Whoosh!

Another weekend down (can you believe it's almost the 4th of July??!), another tremendous success.

Make that two tremendous successes.

Noh-man smashed the competition on Saturday as he competed with our summer team-- 2 landslide firsts and an extremely close second,

and then on Sunday, he competed with our year-round team and took 3 more landslide firsts in the 8 & under category. Two personal bests (or was it three?)-- one of them a 10 second drop from his previous personal best! Bub better watch out; Noh is right on his heals!

(Just to put it into perspective... in several of his events, Noh-man is swimming-- as an 8-year old-- as fast as Bub swam last summer as a nine-year old!)

As for Bub... he. knocked. the. ball. out. of. the. park.

Six races-- 5 firsts and 1 second (losing only by a fingertip).

6 personal bests.

But that's not all.

For months now, he's been chasing a dream... participation in the Eastern Long Course Championship, affectionately known as Zones. In order to attend, a swimmer must have 1 of the 2 fastest times in the STATE in any single event OR he must have 4 qualifying times-- 4 really fast times in 4 separate events.

Now weeks ago, Coach Bob told us that Zones was not out of the realm of possibility... a notion that we had never truly considered before. A pipe dream... yes. A possibility... no. I mean, we didn't set out to underestimate our boy or his abilities; it's not that at all. But let's be serious here. And frank. And realistic. Only a select few go to Zones, and while striving towards a goal is an excellent thing... well, you get my drift. Chris and I never discourage our kiddos-- no, we encourage them and we support them and we cheer them on in whatever they set out to do. But in our heart of hearts, we try to keep things tempered-- we try not to get carried away ourselves-- because it's never fun to see your babes face disappointment.

So anyhoo-- before this weekend, Bub had 1 qualifying time... the 100 fly. We all went to Winchester, hoping he'd walk away with one, maybe two more qualifying times... if all went well. That would ease his burden at the last two meets of the season; he'd only have one or two events to tackle in his efforts to make the cut.

So what did Bub, our ever-determined swimmer, do??

He did not walk away with one or two qualifying times.

He danced away with five.

Five qualifying times in a single meet (that makes 6 in all)... the 200 IM, the 50 fly, the 50 free, the 200 free, and the 100 free.

We're all still blown away!

So what's the big deal, you ask?? What exactly does all that mean??

As of now there are 7 swimmers on the Virginia Swimming team... seven.

Seven boys in the 9-10 age bracket who will represent the entire state of Virginia in August when they compete with kids from all over the east coast... from Virginia north to Maine.

It's a dream come true... thank you, LORD!