Let the games begin...

Amanda is in her final season of volleyball, which means...more bleacher butt!!  No, I'm just kidding.  I love to watch our kids play their respective sports.  It gives me great joy and it still astonishes me that they have as much athleticism as they do, considering that I have zilch, zero, nada of that stuff.  They must have gotten it from Dave's side of the family.

I actually think that I could have been athletic, because I have really good hand/eye coordination but I never had the confidence to try it, plus mine is not an athletic family.  The only sport that was done at my house was wrestling our dad, on Sunday afternoons, which usually ended up with someone hurt or "wronged" by a push or a shove.  We never knew when to stop.  

I hope that when my kids look back on their lives, they will appreciate why I did things like, push them in the pool, made sure they were committed and strongly encourage them to pursue athletics.  The oldest three all had some degree of doubt, coupled with a longing to try and all they needed was a swift kick in the be-hind to go for it.  And go for it they did!  Becca is the only one that seems to have a desire to do everything!  In fact, just yesterday she asked if she could take a jazz/hip hop class.  Her Aunt Marcia (the dance teacher) would be very proud!  I'm not sure where that kid got her confidence but I'll take it. 

Sarah is a beautiful swimmer and if our little town had had more than just a city league and had her shoulder not given out, she could have gone on to college swimming.  She also played volleyball and softball. 
Amanda swam for a few years but decided that volleyball was her sport.  She also played basketball and softball.  
Jeffrey has done something a little unexpected.  He swam on the city team (but didn't like it) then tried a little football, basketball and then jumped into golfing.  He played for the Jr. High team last year but this year, he's back to swimming for the High School.  This means that he is required to be at the pool in Springville (15 minutes away) by 5:00AM Monday-Friday!!  This has required more of his parental units then usual because he doesn't have his driver license yet.  This wicked schedule goes like this:

Dave gets up at 4:15am ( Oh, how I love that man! He's such a good dad)

Jeffrey gets up at 4:30am 

They leave the house by 4:45am

Dave drops him off and goes into work (his boss was kind enough to let him 

arrange his schedule for a few months)

Jeffrey swims for 1 hour

I get up at 5:45am

Drive to pool & pick him up at 6am

While he gets showered and ready, I make breakfast and lunches for Becca and him.  Amanda is not a breakfast eater unless we have some desirable leftovers from the night before.  

I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it when he is a champion swimmer!  Even if he's not, it will be worth it because he will make sacrifices for his kids, plus he is learning self discipline.  I will post pictures after he has his first meet.  Until then, here's a few pictures of Amanda and her team.  They are having a great season so far...hope it holds.

Blocking

Serving the ball