Mason and Noah Jr. Guarding

Both Mason and Noah participated in the city program for service learning hours by volunteering at the Mesa Aquatic Center as Jr Guards this summer. They learn how the pool runs, they had CPR training, help with swim lessons and good work ethic. I loved going to the pool while they were working. Now if I can just convince them how important sun screen and sun protection is... Next summer Mason will get to actually get paid to Life Guard I know he looks forward to that and I'm so grateful for the opportunities they had and the lessons they learned this summer. 

Lucky Noah got to Jr. Guard with his good friend Christian also. 

Noah was the assistant life guard during April's swim lessons and that was really fun for her.

Callie & Synchronized Swimming

SO so so proud of this girl. Stepping out of her comfort zone and trying something new. Callie participated in Synchronized swimming this summer through the city of Mesa Parks and Rec. I loved watching her dance in the water. Poor girl lost her nose plug jumping in the water during the Championship competition but she handled that like a champ. She wasn't super thrilled about joining the team but I think secretly she loved it. hehe She told me she wants to do Synchro club team so we will see if that works out in the Fall.

Such sweet girls Callie is blessed with wonderful friends.

Mason Summer Swimming

Every summer my kids participate in the Mesa Parks and Rec Swim Team (except last summer stupid covid). It's a 6 week long swim program. Mason is my only kid so far that really enjoys it and never complains. Poor Noah and Callie have such a mean mom. LOL Even though they are both really good at swimming it's just not their thing. Mason is and has always been my little fish. During the program they compete weekly against other assigned city pools and at the end of the summer session you can sign up to compete in the Qualifying Meet where you compete individually against all swimmers in the city program If you finish in the top 16 you advance to the Championship Meet. Mason has tried really hard with swim this summer. He qualified for Finals in all 3 of his events the Backstroke, Freestyle and the IM. The IM is an insane 200 M race with 2 laps of each stroke. It's swam in this order: the Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and ending with 2 laps of Freestyle it looks completely exhausting. Watching him swim that race was incredible. Butterfly is NOT his stroke and he started off pretty much in last place after the 2 laps of butterfly, but then BAM! He starts his backstroke and watch out! It's crazy how he made up a 7 second deficit. He ended up finishing the race in 5th place overall. I was so proud of him, he shaved 4 seconds off his best IM time and all after he had a goggles malfunction at the start of his race. Backstroke is really his stroke and he ended up placing 3rd.

Mason's STATS July 2021:

Backstroke 50M - 30.96 seconds

Freestyle 50M - 27.7 seconds

200M IM - 2:40 mins

Water polo Summer Rec League

This week has been exhausting and filled with all ranges of emotions. Swim meets, synchro meets and a waterpolo tournament all in one week. So so so hot 🥵 and sooooo long! Lol I’m so proud of my kids. It’s not easy My boys fought hard and played 4 games in the championship finishing 5th place in the city. I love watching Mason keep his cool in frustrating situations he never gets visibly angry and I really respect that. (He certainly did NOT get that from me 🤦🏼‍♀️🙈) I also love how you can see his love for this sport almost every second of everyday. Haha This is the first time I've seen Mason's skills in a game setting. Because of Covid we haven't been able to watch him play much. I really looked forward to these Saturday games and I REALLY loved sitting in the stands and hearing parents from the other team say things like "Who's that #6?! He's a BEAST!" or "Don't let #6 get the ball!" Mason's friend Kelsie came to one of his games and at the end of the game she went up to him and said something like "Mason! I knew you liked water polo but you never told me you were really good at it!" Haha

Noah is another story. Waterpolo isn’t his favorite thing in the world but whether he admits it or not I KNOW he enjoys it. And probably one of my favorite things ever is to see sweet kind Noah flip a switch and the aggression comes out. That said he was abused at this last Friday night's game. There were a couple of bigger players beating on him and playing really dirty. (Just a bunch of sore losers) Bullying is NEVER ok. And I have to say I was really close to jumping in the water to drown the punk myself. One of the hardest things for me as a mom is to see my child hurting and traumatized. I don’t like feeling helpless. That was NOT ok and momma bear came out 🙈 He was really shaken up and upset. It just broke my heart. 

Noah woke up early Saturday morning refreshed and ready to play hard. I’m so proud of him and I hope that he learned from this. Learned to stick up for himself, he learned to NEVER be like that and to hold his head high.

I have teamed up with a couple moms to push for waterpolo to be started in the high schools. It’s going to be a long road but I’m excited and very optimistic about it. I even recruited my nephew visiting from Texas to help me out with the IT stuff. He’s so awesome. He helped me get a google form and a website up and running to gather statistics and info. Thank you Corbin!!

This was one of the coaches fort Mason and Noah. His name was Skylar (I'm spelling his name wrong but that's how it's pronounced). Skylar was so nice and kind to my boys very uplifting and stood up for my boys (mostly Noah when he was getting beat up in the pool. Skylar would go inform the refs and was very vocal about how that was not ok.)

Shark Cage with Mason

One of the last days we were in Hawaii Mason and I signed up for a Shark cage excursion. We went with Tai and Derrick from our group. Anyone that knows me also KNOWS that sharks are my number one fear in life. I've been terrified of sharks since I was young. My poor sister Maddy had to sit in the bathroom while I showered to help calm my irrational fear of water and sharks. True story. Maddy recently informed me that I paid her a quarter every time to sit in the bathroom. haha I don't remember that. But I still think she showed true sisterly love. (To this day I really wish I would have listened to my mom and not snuck in with my older siblings to watch JAWS.) Participating in this activity was little about conquering my fears but also about some amazing mother-son bonding time. I just love that Mason is up for any and all adventures. We got up at 4am drove to the other side of the island and boarded the "Abunai" boat which mean "Dangerous" in Japanese. Thankfully none of us got too sea sick (at least not enough to toss cookies). I was surprised at how much it effected me for a good 24 hours but it was totally worth it! Getting tossed around in the shark cage is no joke! I really enjoyed seeing them so close up but I was a little disappointed that sharks do NOT pose for pictures and they refused to hold still while I'm trying to film them! LOL Mason says next time we will swim in open water with the sharks... hmmmm not so sure about that. Baby steps Mason. Baby steps.

Hiking in Hawaii

For the most part the weather cooperated with us while we were in Hawaii and I was so grateful for that. Rain at the beach did make for some fun cuddling under the umbrellas tho. Haha Thankfully we didn't need get rain more than a couple hours for a couple days.

Day two in Hawaii a couple of our kids (mostly Callie) informed us they wanted a break from the beach. I couldn't believe it. I'm not sure what they thought we would do the whole time in Hawaii but... oh well. Erin took us on a couple really beautiful hikes. Both hikes were titled Old Pali Road and one led to the Likeke Falls. It was so jungle-ish, green and BEAUTIFUL! I was also surprised at the lack of bugs. I didn't get eaten alive! Hike number 2 was a little longer than expected but it made for an incredibly windy adventure. I couldn't believe how windy it was! I was scared some of the kids would blow away! We walked well over 5 miles that day with everyone. 

I loved every step of these beautiful hikes but poor Callie did get injured. It was lightly raining off and on which made for a slippery trail. Poor girl slipped and landed on a metal railroad spike thing. OUCH! Then a couple days later she cut her foot on a rock in the ocean. Not fun but I think she handled them both pretty well.