STATE TIME!

it's STATE time!

"Swimmers, take your mark," the announcer announces. The moment was finally here. The moment I'd been working towards for quite some time. It was here and I wanted to do my very best. The buzzer went off and the moment had started.

I swam trying to remember the list of things I needed to do to have a perfect stroke for my 100 breast. I felt fast. I tried to beat the girl next to me. I thought it was a pretty good race, until I looked at the board. No time drop-again. Oh well! This couldn't ruin my day even though I was pretty frustrated. I decided to blame it on a cursed cricket that chirped in my window last October!

Hannah gained time in her event as well. We both were inwardly frustrated, so we decided that Great Harvest was calling our name. We stopped by and got some oooey-goooey cinnamon rolls and of course some samples!

We were pumped for our 200 free relay that we were going to do that night! Since it was a relay, we all wanted to be a team. Hannah and I ran over to the Legacy Center and got some caps to decorate for everybody.

Aren't they just gorgeous?

Kylie, Ellie, me, and Hannah were all going to do our very best on this event. The purpose was to have fun, so we didn't worry too much about our times. We even got in a prayer huddle before and after our race. I really do think Heavenly Father helped us!

In the end, Ellie recieved a qualifying time for state (at state), Kylie dropped at least a half of a second, I went a 29.2! (I've never gone under a high 31 before:), and Hannah went a 27 for the very first time. We were all very excited and energetic because of our race. We just won't remember that we got disqualified...:) It was way to much fun to ruin it with that kind of news!

I have never done a relay before in swimming, so this was a blast! I love the team feeling you get. I knew that I had to swim my hardest because everyone else was depending on me. I loved it!

After our free relay, I was ready to tackle my races waiting to be swum the next day!

This time when the starter said, "Swimmers, take your mark," I was ready, but nervous. The only thing that I wanted to do was beat the faster girl next to me.

I did my very best to stay with her. On every turn, I would catch up with her! We were very close until the last lap. My body was dead tired, but I tried my hardest to push through it! I didn't beat the girl, or my time, but I did try harder than I ever had! That was a pretty nice feeling.

I also had to realize that it was an accomplishment just to make it to state! It gets a little discouraging to swim with the fastest swimmers- you go from being at the top, to the bottom! You just have to remember all the people that didn't even qualify, and it makes you feel a little better!

I was excited once again for the addicting team feeling. But today, we were doing the medley relay. Before the race, we made a deal with Bret. After thinking through our times, he felt confident that we would go about a 2:15. Our seed time was a 2:21, so we were excited that he thought we could go faster. We got so excited that we convinced him that we could push him in the pool at practice if we went a 2:12.00 or faster. He agreed because he didn't really think we would go that fast.

I started our relay off by swimming the backstroke. We had to swim with boys because they combined our heats. After I swam, it was Jentry's turn to swim the butterfly. There was no cheering for Jentry on her orders- it makes her laugh during her race:) Then Hannah sped us up on the breaststroke and Ellie helped us beat the boys next to us in the freestyle! We ended up going a 2:10! Beating our deal time by 2 seconds!

Keep all electronic devices out of your pocket, Bret! Into the water with you! Hee-Hee-Hee!

Afterwards we were in the mood to hang-out! Something about racing together and cheering for each other makes you want to be silly.

Mom took us all to the Bountiful Costco to get pizza! When we got home, we called Kylie over and we had a blast! Whether it be bathroom-ophobia, cookies and popcorn, or sardines, we loved it all! We laughed and laughed right until 11:00!

I am so grateful for good friends that influence me to do good. I'm so glad that they love to be silly with me and that we can enjoy being together!

Is Jac the cutest or what??? It was worth driving up to Bountiful 4 times in a row to see her hard work pay off and watch her have a total blast with her friends!