First long course swim meet of the season

Charlotte had a swim meet at Aniene today. It was the first outdoor, long course meet of the summer season. Unfortunately, and due in part to the weather, Charlotte had yet to train in the 50 meter pool. Even today's meet looked a little iffy due to the forecast. But we were told they'd swim in rain; as long as there are no thunderstorms.

We were all a little tired this morning, and particularly appreciated the proximity of the meet. Josh and I took Avery and Olivia to watch Charlotte's first event, the 200 Breast. Unfortunately, it looked like Charlotte was a little tired too. It was not her best race. Her whole stroke looked off. So, the four of us returned to the house and had more breakfast.

I returned to the pool to watch her second event, the 100 Fly. This race went only slightly better. Now, being done for the morning session, I brought Charlotte home for lunch. A couple of hours later, I dropped her back off for the warm-up for the afternoon session. This afternoon, she was swimming 200 IM, but not until later in the program. So once, again, I could return home and hang out. It was my third roundtrip of the day, but it was so nice to be able to do it. The weather was bizarre all day; patches of sun interspersed with clouds and rain.

By the time Charlotte was going to swim her last race, Janice and Brad were back from their day's adventure, so aside from Avery who was still napping, we were all there to cheer her on in the 200 IM. It was the best of her three races. At least she REPEATED her time from the Championships last summer. Although, watching her swim the race, there is certainly much room for improvement -- especially in the backstroke leg.

The nice thing about Aniene, aside from the fact that it's 5 minutes from our house, is that there is a cafe and bar upstairs. So while we waited for Charlotte to change (which can often take a very long time) the adults enjoyed a spritz and Olivia had a gelato.

We drove home to collect Avery, who was now playing in the garden with the babysitter, and we all went out for our traditional Sunday night pizza dinner... at Pariolina.