Swim Meet

Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE swimming. AND that I was a competitive swimmer in H.S. My freshman year I joined the team and quickly learned that I DIDN'T know how to swim!! I knew how NOT to drown, but actually SWIM? I needed to learn- and FAST!

Needless to say that by the end of the season I had gone from the world's worst swimmer to a fairly decent one on my JV swim team. AND I also received our "Most Improved Swimmer" award at our awards banquet at the end of the year... Good memories!

Anyhow, so of course I enrolled Hunter onto the swim team that started at BYU-H. The minimum age is 8, and he is only 7. But they let him on anyway. :) I guess I'm kind of pushy about some things...

So Hunter had his first ever swim meet!

"Swimmers take your marks!"

Notice his daddy as a timer? Ryan was also a swimmer!

And the crowd eagerly awaits...

And they are off! First race: Front Crawl

And the finish!

The adoring fans...

Here to cheer him on and support him...

We all came out! (Ryan's fam was here visiting!)

Next Race: Breaststroke! A personal favorite :)

LOVE IT!

He WON! The tired, and exited swimmer :)

Next up, the Backstroke. (I hate Back) and now so does Hunter...

It started out well enough, until his right arm began to pull harder than the left. Do you see the angle he's at? He's now perpendicular with the length of the pool. Not good! He should be following the lines on the bottom of the pool- be parallel with them and clearly he's not.

After MUCH whistling and yelling (on my part) trying to get his attention, Hunter finally stopped and looked at me. He was in the middle of the pool and now turned the opposite direction. He'd completely swam in a circle before I could get him to stop!!

He noticed what had happened and immediately teared up. He was embarrassed and tired. And he still needed to finish the race. It sounds so silly but I got choked up right along with him. I could FEEL his discouragement and I didn't want him to feel that kind of pain. And it was over something so simple. How will it be later in life???

I pulled myself together and told him "Hunter, you can do it! You are almost there." He said, "but it's SO hard!" I told him "I know, but you are strong and daddy is waiting at the finish line for you. You can do THIS!" And he trusted me.

He turned himself the right direction and finished the race. You can see his frustrations on his face :(

He did it! He made it!

He had the entire crowd cheering for him and daddy was there at the end to lift him out. All the other kids his age finished a few MINUTES before he ever got out of the water- and in a short race, that's a LONG time. But he FINISHED!

And got some love for a job well done!

The last race of the day was the Noodle Race! Hunter is on the end with the yellow noodle.

He's really happy b/c it's OVER!

Hunter wasn't ready to sign up for another 8 weeks of swim team. I think we'll wait until the fall when he's a little older. I put him back in swim lessons b/c he needs help on stroke improvement- and it's not so intense.

But we are SO proud that Hunter stuck with it and followed through. He was a trooper and set an example for all of us to finish the task at hand. When the going get tough- the tough finish the race!! And of course, can you see the spiritual parallel in this story? Life can be "Hard!" But we are "strong" and our Heavenly Father is waiting at the finish line, after this life. We just need to hang in there, have faith and trust in the Lord. We can find the strength within and FINISH THE RACE!