All the Water Fun: Swim Meet #2 + “Free Swimming”

Swim meet number two is in the books!

Our weekend kicked off with Chase’s second “Speedy Meet” and, after chatting with quite a few parents who are all-in on the whole swimming thing with their kids, I’m beginning to realize I need to fully appreciate Speedy Meets for all that they are at the moment. Apparently swim meets can be all-day affairs when kids get really into it so a quick one-hour informal Speedy Meet on a Saturday morning is pretty awesome.

(Bodysuit: Amazon / Jeans: GAP / Sunglasses: Amazon / Belt Bag: Freshly Picked Park Pack / Sneakers: Reebok) 

Saturday’s meet was Chase’s first meet away from our neighborhood pool and he was psyched to hear it was at his friend Claire’s pool we’ve visited a million times in the past. (The boys were quite bummed, however, when I told them the water slides were closed for the meet.) After last weekend’s meet, Chase told us he was going to go for two ribbons on Saturday and opted to swim freestyle and breaststroke.

We’re trying to emphasize trying your best and competing against yourself with Chase because he’s one of the youngest kids on his team and swims against kids as old as 8 in his meets. Thankfully he doesn’t seem to discouraged by the fact that he doesn’t come in first (or second or third) place and was so excited when we told him he beat his freestyle time from last weekend’s meet by five seconds!

After freestyle, for a hot second Ryan and I thought Chase was going to say he didn’t want to do breaststroke but the moment he realized he got another ribbon in a different color if he swam breaststroke, he was all in. Bless the creators of the Speedy Meets for understanding the motivation that comes along with giving these little nervous kiddos colorful ribbon! Chase actually seemed a lot more comfortable swimming breaststroke and ended up saying it was his favorite stroke of the day! (It’s mine, too!)

After Chase was done with his meet, we took the boys to The Bakery Shoppe for doughnuts and then made our way home for some downtime and lunch. Eventually we got Rhett down for a nap and Ryder settled in his room for quiet time. With the littlest two members of our family resting, I caught up on work and Ryan took Chase fishing at a marina near our house.

Once everyone was home and awake, the kids asked for more pool time for “free swimming” as Chase calls it versus “swim team swimming!”

I went swimming with Chase, Ryder and Rhett every single day of the week by myself last week and let me just say how niiice it was to have Ryan with us on Saturday!

Rhett is 100 percent hands on in the water right now for safety reasons which makes it hard to give the big kids the attention I’d like to at times. It was awesome to be able to play as a family and take turns holding Rhett so we could also play catch and other water games with Chase and Ryder, too.

(Do not let this photo fool you. Ryan was telling Rhett “back stories” aka giving him light back scratches while he told him a story during adult swim which is the only reason Rhett is peacefully staying still. He’s a wiiiild man!) 

Our best discovery of the day came in the form of this Scoobarang toy that was abandoned at the pool.

We turned it into Lost and Found before leaving but played with it for most of the afternoon because it was so fun! It is a hard little glider that easily glided across the surface of the water of the entire pool and could also be used as an underwater boomerang that would come back to you under water. We are on a mission to find one for our family even though a quick internet search makes them seem hard to find!

We ended up at the pool until a little before 6 p.m. and eventually made our way home for dinner, movie night (the boys chose a couple of episodes of Octonauts, their absolute favorite show on the planet) and early bed times. I think I made it three pages into my book (Rivals, the third American Royals book by Katharine McGee) before I could no longer keep my eyes open and fell asleep.

Sunday

Sunday morning began with pancakes and sausage and a visit to the new house!

Drywall is wrapping up early this week and then some fun stuff begins: Trim and tile! Hopefully this means I’ll have more pictures to share with you guys soon since there hasn’t been too much to share from a visual standpoint for months.

After our time at the house, we came home and tackled some organization projects around the house. One project that took me a lot longer than anticipated? Cleaning out our electronics junk drawer.

Here’s the before:

And here’s the after:

It’s far from perfect but let’s just say figuring out what cords go to what electronics and what electronics we even still have or need took me nearly an hour. Yeesh.

As I moved onto my next home organization project, Ryan took Rhett and Ryder to the grocery store while Chase stayed back with me and listened to a podcast. (He’s loving What If World lately.) I then got Rhett down for a nap and Ryan took the big kids to the pool again so I could continue organizing and filling boxes to donate. Major life update: We recently sold our house and will be moving out within a month. Our plans are crazy up in the air at the moment since our new house likely will not be ready until the late fall. We’re still very much figuring out our interim plans and I have a feeling it will be a wild ride!

Once Rhett was up, we joined Ryan and the big kids at the pool and then spent the rest of our Sunday grilling out before ice cream, bath time, stories and bed.

Plans for this week are actually slightly more structured than last week as Chase and Ryder will be going to a half-day camp on Monday and Wednesday. Other than that, we’ll be filling our time with more pool play dates with friends. With temperatures set to be in the mid-90s all week, I think the pool will be our go-to activity most days!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and stay cool if it’s sweatin’ hot where you are, too!