State Swimming 2009

This year state swimming was in San Antonio, Texas. The state is divided into about 16 regions and each region brings those who qualified from regionals with a first and second place in each event. Autumn qualified first in 50 breast and her relay team qualified first in 200 free. She took second in 50 free, but first was also someone from Mission's team. The 1st and 2nd place cannot be from the same team, so even though her time was better, first and 3rd went for 50 free.

When we got to state, Autumn got a surprise: 3rd place 50 free elected not to come, so Autumn ended up swimming in 3 events. Autumn was fantastic! She took 9th in 50 free, 13th in 50 breast, and her relay team took 6th!!! We really are little fish in a big pond when we come to these events. There are huge schools that compete and for Autumn to place as she did is awesome.

Chelsea wanted a bunny....Chelsea's parent's did not want her to have a bunny. We struck a deal: place in top 3 in her events and she could have a bunny. This really was an unfair deal, kinda sneaky for the parents. We knew the chances of this little green team from Mission, TX to place in top 3 was next to impossible. She did not place in top 3, but she rocked it!

Unfortunately, one of Chelsea's relay members decided not to show up. So, with a substituiton, they had to compete in the 100 medley. Chelsea took 14th in 100 free relay, 16th in 100 medley relay, and Chelsea took 24th in 25 butterfly.

My favorite pic of Chelsea...anxiously, nervously awaiting her 25 fly. She is about half the size of all her competitors and has to work twice as hard, but if she has a goal, she does not give up.

All of the girl's hard work, all summer long, really paid off. After early morning, 1.5 hour practices each day and thousands of laps, and countless tumble turns, and hundreds of pruned fingers and wet towels, these girls made us proud!

All-Star Baseball

Taggart got chosen to be on the all-star baseball team this year. Translation: We dedicated 4 weeks to non-stop practice all week and games all weekend long. And the result: we got KILLED! Every game! Like 15-2!

We learned:

We don't like summer ball in South Texas.

Teams that play together year round (select teams) kill all the city all-star teams.

Taggart really, really loves baseball.

Taggart loved the games, even when he lost. He loved all the practices, even when we were so sick of them, we promised to pay each other 1 million dollars if the other would take him to practice. If we would stand outside and throw the ball, he would NEVER get tired of it.

The coach was our comic relief this year. He is a nice, albeit, interesting guy. He is super hyper and high strung and our favorite is when he yells like he's bursting a blood vessel in his brain to "just relax". But he thinks Taggart is the greatest and he has taught the kids a lot about the game.

Taggart played mostly short stop this year, except in the all-star tournaments, where the coach put him in the outfield so we could have a chance to make some plays out there. He has a great, accurate arm and usually ends up earning some money during the game (coach pays $1 for pop fly catches). He ended the season by making 2 home runs in the final tournament game and 6 plays that resulted in outs! This is our blog, so we will brag (it's the rules) that Taggart is an awesome player and we loved watching him this year.

Chelsea got a butterfly habitat for her birthday in April. We waited until the beginning of the summer and sent away for our butterfly larvae. They come right in the mail, in a box labeled live insects. They come in a little cup with food and air holes. The larvae travel to the top of the cup and start hanging upside down. When they have built a chrysalis or cocoon around themselves, you transfer them to the habitat. Then you wait for them to hatch. They are amazing to watch as they transform from these kind of disgusting worm-looking things to their iridescent cocoons to beautiful painted lady butterflies. They emerge very quickly from their cocoons and lay very still as they build up their strength. Then you feed them sugar water and fresh orange slices and flowers.

After they have hatched, you can release them into your yard. Chelsea carefully observed them each and every day, watching their every move. We were all fascinated by the life cycle. On the day of their release, we took them outside and unzipped the door. They were very reluctant to leave and we had to give them some prompting. The first butterfly paused at the door, then flew out and into our yard. We watched as it flew across the street and landed on our neighbor's mailbox----and swoop, right into the clutches of a grackle (black bird)! Well, we had a quick lesson in the food chain and then released the rest.

We have entered the blogging world, like it or not.