Last Friday, we drove to Houston to visit my brother (on his birthday!) and girlfriend (the day after her birthday!) to stay with them before heading over to the Summer League State Swim Meet in College Station on Saturday.
The kids were delighted to be with their Uncle Eric and Tamires and takeover their lake floats and golf cart.
I was delighted to not swim and hang out with my Caipirinha, a delicious and refreshing adult beverage made by the co-birthday girl who, crazy enough, was born in Brazil precisely one day before my brother. Same year, one day, and a continent apart.
The kids played like crazy until they collapsed. I should note that Coach Dad did not fully approve of their "resting up for the big meet" methods.
My tiny baby brother was turning 31, completely confusing Cora as always: "But he's your small brother. But you are smaller than him?!" If she used the correct phrase of "younger brother/sister" instead of "small brother/sister," her confusion would likely disappear, but I will never correct her, and so, confusion remains. What's important is that we celebrated my "small" brother's birthday with my mom's spaghetti (Eric's birthday dinner choice for about 28 years) and two kinds of cake made my Tamires.
A multitude of homemade cards were also produced, though we were sadly lacking in bulldogs wearing party hats.
We packed up and left by 6:15 a.m. to drive to College Station for Session 1 of the State Meet- this round featuring James/Coach Dad!
James and I have now been together for exactly half my life and I must admit I do enjoy the frequent throwbacks to who we were when we met. And I will never get tired of seeing him on deck and watching him race. (Or just seeing him generally, but I appreciate the added flare of the racing suit.)
And man, did he race! Two lifetime best times and one near-best, he continues to swim faster than he did in college which is crazy because, as our children noted, he is old now.
For the swimmers out there, his lifetime goal has been to break a 25 in the 50 yard breaststroke (which is crazy fast) and he went a 24.99! The delighted look on his face when he looked at his time and then looked straight at me with his hands in the air was my favorite. He also went 22.29 in the 50 fly, which is insane to me, and a 51.23 in the 100 IM. He won all 8 of his events, which he swam in less than 3 hours, and broke all his own records from last year. The kids found it all very intense to witness.
Actual conversation from our little cheering section:
Claire: Wait, how is he fast this year? He's even OLDER than he was last year?"Cora just fanned herself like the prepared swim meet watcher and old southern lady that she is.
Landon: "Well, I mean, he's old, but I guess that just means he's had a lot of time to practice."
It was a spectacular session for him and we can't wait to watch him at the U.S. Open in Atlanta in December!
Next up was Session 2, the girls' session. We grabbed a quick lunch in the parking lot (nothing better than a food truck on a 115 degree day) and then waited in line to go back in the natatorium to get seats. James had a coaching badge so he was able to take the girls down to the deck for warm-up.
Exactly 5 years ago, this little nugget was getting her first swim lesson for our amazing in-house coach and now she was seeded in the FINAL heat of the summer league state meet!
And she was SO excited to be there.
Cora's event was up first and it was a delight to watch her jabbering away on the ready bench, not remotely nervous or overawed by the steep upgrade in pool conditions. She bounced up on the block, dove in with gusto, and promptly added 3 seconds to her time, dropping from 7th to 17th place. In other words, she won the whole meet and we were very proud.
Claire was SUPER nervous, requiring many waves of reassurance from the stands where my parents and I were sitting (they drove over for the afternoon session), dashing off for one last minute bathroom break MOMENTS before her heat was supposed to step up to the block, and getting panicked when she wasn't sure what to do with the shirt she was inexplicably wearing over her suit before the blocks.
But she won! She won the 25 breast at State and she was thrilled.
She placed 4th in her other two events, the 25 free and 100 IM, and all in all had a very successful meet.
We drove to my parents' house that night for a delicious dinner and golf cart rides in the golf cart they'd bought from their neighbor that very day. They are very prepared for living their best retirement life in a few more months.
It was great to see them settled in their new house and we were all in bed pretty early, so we could drive BACK to College Station at 6:15 a.m. for Session 3! Landon's turn!
Landon is in a new age group with longer events, and older, larger, and more swimming focused competitors (notable side note: Landon was by FAR the shortest kid in all of his heats, like a whole head+ shorter, and it was so crazy to see from high up in the stands; my dad was very confused by the fact that Landon is not actually very tall, he just gives a good impression of it). This season has been has been quite the wake-up call for him. We've been happy for him to pursue all his various interests and million social and school commitments, but I think that since his parents both swam for UT, he genuinely believes that's something he can just opt into when the time comes. Because anything your parents did can't be that hard right? They probably just hand those scholarships out to anyone. And while it's only summer league and he's just in 11-12 and still killing it in the dual meets, State gave him a hard knock of reality about the fact that there are other kids who are training more and are simply faster and stronger than he is. It was not a knock that was much appreciated and he allowed no further pictures of his session.
Of him, anyway. The girls had a delightful time with their world maps and drawing supplies and I sat with my parents and reminisced about my own swimming days.
Landon ended up with two 9ths, a 14th, and a 16th, his first time to ever not place Top 8 and walk away with a bevy of medals and ribbons. He does not want to talk about it, though as I reminded him, he still did GREAT- this was the STATE meet! He swam 4 long events in the span of 60 minutes and that is exhausting for anyone. He has also been insanely blessed to experience his first disappointment at the age of 12 after a life so far of winning nearly everything in his academic, athletic, and climbing careers. We all have to experience disappointment or failure (though, to be clear, no one thought he failed but him), and while it remains entirely his choice if and when he wants to commit to more swimming, I think it was good for him to see the reality of what that commitment (or non-commitment) means. He did not contribute to this one-sided conversation, but I'm sure that somewhere very deep down, a little bit of it soaked in.
Everything Cora pulled out of her tiny backpack over those 2 days was completely delightful
After the meet was over we went out for a tasty lunch in College Station and then James and I drove back ALONE while the kids went home with my parents. Yes, all of them!! This has never happened before and it's been as strange as it is AMAZING. When we got back from the trip I had everything unpacked in about 10 minutes and then James and I just... hung out. We thought about grocery shopping and then realized no one around us was asking for food. We went out to dinner. We went somewhere else for dessert. We got home and flirted and drank wine and watched a movie really loud without worrying about waking anyone up.
Round 2!
On Monday evening, I stopped at the store for the ingredients for a new recipe (Summer Chipotle Chicken Salad with Cilantro Vinaigrette) that was so good I dreamed about it that night. And, when I wished I'd bought some fresh bread to go with it but didn't feel like driving back out, I MADE BREAD. From scratch. Because no one else needed me to do anything and Maggie volunteered to assist. I used this recipe and it was so, SO good. Then- THEN!- because we're a crazy carefree temporarily childless couple, we went OUT FOR DRINKS *AFTER* DINNER. I know, I couldn't believe it myself, but it was James's idea (what?!) and there we were, at a trendyish spot with expensive cocktails full of words we had to google. It was GREAT!
I had to google so many of these things
The kids have been living their very best lives at Camp Papa Gigi, though as amazing as it has been to have these 5 days living a surreal child-free life (a life that is mostly work and yoga and teacher training, but still- being gone 15 hours a day guilt-free is a gift!), I can't wait to go pick them up tomorrow. We've blown our restaurant budget for the month, Maggie doesn't understand life without her tiny human pack members, and we need our happy chaos back. But man, Camp Papa Gigi 2019 has been a hit all around!
Camp Mom & Dad 2019
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