointing fly, she was on fire. She took off 5.14 seconds and swam 57.56 to place 5th (and really I think she got 3rd, but her timer didn't stop at the end so they had to give her a manual time, but she beat the third place girl in the video). She was so happy. 

200 meter free relay. Their team placed third, but was DQ'ed because the last girl jumped too early.  Thank goodness she got a medal in the breast stroke or she would have been really disappointed in outdoor champs. 

We had two weddings to attend this weekend. Friday night I left from champs and drove to Delaware to Alex's wedding. Because I left straight from the swim meet, I didn't have anywhere to change. I ended up changing and getting ready in the Kroger bathroom in Delaware. LOL. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Alex was a PR alum from ONU. Her wedding was outside and by the time it took place at 4 p.m., the sun came out and it was beautiful. I went by myself because Jerm had papers to write for school and someone had to stay with the kiddos. 

Sunday was Conner Fleck's wedding. His mom Kathie was my colleague at ONU for 7 years. Conner was an engineering major at ONU and did his co-op with Jeremy. Conner and Kayla got married in Ada, so it wasn't too far of a drive for a Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding, and the whole family went to enjoy! Don't ask me how Kayla and Conner got a picture with just Isaac, but here it is. LOL. I'm sure years later they'll say what the heck was this picture for? Jerm's favorite part was the City BBQ catering. I love attending weddings. Always so special with so much excitement.