Summer Long Course Age Group Champs

 I know I said I wasn't going to post, but Daddy-o wanted videos of the kids races to share, so I thought it would be easier to write a quick blog and share the happenings of the first of three championship swim meets that are on the schedule for the rest of the summer. 

Last Thursday, July 10th, Rubix, Phoenix, Keith and I headed to Santa Rosa. Axel had two more days of AP Bio left and Gma Susan offered to come down to keep Axel company.  Axel and I were so grateful for Gma. He was so mature picking her up from the Amtrak station. Gma joined him for his cross country practices on Friday evening in Los Gatos and Saturday morning in Half Moon Bay. The team had a workout at Half Moon Bay High School and then went to Dad's Luncheonette for Lunch. Gma was freezing, but said it was nice to see Half Moon Bay, as she has never been there before. 

Here is a picture from last Tuesday's practice where the team did hill repeats. It was a bit hot out and Axel said they had to cut the workout short to prevent overheating. 

A couple of weeks ago he was in Nisene Marks with his team (on my birthday to be exact). Here is a great picture his coach sent. It looks absolutely beautiful. 

You might be able to tell, Axel is loving the track/cross country club he has been training with this summer. He also loved having Gma over and said how similar they are in their cooking methods and how they like their food. I just love how well Axel gets along with everyone. It doesn't matter if you are an adult, child or classmate, Axel finds a way to connect and get along with nearly everyone. 

Now, back to Age Group Champs. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Santa Rosa. Phoenix took several videos. Here is one of them. 

We arrived in time to get a prime tent spot and to have the kids to a pre- race warm up while I check into our Air B&B at 3pm. It was a half a mile away and very conveniently located for us. The kids were in bed nice and early we were up and back at the meet by 7:15 am on Friday morning. 

Friday was a big day for Rubix. He had the 200 IM, 100 back and 400 free. Phoenix decided to just do the 200 IM and the 400 Free. With Long Course, there are only 8 spots for finals. We made sure to tell the kids there was no guarantee to make finals and that they had to try their best in prelims. That is exactly what they did. Phoenix started out the day with a nice 2 second drop in the 200 IM finishing 6th overall and making it into finals. Phoenix was pretty tired in finals and ended up 8th overall with a small add.

Phoenix 200 IM

Rubix also had a nice drop in his 200 IM and was seeded 3rd going into finals. He was also pretty tired from the extremely long day and ended up 5th overall in finals with a small add as well. 

Rubix 200 IM

His 100 back he managed to finish 2nd in finals and get a personal best in prelims. 

Rubix 100 back

Phoenix had a killer 400 free finishing 3rd in prelims and 4th in finals. She did a personal best time in prelims. 

Phoenix 400 Free

Rubix some how managed to drop in finals for the 400 free, after having slight adds in finals for his other two events. He finished 4th overall. Rubix 400 Free

They had a nice flag up on the screen for the National Anthem before finals. 

Rubix then managed to swim in the 200 Free relay and his team managed a first place finish. 

Rubix basically swam event after event from warm ups at 7:30 am until his relay at 7:30pm. His 400 free prelim was at 2:30pm and warm ups started at 3pm with finals at 4pm. I was incredibly impressed with his ability to focus all day long. It was also pretty warm on Friday, even at 7pm at night, as you can see from the photo of the relay teams above.

Saturday was an even earlier start of 7 am. It was in the 50's in the morning and a striking difference from the day before. The kids had to bundle up. 

 Phoenix had the 200 Free to start. This was an event I wasn't sure she was going to make finals and she came out and crushed it dropping more than 3 seconds and finishing 4th! in prelims. 

Phoenix 200 Free

She was tired for finals after her 800 free at 1pm, but she managed a 7th place finish for the 200 free in finals. Her 800 free was also a killer race for her. She won her heat against mostly 13 and 14 year olds, and dropped more than 25 seconds earning herself the AAAA time cut and 3rd place. She was beyond excited!

Rubix also had a great 200 free grabbing a personal best in prelims and finishing 4th overall in finals. 

Rubix 200 Free

Rubix also swam the 50 fly and 50 back on Saturday. He finished 3rd in finals for both races. 

Rubix 50 fly

Rubix 50 back

Rubix's medley relay was on Saturday night and they squeaked out another 1st place finish just before 8pm!

 He was in bed and asleep by 9 pm just to get up at 6:45 am the next day! He was such a trooper!

Sunday Phoenix had the 200 back and the 400 IM. Phoenix crushed the 200 back in both prelims and finals dropping in both races. She has been stalled in the back strokes, so this was a big deal to drop a few seconds. She ended up 3rd overall in finals in both the 200 back and 400 IM. You can see her trying extremely hard in these races all the way to the end. This is a big step for Phoenix to not give up and fight to get to the wall! I was so proud of her effort and her great attitude all weekend. 

Phoenix 200 back, Phoenix 400 IM

Rubix only had the 100 fly on the last day. He had a huge drop in prelims and a small add in finals. He was really bummed being seeded 2nd going into to finals and then ending up 5th overall. The other boys came out racing with huge drops themselves! I was so proud of how he handled himself all weekend as well. He seems to be maturing as well. Rubix 100 fly

Here is a picture I was able to capture on the last day of Rubix, Phoenix and Keith during the National Anthem before finals. 

I also managed to snap a photo of Keith who graciously worked all 6 sessions as an official. We are so grateful for all of his time and dedication to help the kids achieve their goals both in and out of the water. 

Rubix with his medals.

We left the swim meet just before 7:30pm and got home around 9:20pm. We went over another bridge from 580. Here are P's photos. It was actually quite beautiful with the sun set in the background. 

Axel is now done with his AP Bio class and the kids no longer have any summer classes. Keith has been working with the younger two doing math every day and helping all of the kids to help out around the house. Phoenix has been filling her time doing art work, Rubix is actually playing with toys and Axel appears to be around and hanging out with everyone more, which has been quite the treat. Phoenix has a short swim meet on Saturday to do a few short sprint events. She will try to drop time in the 100 and 50 free, along with the 50 fly and breast, which she hasn't swam for more than 2 years! I will post again in mid August after Far Westerns and Western Zones. We will have some quality time with family as well since we will be near Sacramento!

Summer Fun-birthdays, visitors and more

For Father's Day Keith wanted to run up Mission Peak, but because the kids had swim and we all wanted to go out to brunch, we decided to go up Mission Peak the Saturday after Father's day. We were not able to run up the entire trail because it was a bit too steep, but we were able to run down the entire trail. Our legs were pretty destroyed for the next three days with the 2000 feet of sharp downhill running. 

After our run up the hill Keith took the kids to practice and I was able to have brunch with a few ladies from my bible study group. Last year I was unable to attend because of a swim meet, so I was excited to meet some of my group in person after studying with them for the past two years!

Phoenix has been really into doing her nails. She can spend hours coming up with different designs and painting them. It is just another way for her to flex the artistic side of her brain. 

Sunday night, June 22nd we went to the Golden State Valkyries game because Albert is so nice and offered us tickets. The crazy thing was we went to sit in the seats we normally sit in for the Warriors game and we discovered that we were in the wrong seats. Our seats were front row on the court!

Where we were initially sitting in the second row....

Where we actually sat during the game. Front row!!!

No obstruction except the ref!!!

Happy couple!

Happy family (minus Axel). 

I was impressed with how much faster the game is and how good the Valkyries are playing!

Axel made his friend Christine a couple of small birthday cakes. Here is one. I think it looks like a professional wedding cake :)

Another nail design by Miss Phoenix. 

The kids had their last chance swim meet over my birthday weekend. Phoenix had an amazing 400 free style getting a 4:51 and her first AAAA time standard. She is just 11 seconds from sectionals, which is her goal (during her 13th year of life next year). The rest of the swim meet was a little rough for Phoenix, but she had a great attitude and enjoyed spending time with her friends. Rubix, on the other hand, hit it out of the park. He achieved four AAAA times in the 50 fly, 100 fly (which he had in short course), 400 free and 200 IM. The other impressive race was his 50 breast where he achieved the AAA time. Rubix has come a long ways in his breast stroke and free style. He has worked on these strokes with over half a dozen lessons and regularly goes to work with Daddy on his form. The most ironic thing of all is Rubix will likely be the breast stroke leg of the medley relay at Age group Champs and Far Westerns because he has the best breast stroke time on the team now. (Jeffrey, who was the breast stroker aged up to 11). 

I forgot to mention that little Grammy arrived on Wed. June 25th. Rubix is almost as tall as her now at almost 4 feet 9 inches. 

Jose, Hannah and Alex arrived Friday the 27th. Here we are visiting with them on Saturday for the first time. We hadn't seen Alex for 5 years!

Keith bought me flowers for my birthday, along with 2 new pairs of running shoes (that I can also wear to work). 

On Saturday we enjoyed a lovely sushi dinner and game night with the family. We had so much fun and laughter playing Telestrations together. 

Axel could not get over Grammy's guesses. Aunt Josie and Axel definitely had the most laughter, with Hannah, Grammy and I a close second. 

Phoenix's latest creation while Grammy was here. 

The week with Grammy went by fast. The Petersons spent Monday- Wed in Big Sur, but stopped over to pick up Grammy and say goodbye Wed. evening. We loved seeing them!

A family photo!!

On the 4th of July, Phoenix wanted to go to the mall with her friend Emma from summer school. I haven't been inside the mall for almost 20 years. Let's just say it is very, very different. Here is one display at a sunglass store. This was crazy!

We also saw Pulstar and Lucid cars at the mall. 

Can you find the missing ice cream cone?

The mall was incredibly high end. I cannot believe that they are able to make money with the high end stores that are there. It looked like many people go to eat at the restaurants or just walk around. The girls were pretty board, because the three of us are not "shoppers". We did have some laughs at the Squishmallow store. 

The cute frog was only $300!

We spend most of the time eating. First at California Pizza kitchen and then at a place called Somisomi ice cream store. 

They were much happier eating then shopping!

On Sunday July 6th the kids went to the Olympic clinic that they earned during swim-a-thon. This year they had Taylor Ruck (Canadian 3 time Olympian) and Natalia Jaspeado (a collegiate swimmer).

This year they swam first for an hour and a half and worked on Taylor's favorite drills and then they talked. It was a much smaller group of 12, rather than the 36 swimmers that attended last year's with Abbey Weitzel. 

Group photo!

The kids with Taylor and Natalia. 

Today is Keith's 50th an to celebrate we ran up the other side of Mission Peak and were much more successful than last time. 

It was a beautiful morning and hardly anyone on the trail. 

I made him hold up his hands to represent 50! What a milestone!

We had such a great time!

Phoenix and I made a poster that Keith wanted to do earlier this summer. The poster displays all the years of him coaching Rubix's soccer team. We have one spot left on the right lower portion of the poster that will be for fall 2025. Because Rubix will start playing for school, and likely be in a harder swim group, he will likely no longer play rec. soccer after this fall. I am still not convinced, but will wait and see what happens. 

Axel is loving his running group and he was announced one of the captains of the cross country team for the school year. He is done on Friday with his summer AP Bio course and will likely spend the rest of his summer prepping for standardized tests and developing Harker application with the computer science group called Harker Dev. 

Grandma Susan comes this weekend to hang out with Axel as Keith and I take off to Santa Rosa with P and R for Age group champs. 

The other big news is we spent 4th of July weekend buying a new car! I am now driving a Kia Hybrid Sportage- Prestige. I really like it. We decided on hybrid because we feel it will be too complicated to go completely electric with our hectic driving schedule. I have a lot to learn because the car is pretty high tech. Axel is pretty excited about having his own car now. He says it is crazy to think that he can go anywhere at anytime (within curfew limits, of course). 

We are really busy starting Thursday through the first 10 days of August, but I hope to blog on all things swimming and running by mid August. Until then.....God bless!