Mother's Day and more!

Santa Clara Swim Club had their annual banquet at the end of April. The banquet is a time to honor the coaches, parents and athletes for the dedication and to call out the seniors who are graduating high school and heading to college. They went through each age group and coach starting with the youngest group. Here Coach Victory is talking about his "Yellow Bell" kids which are the 10 and under kids. You can see Rubix in the lower right of the picture.  

The head coach, Kevin, is speaking here to introduce Phoenix's coach, Coach Luba. She is the short one in the pinkish shirt behind Kevin. You can see Phoenix in the middle of all of the girls. Phoenix is in the Gold division which is 11 and 12 year olds. 

Coach Kevin is introducing Axel's coach, Coach Dave. Dave swam at SCSC and was coached by George Haines. He has coached for 30 years and had been involved in swimming over 50 years! Axel is in the middle of of this picture as well. Axel is in the Senior group, or 15+. He is in the group, just below the national team. They have 9 practices a week now with two double workouts a week (Tuesday and Thursday). It is a huge commitment to be a part of this group. 

Phoenix had her track league champ meet on May 3rd and 4th. Keith took Phoenix on Friday and watched her 200 meter and 800-meter race. It was a beautiful day. Phoenix broke the 3-minute barrier crossing the line in 2:57 seconds and getting 3rd overall. Her goal was to break 3 minutes, so she was happy with the outcome. Saturday it was raining. It was my turn to be able to go with her. She had the 400 meter and the 4 x 100-meter relay. The high was in the low 50's. It was cold and wet and most people were not prepared for the dumping rain. Many of her teammates and their parents were grateful the shelter our tent provided. Keith was managing swim practice for the boys while I was at the track meet, since I managed practices for them the day before to allow him to attend the track meet. 

Phoenix ran in the dumping rain and won her heat, finishing 3rd overall for the league. Her buddies Astraea and Kylie were happy to be under the tent and Phoenix loaned Kylie warm clothes after her events. Astraea was league champ in the 50-meter sprint and Kylie was league champ in the 400-meter race! I finally started the YouTube channel for their race videos. You can check out her 400-meter race at this link; https://youtu.be/0A5B-YdZN38.

I took Axel and Phoenix to Harker to get a heart screening that the school was offering our community. We happened to see Astraea there so the kids had an impromptu play date and Astraea joined us for dinner. It was really nice to have a friend over for the evening. It felt a little more normal than our normal weekend rush. 

On Sunday May 5th, Rubix had a 2nd grade playdate in the park. He has not been able to attend any of these functions, so Rubix was surprised when I said, "let's go to the park, we have a free hour." He actually ended up staying the entire time because one of his friend's moms drove him home. I promised Axel I would go to his post CCS walk on meet, so I left Rubix with Tomomi (Leo's mom) and headed to Axel's swim meet. Phoenix was home doing artwork, so she happily received Rubix when he arrived home at 1:30pm and they had fun together while they waited for us to arrive home at 3:30pm. This was the first time they were left home alone together and this was the second time that Phoenix was left home for a significant amount of time. Phoenix actually called me to ask if she could make chicken noodle soup. The two of them worked together to make a delicious pot of soup. They appeared to get along well and Phoenix is becoming quite the cook. The first time I left her alone, the weekend before, she made lemon cookies. I did not let her bake them until we were home, but I spent an hour off and, on the phone, helping her figure out how to decipher the recipe. I find it very interesting that she only wants to cook when I am not home and hasn't taken interest in helping me in the kitchen as Axel did to learn his cooking and baking skills. 

I am not sure if I mentioned that Keith started the training to become an official several months ago. He officially became an official about a month ago and has been officially most of the meets that we go to. He is a stroke and turn official, but will be doing the training to be a "corner judge" during long course season (hopefully). Being a Corner Judge, you don't have to DQ kids, but ask the stroke and turn officials about their DQs and can throw them out, or sign off on them. He feels more comfortable doing this than disqualifying kids for improper stroke and turn form. Here is Axel and Daddy with big smiles at the post CCS walk on meet. 

What a special day for Axel to have both of us there to support just him. He managed to PR in the 400 IM. He decided to do the afternoon long course session. He dropped almost 10 seconds, but he was hoping for a 15 second drop considering how he has been training. He was still happy with the results. His 200 free and 100 fly were not personal bests, but he felt he had a good day and was happy to have participated in his first high school only "Pac Swim" race. 

Rubix has had the privilege of going on two field trips the past month. He went to the Hillier Aviation Museum and to the Animal Assisted Happiness shelter. Apparently, it is not as easy for schools to schedule field trips post pandemic. It is nice for them to squeeze them in at the end of the year. 

This past Saturday I was able to go to the last soccer game of the spring soccer season that Rubix has been participating in at the Campbell Community Center. He was excited to see me and Phoenix and Axel! Swim practice was cancelled for a coaches in-service/training day so we surprised him by attending as a family.

He played on the Wrecking Crew this Spring, with Keith only assistant coaching. Rubix is playing right wing here. 

He in the the 10 & U League now with a bigger field. It is really good for him because he has a good foot and many other boys are kicking much harder. 

Proud daddy and Rubix after the last game of the season!

After the soccer game, Phoenix played at Astraea's house for a couple of hours and then Helen, a swim friend, came over for the evening. They went to the club then came home for dinner and a fun night of games. Helen's mom bought this beautiful cake for us that the whole family enjoyed. 

For Mother's day I had the privilege of going on an early bike ride with Keith. Axel had practice from 8 to 10:30 am at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale. Keith brought him and rode from their up Moody and Pagemill Road in Los Altos. It was a beautiful morning in the 60's when we left. It was incredibly refreshing riding early in cool weather than later in the day in the mid to high 80's. 

After our bike ride and Axel's practice I finally had a chance to get a picture with the kiddos and then we worked together as a family in the front yard to clean up the garden and landscaping.

 With the garden all weeded, the bushes cut back and the Irises growing, the front yard looks much better!

After lunch, Keith helped me prepare 3 meals and then we played family games for a couple of hours, watched videos of their swimming technique and Rubix finally got to see Alice in Wonderland. He said it was much different than the book and I think he preferred the book over the 1952 cartoon movie. 

Rubix and I have been trying to read more together when time permits. We are reading 'A Wrinkle In Time'. I guess Keith snuck a picture of us reading together on Mother's Day. 

It was such a special weekend and day without our usual hussle and bussle. I am just prepping for the whirl wind that is about to begin. We have 3 weekends of swim meets along with many end of year activities. School is out in just 16 days, May 30th, at noon. I am excited to post about the end of year accomplishments of the kids in a few weeks. The big news is Axel has taken his first two AP exams and felt really good about them. He was very well prepared and is looking forward to get the results in a couple of months. Until then.... God Bless!