Noah representing his elementary school, in the district wide swimming competition...

Tuesday, August 4th. This picture was taken around 7am. The kids had to start warming up in the pool by 7:30am.  These are some of the kids representing our elementary school. The girls were all  so cute and were also super fast from our school this year! We had 1 fourth grade girl, but the rest were all 5th and 6th grade girls from our school. Our school girl swimmers, this year, were all amazing! And see the cutie yawning in this pic? I totally understood. I was yawning on the inside. : ) We all were very sleepy that morning. Despite going to bed early and stuff. : )  Only two 4th grade boys representing our school, Noah and his very good friend, pictured near Noah, in this pic. : ) One of the rules was, every competing kid when not in swimwear, must be wearing their school gym uniform, with name of school and child's name, etc on their gym clothes. Just easier for all the coaches and people to know, who's who, and who should be near the pool.../poolside or not. : )

Each school was given their own warm-up lane. And they each warmed up, back and forth again and again. The lady in turquoise, with clipboard is from our school. Our school's... kids practiced in lane 5. Noah warming up in this pic.

Not the best picture. But, you can see, Noah's dive, midair, on the left hand side of this pic. Noah really has a beautiful and silent dive. Beautiful leg extension and stuff. 

And on this side of the pool, we had another coach on this side, the guy in the Chiba-kun shirt is also from our school. So we had our lady coach on the right side of the pool, lane 5 and the guy in the black Chiba-kun shirt on the left hand side of the pool. And if you look on the right, a kid from another school is also yawning. Hahaha. What was the atmosphere? It was extremely hot, even by 7am. It was extremely humid. All of us parents were extremely tired. But, we were all happy to be there. It's noisy. It's noisy, because many schools are all practicing at once and many coaches have whistles and are toot tooting, their whistles. So whistles are going off and on. And some schools have nice coaches and say nice and positive things like..."you did okay, but try this a bit better next time" And then you can hear some different schools and they shout and scream and pace back and forth alongside the swimming pool. Pacing like an angry lion almost. Shouting and getting all upset. We actually had 1 coach during the actual competition (not from our school, our schools coaches are all nice and mild) but that 1 coach got so riled up...that a kid from his school, took off swimming earlier then the rest and so he didn't want him to get exhausted and basically....swimming for nothing, he dove right into the pool with clothes on and everything. The entire district of people... all went dead silent after he dove into the pool. Just imagine 15-20 different schools or so and everyone all talking and shouting and blowing whistles at once. And you sort of get the idea, of the atmosphere that day. On the other hand... us parents felt excitement in the air. And at the same time, I ran into so many of my mama friends from yochien. When Noah went to yochien, his entire yochien class all went to the same swim club as Noah. And they all pretty much go to a different elementary school from Noah now. So it was really wonderful seeing all of Noah's former classmates from kindy/yochien. And it was also so nice for me to see some of my amazing mom friends, from Noah's yochien days. All those ladies are amazing and I like them so very much. So, yeah, it was so nice to run into about 30 plus of my friends that day. Just really nice. : ) So yes, lots of talking...lots of chatter. Lots of catching up with old wonderful friends, I may not have seen in a long time. Just so so much going on, at the same time. Hahaha. Let's put it that way. : )  I heard one lady, happily squeal...to another yochien mama, she had not realized I was near them but she excitedly screamed, "hey Noah's here!" And again...it was just honestly SO nice... to be near so many good people, who have known Noah since he first turned 3 years old. So a lot of positive good people, we got to see again. Just many happy people to see Noah and happy people to see me again too. So that was truly awesome. I was also, just as excited seeing them and their kiddos too. : )

Noah practicing. Each school had a good chance to warm up. 

Their coach was speaking to them, so Noah was listening.

More practicing.

Times almost up, with the practicing. Go, Noah go! We love you kiddo!

Coaches final words and whatnot. It was just about time. Time to start and get this thing, kicked into gear.

Each school, has a select place for the kids to sit, who are competing and all us parents also have a selected spot, where we can sit. There is our school name, above on a tiny plastic with our schools name on it. So, we know where to sit. These backs of kids, are our kids. : ) We were right near our kiddos. Also...seriously look at all those many many kids... around the pool. Just so many kids, so many different schools competing. 

See, the men in white shirts and black pants, far upper left, in this picture? Those are the school principals. Little known fact, our principal at our elementary school has a heart condition and us parents worried about him. Because often during the day, the announcer would announce the temperature under the shade/under this roof of the pool and it was 103 F degrees under this canopy! @_@ Imagine the parents under no canopy! They were even hotter! Granted our school was lucky because having had experience of coming here... when Bran competed, Noboru brought our canopy and we let the entire rest of our elementary school parents sit under the nice shade, but still...it was still melting hot. The other schools for the most part, had no canopy's and no shade. I think one other school brought a shade, but no other schools did. It was in all honesty... like sitting on the sun for the day, or spending a day in a steam room. If this event, would be indoors, it would be awesome. Hahaha. : )

Noah's first event. He was the 2nd person to be competing from our school, that morning. Good luck, my nervous little shy one. : ) 

Noah, a 4th grader, was picked to swim against all 6th graders. See, the size difference? Look at the 2 white caps on the right of Noah. But, you know what...it is, what it is. It was, what it was. No sense in worrying about something, you have absolutely no control over.

When you're swimming against someone who's a good 1-2 feet taller, all you can hope is...just do your best. And no matter what, we're proud of you. 

Noah's beautiful long dive and that 6th grader to the right had one very..interesting bent knee dive. Hmm. But the bright side is, if that kid would have dove normally, given the height difference, he would have had the advantage, because he would have started way ahead, since Noah's younger and therefore smaller. So the interesting bent knee dive, actually worked in our favor. 

I'm happy that even though Noah is a 4th grader and swam against all 6th graders he was 2nd place in this picture. Noah's just that fast! Even with his smaller 4th grade body/frame he gave them a run for their money! He swam his little heart out! Did, he win? No, he didn't! But the good thing is, there was just a second or two separating him and the rest! So, for that, we couldn't be prouder. 

This picture was taken about 2 hours after Noah's first event, up above. This was Noah's last event. The relay. The relay was right before... we all would be breaking for lunch. : )  Having gone to a few of these district wide swimming competitions before, I see how they have the 2 fastest swimmers go swim first and second. And then hope for the best. Noah getting ready, because the first person from our school was in the pool! That first kid in the relay, before Noah from our school.... was swimming faster that greased lightning that first swimmer from our school! Noah had to be ready. He had to watch and gauge the first swimmer. 

Still watching. It's up to the swimmer, to determine when he should stand on the #3 spot and prepare to dive. Noah in full concentration mode. Meanwhile the crowd is screaming and cheering. And all the kids poolside are cheering for their own schools. It's so loud, it's madness! : ) And because it is a relay... it isn't over quickly and you have lots of noise...chatter, cheering. And people timing each swimming with not 1 digital timer... but 2 each. 

Noah, smiling, because he knew..."we got this!" "It's in the bag" Our 1st swimmer was so freaking fast, he had a good 10 second lead, over all the other schools, competing in the pool. You can see it on Noah's face! He can see, "we got this!" But again he has... to time his dive carefully. If he dives too early, he disqualifies the entire rally for our school. But, he's done this before and by that smile on his face, he's in the zone. Noah has this!

And boom! Timed perfectly! As, he, the first swimmer hit the pool with his hand meaning, he's finished, Noah dove right in, it was so effortless, these first 2. Noah took off like a rocket...you guys! Our school was screaming....Noah...Noah! Noboru is screaming, "go Noah!!!"...the other parents are screaming..."Gambarre Noah!!!!" I'm screaming in English, "you've got this baby, you've got this Noah!!!!"...and funny thing..I know my fellow yochien mom's who don't even go to the same elementary as us, were cheering for their Noah/our Noah too! : )  Meanwhile....as he's finishing up his part in this relay...Noah too, left our next swimmer with a 10 second advantage/lead over the other schools, in the pool! Then it went to the final 2 swimmers of our school and that's when it all fell apart. The 10 second lead disappeared. And then the other schools, had a 10 second lead over our school. And then the other schools.... had such a lead, you knew it was over...and done... before our last swimmer hit the pool. But you know what...the feeling is such...that you know, in your heart and mind... your kid swam his best and he swam *fantastically*, at that. Sure, our school lost and lost by huge amounts. But...all you could do is...be a team and cheer for the last 2 swimmers. The best you can! Again..it was, what it was and frankly, they're just kids. They're not Olympic swimmers. Their mothers were right near, with us under the canopy with us and they knew how their kids were swimming, it was clear/obvious...so... best we could do...and the right thing to do... is support the mom's and the kids. And cheer our hearts out! It made those mom's really happy! And that was the right thing to do. It was 11:50am. And we were about to break for lunch. And technically we could go home because Noah's done swimming for the day. However...we are a team! As, they say...and yes, as corny as it sounds... there is no I, in team. Hahaha. So, we stayed to cheer on the team. No matter what, win or lose! One family however... from our school left. And you know what...you can't really blame them, at all. Because it was a bazillion degrees outside. It was very uncomfortable being outside. So, I think they were smart to leave. But...you know...we couldn't just abandon ship and leave our team. : )

We brought the big cooler and that's only because we needed it for the frozen water in the 2 liter bottles, to keep the rest of the stuff cool. Also, important to note, this cooler stuff is packed like...a hot mess! It just comes to show you... how extremely exhausted, I was with waking up at 5am, that morning, and in fact I am pretty proud of myself... for even managing to pack every body's stuff and not forgetting to charge my camera battery the night before and whatnot. Because for a summer break...that was much too early to wake up. My brain wasn't fully awake yet. : ) I packed Noah, Branden and Noboru 2 chicken cutlet sandwiches each. I also packed everyone three, 500ml drinks. Having done this before, I knew two wasn't enough. I also packed Noah 3 Soyjoy's (like an energy health bar), I also packed everyone in our family, some fresh cut pineapple. And as for me, what did I eat? I packed myself a salad into that Perry the platypus plastic container, I had a nice green salad with grated colby/jack cheese, croutons and thousand island dressing. So, I had a salad and some pineapple. Everyone else ate 2 sammy's and some fruit. I also packed some Doritos for the kids and Noboru to eat with their sandwiches. After lunch, we all seemed to feel better. And Noah, knew he was done for the day, so he just sat poolside and cheered on the swimmers who were competing in the afternoon. Branden was playing Minecraft with his former yochien schoolmate, who lives in the small city nearest us and who is also, an 8th grader too. So, they both hung out and played Minecraft is the hot weather, but at least they had fun. : )  My fellow elementary mama friends were sucking on salted candy to help combat heat stroke. They gave me one after lunch and goodness, it tasted bad, but, I didn't want to spit it out, because that would be rude, so, I sucked on what seemed like a salt cube. @_@ Hahaha. : ) Around 2pm, because of the heat, I had a headache and I wondered if I was having heat stroke. Good thing, I always carry that mini travel sized Advil with me, in my purse because I popped 2 Advil, usually I just take 1, but, I had an absolute killer headache. I was melting outside, you guys. But again...you just do the best you can. And keep cheering on our swim team. They're are all just... as hot as me, and I know that. We're all roasting! Hahaha. But at least we're all roasting together! Around 3:30pm though, I sat in my folding chair and I thought to myself quietly..."please self, remember how hot you are and let's not do this again next year!!!" I kept quietly thinking that, in my head. Branden came by to inform us..."it's so hot", that he just couldn't stand it. I agreed, but, I told him...it was this hot, when you swam too years ago, the only difference is...you could cool off in the water, we could not. Now you know how it feels to be a spectator. : ) Noboru actually told me, "let's not come to this next year." I agreed! Anyway, that was the day. When it ended, we all were very happy! The rest of our team, were so happy we stayed to cheer them on! Noah came running to us and said..."this was the best day ever...can I come here next summer too?" Not really quite sure what to say... "Ohhh ummm, well...let's think about it, next year kiddo." : )  So anyway...that's the long and short of Noah's swimming meet/swimming competition at the elementary school, district wide. Noah had an amazing time, he swam well. We got the chance to talk and reconnect with many of our friends from Noah's kindy days. The only bad part...was the weather. The weather was.. truly the only downside or negative of our day. : )  Well done Noah and his classmates. Well done... all kids who swam and competed that day. And well done parents, who survived the heat and cheered for your own school in the district and kids. : )  And well, done our principal...we were quite worried about you that day! : ) In a nut shell, Noah did well. It was a lovely day, despite the fact the weather was brutal. But truly...a nice day for us all! : )

A Costco run! Elementary school swim team practice for Noah! Roasting chili’s, our first batch and some backyard BBQ yakiniku fun!

Alrighty, you guys, I am officially trying really hard, to get this blog up to date. I am really trying here. : ) So, all of these things happened the first week, we got back from Honolulu, Hawaii. As you know, we got back to Japan, July 26th, it was a Sunday and it was Sunday evening.We were tired but we went to Coco Ichiban for a curry supper and then went home showered and washed that long flight off our bodies. : ) And went right to sleep. Because Noah had swim practice from the next day, plus we were tired from the flight. Also, you know how, when you are about to be gone on vacation from your house for a full week. You try your best, to leave your house with no food that could spoil or go bad, while you're away. You, know what I mean? We did the same thing. We made sure that we left no milk, bread, eggs, veggies or fruits. We basically left the house with not much left in the fridge (unless you count condiments hahaha) So anyway, we all woke up Monday morning. Noah had swim practice starting at 10am so needed to be there around 9:50am. I was awake at 7am here at the house. I woke up, knew we had a house with no food in it. And a child who needed fuel in his body, for swim practice. : ) So, while everyone in the house slept. I went into the sink room, put my hair in a headband. So I could wash my face. I washed my face around 7:05am, brushed my teeth. Went downstairs. heated the hot water pot for a coffee. And put my sunscreen on my face. Put on some primer, concealer, foundation and face powder. Put on some eyebrow mascara. Put on that long last Maybelline eyeliner. A little blush and called it done for that day. Makeup wise. : ) I slapped on a pair of jean shorts, a fitted black tee and those sparkly black Birkenstock type sandals, you know which ones I'm talking about? I just got those at Ross, while in Hawaii. : )  A crossbody bag. Of course I didn't wear shoes in the house but wanted to give ya'll the visual. : ) Woke up the boys. They both shuffled down the stairs. Noboru also woke up. And came downstairs. I meanwhile left to the nearest conbini to get some bread for some toast and they sell fruit there... but it's expensive and I dislike buying fruit at the convenience store yes...because I can buy it half cheaper at a regular grocery store. However in America... we have grocery stores open 24/7. However in Japan, especially here in the inaka (rural Japan) most stores close at 8pm. And won't open until 10am the next morning. So, being stuck between a rock and a hard place...meaning I need food for the kids...and #2 all stores are closed and won't open until it's....way too late and we need to be at swimming, by the time they'd open. So...sometimes...you do... what you can, so I bought, a six slice of bread for toast and 2 expensive bananas. 100 yen for the bananas, can you believe that price for the fruit. Highway robbery for those bananas, versus what I could get at my regular veggie/fruit store...but oh well. : ) It was...what it was for that day. : )  I came back home, Made sure both the boys ate. I also fixed some toast for Noboru, felt bad that's really... all I had to offer. I went and packed Noah's swim bag. I filled his thermos with 1 of the Vitamin Waters, from Hawaii, for that day. Usually it should be tea...but...you know... it's what I had on hand for that day. So we went with it. : ) I threw a huge load of clothes into the washing machine on the regular cycle, before we left to drop off Noah. Bran and I dropped off Noah at the plaza to swim. Swimming started while we were in Hawaii, so he missed 2 or 3 practices. So, they all said..."yay Noah welcome back!!" And Noah was all...thank you!!! Awww. : ) My little shy one. : ) And we drove off...and I gave him a wave. I went back home. Hung the clothes outside. On my laundry poles to dry and wrote our my shopping list. By that time.. it was time to swing around and pick up Noah. Noboru and Bran were with me. Immediately after picking up Noah, we went directly to the cheap meat store. I had also written out my grocery list/weekly menu out already. I was on the ball. We went and picked up a weeks worth of meat cheaply. We had a backyard BBQ planned that week too. Then we went to the cheap veggie & fruit store, which is also the cheap drink store too. And loaded up. We then drove home, dropped off all the food, Noah hopped in the shower to wash that chlorine and pool chemicals off.... and while I was putting that stuff away, I had Noah put his towel and swim trunks in the washer machine on the quick wash. I meanwhile brought all the clothes inside the house because they were dried already. Before we left...I hung Noah's swim towel, swim cap, swimming trunks outside on the laundry poles. We left and headed to Costco. It was dead...not many people. Thank goodness. We grabbed the things we'd needed for the week. And we had lunch there. After lunch we bought 2 huge soft serve ice creams. The boys shared and Noboru and I shared. We then drove home, nice and full from lunch. : ) 

I usually try to take a "cart" pic, but I forgot that day. We had an easy on me...Costco pizza for dinner Monday July 27th. Laundry soap. Biore hand soap far right. Nestea sweet tea. Tons of sliced American cheese perfect for omelets or grilled cheese sammich for lunches for the kids. Finally...finally Costco Inzai gets some Classico pasta sauce. Every other Costco in Japan, because I have asked my friends who shop at different Costcos...and theirs seems to keep theirs always in stock but our Costco... the Chiba New Town one, is often out of it for months! Months, I tell you! @_@ Who is keeping track of the stock of foods at the Costco Inzai? And do they want to hire me instead? Because I'll make sure we never run out! Ha! : ) Best price of Kleenex in Japan is found at Costco, you get twice the amount for the same price as you'd find on half of these amounts at a regular DIY in Japan. Bets price on tissue. Tortillas, and we were about to have pulled pork sandwiches that week and so we bought hamburger buns for the pulled pork sandwiches. 2 huge hunks of Colby/Jack cheese. And I made sure my kiddos, would have breakfast the next day...so I bought those delicious cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing. I told the boys to pick 1 thing from the Costco bakery, for the next days breakfast  and they picked these. : ) After we arrived home, everyone relaxed. And I ran to my regular grocery store in my town. I bought all the weekly things I don't get from my other stores. I picked up a weeks worth of coconut yogurts. Some fresh milk, 2 packs of eggs. And then I came home. The good news is, we were restocked with food. Phew...feels good. Such a relief. : ) 

And the following day. Everyone had some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Noboru and I, had ours with coffee, the boys had theirs with milk. I filled Noah, a thermos with mugicha and ice. That's tea with no sugar. : ) The kids in our shogakko's/elementary schools... swim team were in deep practice mode. Bran is far left under that tree... next to one of his classmates from JHS. His friend had sports club that day, so his friend is wearing the JHS uniform, gym outfit. : ) 

You can see Noah in the green cap. Oh all 4th graders were green caps this year. They switched colors with the ichinensei in June. Anyways....there were only... three 4th graders picked to be on the swim team this year. The kid next to Noah in the blue swim cap, fixing his goggles in this picture is actually a 5th grader. : ) He's a real good swimmer though, lightning speed swimmer. : )

And here they were testing the times (speed, how long does it take you basically)... of each of the kids. That kid behind Noah in the red swim cap, was so slow. I know, I probably shouldn't mention that... but OMG! @_@ Watching paint dry...would have been faster! Like seriously... so super slow. There was also another big/tall kid, not sure if he's a 6th grader or 5th grader... but he could not dive... to save his life.  And he swam slower than freak. When the kids had a swimming relay on the actual swimming competition that day. The 5th grade boy up above (not in this pic, but in the pic above this pic)... the same height as Noah..the one with the blue swim cap, who was adjusting his goggles in the pic up above...he swam superly fast... then it went to Noah 2nd person in the relay...Noah swam at such super speeds...Noah was on fire that day...we were so proud... he was way ahead of all the other teams/schools. And then it went to red cap here (a 6th grader) and he swam so slow...every team was ahead of our school, when he swam.... and then it went to boy who could not dive.. to save his life kid...and he was actually even slower than red cap...didn't think it was physically possible... to get even SLOWER...but yes... it was possible. And put it this way...every team was out of the pool, resting... while...our team... kid who can't dive... didn't even make it to the opposite side of the pool yet. Anyway...it was ....what it was. And they're just kids. We all know that. But wow! Some kids were on the swim team this year... that you had to wonder...how did they even get on the swim team? It boggled the mind. Anyways...I am getting ahead of myself. And shouldn't talk about the actual swimming competition day... quite yet. 

We have a blue cap on the left of Noah and Noah in the green cap and a blue cap on the right of Noah. They are about to go. Noah and the girl on our right. 

The girl in the white cap was swimming with other kids and wasn't swimming with our group of kids. But that's Noah in the water. 

Noah taking the lead over the blue cap! Go Noah go! Go all our kids, go! : ) Yay!

And another day. This time.. they were practicing when the announcer would scream out your name and what school you were representing. They screamed out...Last name...Noah...representing...such and such elementary school. And he had to stand and with his right hand in the air scream ..hai! And the kids practiced and practiced. Also...important to point out. Japanese summers are well known.. for being quite hot. Quite humid. However this summer in particular... was actually so super hot... it was actually record breaking hot. It was like sitting in a wet steam room/sauna... the minute you left your house. Even us standing and watching the kids practice was killer for us parents! You'd arrive to watch the kids practice dry. And you'd leave a sweaty old mess. Nape of your neck all wet with sweat. Unbearably hot. So Noah had swim practice all that week. Which meant... I had to wake up daily and make sure thermos was full of ice and tea. And make sure he ate a decent breakfast before swimming because, you get hungry when you swim nonstop you know. : ) But our week was also mellow and nice. Because we watched cable at home. I caught up on all the vacation laundry rather quickly. And plus my favorite TV show Scream on MTV was getting so good...still is getting good. Teen Mom 2 is getting good. Just getting back into summer mode here at the house. : )

Tada, the first batch of chili, pictured here. I took the chili we picked... into the house and cleaned them up. This was also the day we were going to have a backyard BBQ, so we roasted the chili before we grilled our dinner.

Hi... first batch of chilis ever! I like Hatch's and I also like Big John's too. : )

Chili needs to be roasted. And it smells so good! 

My co-chili roaster

When they're all roasted and blistered and limp, I put them onto a bowl. 

Put a moist paper towel over them for moisture. Just makes them easier to peel. 

Meanwhile, Noboru usually grills the boys meat. However Branden asked, if he could do it that day. And we both said, totally fine. And Noah then asked if he could help too. We said fine, but he needed to be REALLY careful. You know...since he's younger. Great experience for the kids though. 

Don't let it burn boys! The beef cooks quickly, so keep it moving. : ) 

Well done kids! Pictured was the sweetest pineapple we had all summer. It's usually super good and quite sweet anyways... but that day it was even better. We all enjoyed a nice simple meal here at home. These pics were taken July 28th. The day of our first batch of chili's were roasted and a day we had another backyard BBQ. 

We all just enjoyed our family BBQ here at home.  It was nice. : )

The moist paper towel worked, because peeling the skins off the chili, was a breeze. 

First batch tossed into the freezer. : ) We have since roasted a 2nd batch. And will be roasting our 3rd batch this week. : ) 

Noah’s first ever swimming competition!

Sunday, June 15th was Noah's first ever swimming competition. Here is a picture of Noah from that very day! : )

Kids had a choice to order a lunch for 800 yen, which was a pretty great price or you could bring your own lunch. Noah's not really much of a seafood eater, and not knowing what was in the lunch, I decided it would be best to pack him a lunch. So that's what I did. It was just a very simple lunch. A ham and provolone cheese sandwich inside those Costco dinner rolls. I did skillet fry the ham for a minute or two and melted the cheese a tad. The rolls were Miracle Whipped, lol. : )  Also for a class or school field trip, I don't mind putting 3 fries and some veggie in there, but for a swimming competition lunch, I didn't want any fries, because anything with grease would slow Noah down. Just a light sandwich and some mini grapes, simple and healthy. They only got 30 minutes for lunch anyways and I figured this was enough, plus time to take a bathroom break if need be and also have some time to chat with friends. : ) 

I did however pack Noah an extra sandwich, just in case. : ) And yes he ate it! : ) This is exactly what Noboru, Branden and myself also ate too. Same type sandwiches exactly and with grapes also. 

The note a month beforehand did mention to bring snack bars that give protein or energy, they also specifically said hard candy and chocolate was also allowed, because it gives swimmers energy before they swim their race. Which is why I packed these. 

The big day! There was a fairly long line to get in. The swimmers zipped in/were allowed in, it was us parents and extended family members that had to wait outside the building. There were also *many * big limousine buses from the other swimming schools. 

Yep only about 6 benches total, as I expected. : ) And yes seating was an absolute nightmare. The sign that I whited out...said the name of our specific swimming school. So these were "our" swim school benches. However, the seats were spoken for already and regardless if these people in this picture had a child swimming that particular race or not, they never shared the seats/benches with any of us. So first come first serve apparently, these folks never left the benches, not for the whole day and if they did they put a napkin or hankie down to "save" their spot. @.@ 

People brought folding chairs, leisure sheets. This is our particular swimming school where my kids swim at, however this was our first time ever swimming a competition *here* before. Yep seating sucked big time. : ( The kids in bright pink were from our swimming school. 

For the longest time we had an actual grandma type...actually sitting in front of us with a folding chair.  Visibility... totally zero! 

People were very territorial about their spot. See the blanket. 1 family even sat on their car sunshade. We could have done that too, but Noboru said..."what for, this spot sucks, why do we save and protect a spot that sucks!" I chuckled because, he was absolutely right and...had to laugh because it's sometimes just better than getting mad. And we sat on the floor sans anything. 

Many of Noah's former yochien classmates came and their mom's had no place to sit either. I am sure they were just as surprised as we were. All the kids on the far left were from our swim school. 

A couple other swimming schools right here. 

And another view/pic of the other swim schools, total swim schools were 4 swim schools total, but 1 was our swim school, so swimming against just 3 other swim schools. : )

My sweetheart Noah, I see you kiddo. And the 3 kids on the right of Noah, in this picture, 2 kids in neon and the kid in turquoise cap, are Noah's 3 friends from yochien. : ) 

Not sure if you can read their shirts but they say...Funabashi. Team Funabashi in the house!!! ; )

These kids all in pale pink are team Inzai!!! Team Chiba New Town!!! By the way, all the kids in team Inzai thought Noah was super gorgeous and he said and Branden said, every time someone from team Inzai saw Noah., they were all talking about how cute he is, blah blah blah yada yada. They learned his name and called him over all day long. @.@ Hahaha. How funny. Good kids, team Inzai!!! 

What I did and what the other 3 yochien mom's from Noah's former yochien class did was, we walked near another school's window, where there were far less people and we had a much better spot. So all these pics were taken from a different spot. Not our schools area, sorry just not enough room. 

Also here is another thing that made me upset. We were given a swim schedule a week beforehand. We highlighted Noah's races and times of race. Noah was to compete in 3 races. First one at 10:10am. Second one at 12:50pm and last one for Noah at 2:50pm. Okay, we highlighted it. Now it was 9am-ish and there we were sitting on the floor...at again, quite possibly the worst seats of the entire swim school, Father's Day morning. : ) Again it's 9am-ish, we have plenty of time before Noah's first race.. over an hour. Next thing I know...one of Noah's former classmates/my yochien mom friend comes running over saying....Noah's about to swim!!! OMG! @.@ Really? Thanks and so I ran....Thank the lord... for my friend for informing me. And sorry this pic is blurry, but the bright side is...at least I got a pic. If it wasn't for my friend, I wouldn't have gotten a pic at all. : ( Noah in the white swim cap. 

Look how far ahead Noah was from the other swim school swimmer. 

Noah came in 2nd place in this race. Not bad at all. : ) 

Noah walking back to his spot. This was a relay race. 2 of our yochien mom friends kids were picked to swim it too. And believe me, they were just as shocked their kid was poolside as we were about Noah. One of our mom friends was complaining to us, saying essentially..."they should have informed us" I said, "I know right, crazy" : ) 

And this was the 10:10am race. This will give you a laugh. Look at this picture again...where are Noah's goggles. @.@ Yes we packed him 2 in case of emergency and yes you can indeed see, in the blurry pic above, he was indeed wearing the pale blue pair at first. Noah was swimming this race without goggles. Our yochien friends said..."where's Noah's goggles, didn't he just have them?" Noboru and Branden also said, where's Noah's goggles? Again, we can't go ask them, we are only allowed upstairs, they are inside the swimming area. I also wondered where his goggles were, but, it's not like I could just zip downstairs and ask him. 

4 swimmers, and 1 without goggles. Hahaha. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Just enjoy it and ask him, if you ever get the chance.  

Good luck baby. 

Noah came in 2nd place in this too, this was a 50 meter race, so back and forth. 

Noah was scheduled to swim in 3 races, however he ended up competing in about 7 total races. @.@ Same with a couple of my yochien mom friends kids'. I know right, how unexpected. This was a relay. Oh this is so funny...right about here, yet another friend of ours, walked up and said..."if Noah forgot his goggles, we have an extra pair, he can borrow" How incredibly kind really. But....no he didn't forget his goggles and where are they? That's what I want to know too. Hahaha. That was the most wondered question of the entire day. And where is his spare pair? Again, the pool area is off limits to parents. However Noboru did walk downstairs and spoke to a coach from a totally different swimming school, he told him our son seems to have no goggles, he heard, from this coach they were lost at the bottom of the pool and would search for them during lunch. @.@ This is where you need those Bewitched powers that Samantha had, where you could just freeze the entire swimming school of people and go downstairs and find the goggles, place them in Noah's hand and them unfreeze the entire room. But alas...life just doesn't work that way. 

A confident hand on the hip, as he should. : ) Noah's been swimming since age 3 at this very school, he has some great skills. Awww. : ) 

The seating sucked, it just... honestly did. However, there's no point of letting it ruin our whole entire day and bring down our whole family vibe. And besides shouldn't we be focusing on Noah's wonderful swimming and his first time swimming at a competition ever. I think so. So...at a certain point, we just didn't care about the seating or lack of seats or fairness from our fellow swim school folks who hogged the seats all day long. It is, what it is and you can't change that. And yes...I did worry about Noah's eyes without goggles... because he does suffer from eye allergies, especially in this season Spring/Summer, he actually gets eye drops from Branden's eye doctor every Spring. So, yeah I worried if he would be itching his eyes or if it bothered him more so... than say a person without eye allegries. But again...wasn't gonna dwell on the goggles...goggles...goggles 24/7. I just wanted to enjoy Noah swim. 5 swimmers about to compete down below. This was a relay. Noah waiting for his teammate to swim back so he could jump into the pool and get his swim on. 

This is the prettiest dive, I have ever managed to take a pic of and it come out crystal clear. Noah's dive is so beautiful here...look at that coach from our swim school in hot pink..even he had to look. Man...Noah looked like a flying squirrel or something. : ) Very cool...totally airborne. I will make a copy of this pic and put it somewhere for Noah, photo frame, charm for his backpack, something. One of the best pictures of Noah's diving. Wow, so proud of you Noah! Yes, even without your goggles, you so totally rocked it baby! A dive like that from an 8 year old, holy goodness!

Noah chatting with a team mate. 

These are like high schoolers or something. These kids had us all... in awe!

Noah finished his lunch. That's Noah's swim bag with the Spongebob charm on it to the left and the blue backpack is also his too. He was drinking a frozen Calpis pouch drink. 

Noah came up to say hi during the lunch break. The coaches were sweeping the pool for Noah's goggles (yep that's not embarrassing at all, hahaha) meanwhile and they did not find them. Branden went down there and he found Noah's goggles. Branden said...he said..."hi everyone, please check your bags and stuff because my brothers goggles are missing and with all these people down here...more than likely they were probably tossed in another bag by mistake so please if you could...please check." Branden is very polite never accusatory and yep he found them.  And so kids all checked and sure enough...Branden did track down Noah's goggles. : ) But Noah swam with the black pair for the rest of the day though, which are in this pic in his hand. : ) Branden made sure Noah was taken care of and would pop down there from time to time. Peace of mind for me, he's a kid too, so he can slip by without coach detection. Hahaha. : ) 

Hi gorgeous, I see you talking to one of your friends. So glad to see some goggles on your head though. Huge relief. Hahaha. Especially since, like I said, Noah suffers from allergy eyes. Branden has regular allergies/like normal allergies, every spring. But Noah has just allergy eyes. : ) 

The other swimming schools were given just 1 bench each, but they would share it. Like when your kid was swimming, you would sit, and then after your kid swam, next person's parent would sit down, they took turns. Shared the seating. Our swim school parents however didn't want to share the seating or take turns at all. They glued their butts basically to the seats for the whole 8 hours or however long we were there. Which is why I was here...and stood behind another school. Just easier and fewer parents. 

Another of Noah's races, with goggles. 

Noah and his graceful dive, wonderful leg extension. That other kids was more of a canon ball or flop, sorry. : ) 

And Noah's in the lead. 

Still in the lead...

Noah and the kid in the turquoise cap are getting closer. Pick up the pace kiddo. 

Noah you are in front by a hair...but he didn't smack the end of the pool fast enough the other kid smacked the pool before Noah. Bummer...but it's alright. He learned from it...next time he'll stretch his arm super long and smack that end of the pool. Branden teased him about that and he's a swimmer too, so he knows.

At this point, I can tell the kids are getting tired. Noah has been going like a race horse all day long. I can see my baby's face and instantly know...he's tired. He's 8 years old, I think he did wonderfully and boy did he learn a lot. 

They had yet another relay race and this time they had to wear a jogging/track suit. Thank goodness Noah wasn't in this race. : )

Wet clothes are heavy as all heck, as you know and it was hard for the kids to take them off and put them on the next person. Fun to watch though. 

And this was "supposed" to be Noah's last race for the day. The 2:50pm race. 

The backstroke.

Noah came in 3rd place for this race. 

Noah siting down next to his former yochien friends. 

What is this. Well, a group of girls Branden and Noah swim with on Thursdays swam this event and they told Branden, their parents couldn't come to this event... so if we could take pics of them and then email them the pics, it would be totally appreciated. So, all day long whenever I had my camera out, I had a group of 4 girls and one 6th grade boy making funny poses and stuff at me, pretty much all day long. So, they could make pics out of them. Meaning Branden could email the pics to them and their parents could print out their pics. So all day long besides taking pics of Noah, I would be taking pics of these silly girls and 1 silly boy! Here are a few of the *many* of them that I took. I bet the other schools wondered...how many kids does this western lady have now? 4 daughters and how many sons? Hahaha. : ) Here they were posing for me. 

They are like older sisters to Noah. And why didn't Branden swim this...because he's busy with studying for his final. So he had no time to train for this.  But yep this pic is funny. Noah has his older "sisters" he rides the swim bus with every Thursday and he has his former yochien friends on the other side of him. Surrounded by friends. Real good friends. 

R doing the eye pose...on another picture I took, they were doing a walking type silly pose and it reminded me of the cover of Abbey Road. Crazy kids! Hahaha. : )  Yep every time I stood up with my camera I had 4 girls posing, people seated would turn around...who is taking their picture...they'd wonder. Me...just me. : ) 

The closest bestest swimming friends, you ever did see. Noah was saying goodbye meanwhile to his yochien friends. : )  I think I will make a copy of this pic and frame it and put it on Branden's desk in his room. : ) The girl second from the left is from our town, she will be in JHS next year and she has a little brother in Noah's class/grade they are real good friends too. : )

After the swimming competition, we were all pretty exhausted and a tad hungry, so we went to the Ohsho. Noah had ramen and fried rice. Swimming makes you hungry and given Noah swam in a ton of races he was starving! He was so hungry.

Noboru waiting for his meal, he had ramen and 2 orders of gyoza. Branden and I enjoyed our meal too, man it was nice to relax after a long day like that.

Oh and you remember how on the last picture of Noah swimming I said his "last race" at 2:50. I put it into quotations. Well, the reason is because we assumed it was Noah's last race of the day, since that was what the schedule said. Also factor in, the swim school only has squatty potty type toilets. And there are only 2 toilets for girls/ladies. With so many people ( felt like a billion) it was hard as heck to try and use the restroom in there. I did go and pee once around 10:45am but I can't use squatty potty's so well and so I avoided going to pee again. Branden wanted to pee also but the boy's toilet was full most of the day @.@ So, after the last race, Branden and I walked to my regular grocery store which is only about 2 minutes away on foot. They have regular toilets there and so we both went to the restroom, and then we walked back. When we came back my yochien mom friends said, you missed Noah swim. He was in the last relay of the day. I said it wasn't on the schedule, they said, they were surprised too. So..anyway that's what happened. I felt really badly for missing that.

The pros of Noah swimming that day. I'm so glad he swam, because he has never swam in a competition before and he now has the experience under his belt. And next year... if he swims for our local elementary school, he will already have the experience from that. Also the elementary school races, they only let you swim in no more than 3 races because they worry about the kids getting exhausted. Plus seating is no problem...and we can also talk to our kids throughout the day and also we can have lunch with our kids. So if Noah decides he wants to represent our local elementary school next year when he is in the 4th grade, it won't nearly be this bad or exhausting for the kids. Another pro of Noah swimming this... was he got to spend a whole day with his former yochien friends. They had just the best day hanging with each other again. Another pro or plus of Noah swimming the competition was he enjoyed the team spirit and how cool that feels being on a team and such. Also it gave him confidence that yes...Noah you are a good swimmer and you do have skills. So for Noah it was a wonderful day.

The cons from that day. The seating. The lack of seating or taking turns or fairness was just crazy. And for that reason, we would probably... not want either of our kids to swim for our swim school like this again. You know how hot and humid it's been lately, and being upstairs with all those people breathing and sweating. It was just not the most pleasurable day we've ever spent, let's put it that way. Also, the schedule wasn't 100% correct or detailed...my kid was swimming in other races not even listed. How can we be at the window ready to take a picture when my child's name isn't even listed to swim until 10:10am. I mean...hello, get it together people please! Unless you wanted to stand at the window the entire day and not go pee at all, then you could ensure you never missed a race. The schedule wasn't 100%, I felt badly for missing Noah's last race which wasn't listed, but you know...it wasn't listed and my bladder was bursting, and I had to pee. If it was listed sure I would have held it and took pics, but you know...I'm not a mind reader or future teller either. I can't know if he's gonna swim unless they tell us and it frankly wasn't listed. And no, for what it's worth we didn't tell Noah at all during the day about seating or any issues we had, because he is a worry wart and he would have worried all day about us. So we didn't mention a thing, we did mention it at dinner after it was over, but it was just lightly mentioned. 

The bright and most positive silver lining from that day was our swim school actually won this thing! No medals or anything were given to individuals coming in 1st or 2nd place, this was just simply swim school versus swim school type thing and just happy and thrilled our swim school came out ahead. Although the kids and folks from the other swim schools were lovely and it was nice meeting or being near others who have also been swimming since age 3 more than likely too. So spending a whole day with like minded people was nice. Because in all, these are all swimming kids and we think swimming kids are like *the* coolest! : ) And most of all, so proud of you Noah. You did it kiddo. : )