Kortie's Quirks

Drowning?

Daddy thought so. He was kicking off his flippies and setting down the camcorder to save him. He had never seen Kortie swim before, especially that far. Kortlen, 5, is swimming in a race in his very first swim meet. That's right. Swim meet. This was the first time he has ever swum "belly-down" from one end of the pool to the other without stopping along the side of the pool. He even beat his best time by 30 seconds and earned his very own box of ice cream sandwiches for the feat. I guess this is where I should mention that he is swimming the freestyle. He's supposed to be swimming the backstroke. Oh, well, he beat one boy. When he was supposed to be swimming freestyle, he got mixed up and swam backstroke. So, I had him swim the opposite one this time so we could get a "time". When it was time to do breaststoke, we were all on the same page. I should also mention that he could only swim 10 feet 3 weeks before.

This is Kortie waiting for his heat. He is small for his age, and was the smallest and most adorable swimmer on the team. Those are the boys he raced. Behind him is Kinzie (middle) waiting for her heat. She also had a successful summer. She swam the IM in two different meets. That means she swam all 4 strokes during the race-even butterfly. I've tried to race my kids in the Butterfly before; my husband told me I looked like I was drowning.

Kinzie, 8, Mesquite Meet- getting set. The last 2 summers, my kids have had 4 swim meets in the two months they practice. We like the swim team at the college, because you can put as many kids on the team as you want for $200. Most places in town charge $120 per kid.

Kashton's favorite race is the IM. The coaches write the #s of each race, heat, and lane assignment on the kids' upper arm, so they can keep track of their own races. Then they go to church the next day, and hopefully, their church shirt covers it.