Proud Parent Day

Yesterday was the Sierra League Swim Championships at Mt. Sac.  Stephen had qualified for both the 200 free and the 500 free.  He already had pretty good CIF consideration times and was confident he'd make it there for both events.  So he wasn't that worried about his times, but of course wanted to do well.

His first event was the 200 free.  He came into the event seeded 4th with a time of 1:49.62.  He finished   in 4th with a time of 1:47.91.  So he was happy with his improvement.

Then later came the 500 free.  He went into this one seeded 2nd with a time of 4:55.19.  That was his best time ever with a 2.34 second improvement at prelims.  So he went into this one just hoping to be able to repeat this time.  He started out the first few laps out in front.  With 5 laps to go the 1st seed made a push and started to catch him.  With 3 laps to go, they were neck and neck.  At that point, the entire crowd was on their feet screaming.  Now let me tell you, the 500 free is a long event that most people use as a break time and don't pay much attention to.  It's 20 laps and usually there is a few body lengths between swimmers.  So the fact that this was such a close race for so many laps, made for a really exciting race.  Stephen said he saw Dylan pull ahead after the final turn and just said, "No way, this is not gonna happen".  He swam like he's never swam before and came in 1st place!  His time was 4:47.21, which was a full 2 seconds under the automatic CIF time.  It was such a crazy excitement.  Bill and I both teared up.  The emotions ranged from pride, to just sheer happiness for Stephen.  He's worked so hard these four years of high school.  So it was just awesome to see him do so well.  Their coach was amazed too.  Stephen is not a swimmer, he's a water polo player that swims because it was mandatory his freshman & sophomore year for water polo players.  In fact at premlims I was running late and had to watch his race from outside the gates.  I stood next to some students from the college.  They were talking to each other commenting on what a horrible stroke the kid in lane four had.  Then one of the girls said, "Yeah it's bad, but he won".  Well that was Stephen.  As his coach and my dad both said after that race, it was won with all heart.

He said he's never had so many people come up and congratulate him afterward.  When he passed by the stands afterward to go cool down, everyone applauded and cheered for him.  It was the perfect way to end his swimming career!

This is Stephen on the left and Corey on the right.  They are two of the three seniors on the swim team and are the two captains this year.  They have had a great time, leading the boys to a first place finish with a team they weren't sure was going to win league this year.  Turns out they had some amazing freshman and a great group of boys.  I think these memories will be with them for the rest of their lives, I know I won't ever forget that last race!

Easter Photo Comparison

I wasn't able to find any good photos of the kids on the wall from Easters past.  I have one framed in my kitchen that I decided would do, so I took a photo of it with my phone.  You'll have to excuse the quality of the shot, but it sure is fun to have the kids all take a photo at the same time of year in the same location.  Here's this year:

There's Mylie, Noah, Parker, Stephen, Ali & Nikki

They are: 5, 11, 13, 17, 12 & 15

And here is a photo from the past:

Mylie wasn't even born in this one.  Noah must've been 1, Parker 3, Ali 2, Stephen 7 and Nikki 5

Instead of the trampoline, we had the big play set behind them.  I can't believe how quickly time has gone.  I look at the photo in my kitchen everyday and just see my cute nephews and my adorable kids.  Until I compare them side by side, I don't realize how little they really were in that photo.  These are the moments that make me sad.  But I'm so thankful that I've been blessed with such an amazing family.  

Senior day for swim

Last week marked the last home meet for swim.  The last home meet/game of the year always is "senior day".  The coaches announce each of the seniors and say where they are going to go for college.  The parents are also announced and generally the boys give the moms a bouquet of flowers.

Of course the main question everyone wants to know is if you are sad.  I am sad to see high school coming to an end and I'm going to miss the crazy schedule, but I am so excited for Stephen.  How can I not be excited for him?  He's worked so hard these past four years and it has payed off exactly as we'd hoped.  He got into the program he wanted and gets to continue to play water polo at the highest level.

That's not to say I don't have momentary times of "freak out".  It usually happens when I see him hanging out with his sisters or we're out having a great meal.  I will definitely miss him like crazy and be so excited for him to come home.  I also am holding out hope that he'll call often.  But my overall emotion is excitement for him.

Crazy Weekend

I'm writing this post at 1AM after having gotten up at 5AM the past two mornings, and not sure what time I'm going to be able to go to sleep tonight (tomorrow, today...you know what I mean).  It all started Friday morning.  Ali had the Junior National Qualifier Weekend for volleyball this weekend.  Her first game was Friday at 8AM, on the courts at the Anaheim Convention Center at 7AM.  It was an early morning, but luckily all of their games were quick and we were done by 12:30. Then Stephen had an 8PM water polo game, but thankfully that was in Upland so it wasn't bad.

This morning Nikki had an 8AM game in Apple Valley for State Cup and Ali had to be back in Anaheim at 7AM.  Since Nikki had to be there at 7AM too, we all left the house this morning at 6AM! Ugh!  Nikki's team was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation.  They had two 15 minutes overtimes and ended up going to PK's.   Nikki had the first shot and scored!  Unfortunately they lost by one shot with only one girl missing her shot.  So that means they're done for the season.  She was disappointed in being done, but knows she needs to look forward and just do better next time.

Ali's team did GREAT today!  They played four matches and won all four, with only one going to three sets.  It was like a completely different team.  They had a great time and beat some tough opponents.  Unfortunately it didn't go as quickly as yesterday's games.  We got home about 3:30.  I showered and cleaned up a bit and everyone started arriving here about 5:15 for Prom!  We had agreed to the before AND after party here this year.  Yes that was before we knew the game schedules but what could we do at that point?  So we moved forward.  The kids all looked great and after the party bus arrived, they left here to head to Anaheim's Phoenix Club for their last Prom!

They got back here and I had lot of sugary snacks ready as well as some pizzas on the way.  They all changed into their comfy clothes and headed out back to relax and enjoy their last night of Prom memories.  

And I will get to bed and be up in time to get to Stephen's water polo game in the morning.  Not as early as Bill but much earlier than I'd like!  But I wouldn't trade any of this for anything!

College Decisions!!

He has made a decision!  That was such a stressful process for us, and I'm sure it was even more stressful for him making the decision.  The original pool of serious consideration started with Redlands, Chapman and Santa Clara.  He really liked the guys at Redlands, and liked a lot about the location of the campus as well as the water polo coach.  The one drawback there was the 3/2 program for engineering.  They paired with only schools out of California, neither of which interested him.

At Santa Clara, he got into the engineering program but was not sure about his status on the water polo team.  Plus it was the only school he didn't get any scholarship money for.  We weren't really up for paying full price and not having him play polo.

Lastly was Chapman.  The location is great, and he had a spot on the team.  They pair with UC Irvine, which would be okay.  So the final decision really came down to a choice between Santa Clara and Chapman.  And he went with....

The coach offered him a spot on the team and that sealed it for him.  He's so excited to get a chance to play there as well as being admitted to the engineering program.  Of course it was the most expensive choice to make, but I think it will be the best place for him.  We're so happy for you Stephen and look forward to seeing your growth and progress through your college years.  Plus we're excited to get to watch you play water polo for a few more years!  We weren't ready to be done yet either :)

Easter 2012

Easter is one of those holidays that has slowly grown into something more than it should be around here.  So when the kids were asking to put in "requests" for the Easter bunny, I knew things were going to change.  I remember Easter baskets having candy, chocolate bunnies and a small token gift.

When the kids finally got around to waking up Easter morning, they found a swimsuit for the girls and two t-shirts for the boy.  And guess what?  They were all happy with their baskets.  Good ole Easter bunny pulled through!

The cousins were coming over for breakfast and then we were headed to my aunt's house for the afternoon.  We had a yummy breakfast and a fun egg hunt with the cousins.  We don't get to see them often enough and the kids really enjoy the time they spend together.

The shot from above is our traditional Easter shot.  Every year we've taken the same photo with the kids perched up on the wall.  It's fun to go back each year and see how much they've changed and grown.

After they all left, we headed over to Aunt Joanne & Chuck's house.  They go all out every year.  They hide over 400 eggs!  My two oldest had to be in the secret egg draw, where they got a special prize.  It was very sweet that she included them, I mean by high school you are kind of out of the running.  Even Ali felt that she was too old so she didn't participate in the hunt.  Then when Joanne found out, she awarded her the prize for the least amount of eggs which was a nice gift card.  It was fun to see all of my cousins and their kids.

I have finally come to realize that my favorite holidays are the ones that involve eating with extended family.  I guess I'm getting old, because while I love celebrating silly holidays like St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day, spending time catching up with family over a good meal makes the best memories!

I'll have to look in my old photos to try to find the first photo on the wall for comparison.  

Sports weekends

It's the busiest time of year for Stephen with sports.  It's the high school swim season which means they'll swim 5 days a week after school for 2.5 hours plus 3 days a week in the mornings for an hour.  Add that to 3 nights a week of a 3 hour club practice and you end up with an exhausted boy.  But he made it through all four years of high school keeping this crazy schedule.  We are really proud of his commitment.  So many of the boys have either quit swim or not continued through club.  It hasn't been a picnic, but he did it!

Nikki is happy to be back to club soccer.  High school season ended up being an odd year for her.  She started on the JV team and was fine with it.  She got to start and play almost the entire games.  Mid-season they pulled her up to Varsity after having filled in a few games for some of the Varsity girls that had been in DC for the inauguration.  She was happy to get pulled up, but wasn't sure how the girls on Varsity felt about it and also felt badly for leaving her teammates on JV.  But in the end, she was happy with the training she got being on the Varsity squad and getting some playtime at the higher level.

Now though, she's happy to be back at club and ready to get that team up to a higher level.  They had their first tournament last weekend and though they missed getting to the finals by 2 points, it was good to see them play again.

This was a Varsity high school game.












And Ali has been busily growing in leaps and bounds in volleyball.  She started the team as the only girl that hadn't played club volleyball.  She couldn't get a serve over and didn't get very much play time.  She was frustrated but knew if she worked hard, she could catch up with the other girls.  So she has been going to practice 3 times a week for 2-3 hours each and doing a private lesson once a week.  And after only a few months, her serves are great!  Her hitting at the net, has been really good too.  So she was moved into center position and gets more play time.  I'm so happy that she's seeing her hard work pay off.

Ali going up for a block

So even though we've been really busy rushing from one sport to another, it's been great watching the growth and determination of all three of our great kids!