Sophie had a welcome to summer mini meet yesterday – our first outdoor meet of the season.  We had a really quiet weekend and the weather was absolutely perfect, 82 degrees.  I gathered the entire family and we all went together to the meet.  Well, after we woke Sophie up.

She had a girls scout sleepover the night before at a campground.  This is not something I would normally sign up for the night before a meet but the sleepover was originally scheduled for the weekend before.  When the sleepover changed weekends I debated cancelling the plans for either the meet or the sleepover.  And then I didn’t.  She is 8.  How bad could it be?

She walked in the door from the sleepover and burst into tears.  So did I.  She smelled like she slept in the campfire.  She was exhausted.  After a nice hot bath I got her into my bed and got her to take a nap.  When it was time to leave she was still asleep.  We finally woke her up and got her to the meet.

She warmed up and seemed ok.  Then she swam her first race.  She looked like a cat that had been thrown in the water.  Two races later, nothing had improved.  After she finished fly, she came running to me in tears.  “I swam horrible”.  No denying that.  We talked about what she did wrong, hugged, high-fived bought a ginormous pixie stick and went home.  My 8-year-old swam terrible.  So what?

We should have had the pixie stick first.  And a Red Bull.

The upside of the meet?  Grace later posted on facebook that “swim meets are boring unless you are swimming in them” AND she thanked me for all the meets I sit through.  WIN!

Thirty minutes before warm-ups!