I was minding my own business scrolling through Facebook (LOL— except when you are scrolling through FB, you are LITERALLY minding everyone else’s business) when I noticed people near me posting northern lights pics. I mentioned this to Ben, and he volunteered to drive a little way down the road and see if it was dark enough to see them. He came back 15 minutes later and said he couldn't see them but his phone could.
Cooper was intrigued, so he and Dorothy and I jumped in the car and pulled off on a very creepy road by a horse farm to look at the sky. We could sort of see pink spots with our naked eyes, and our cameras saw light green and some pink. We looked at where the pink seemed to be coming from and realized that was right by a park near our house that's surrounded by prairie and not very many houses, so we took a chance that they sky would be more visible there.
AND IT WAS! YOU GUYS!
I texted a friend who lives near the park and has a kid Dorothy’s age and an older kid on a couple of Dorothy's team dances, and they joined us, too, all of the kids in pajamas. We laid on the ground and marveled for awhile, and it was MAGICAL.
The sky moved, and we saw pink, purple, and green and took unbelievable photos and said out loud several times how lucky we felt. A regular suburban miracle.
Coop took this shot, and I blew it up to frame-- love it so much
This was our view from the horse farm-- I am so glad we followed the pink splotches
Cooper got 15th IN THE WHOLE FREAKING NATION in 1-meter springboard at the USA Dive national tourney. HOW AMAZING IS THAT??!!!
There were twenty seven divers in semis, and he missed the final round cut (12 divers) by FIVE POINTS.
FIFTEENTH IN THE NATION THO YOU GUYS. Omg. This tournament is really hard to qualify for (regionals and then zones), so it is one of those things where just being there is cool and then! FIFTEENTH PLACE. Last year, he was a preliminary round only competitor (which is still really cool).
He and Ben are having an excellent time in West Virginia, and he has semifinals for 3-meter springboard TODAY and platform prelims on Thursday. YOU KNOW I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED.
On Monday, Dorothy competed in her very first All City dive meet. There were sixty-eight girls in her age group, so we (Dorothy, Jack, Minnie, and me) were at the host pool for four hours for warm-ups and prelims. The girls all did 4 dives, and then the top 16 got to do 2 more. Dorothy did not make the cut, but she was AWESOME. Check out this inward:
She is going to start doing the rec group at Wisconsin Dive Club a couple days a week and next summer she claims she will consider wearing the team suit (lol).
As always, Minnie lived her best 5th baby life in the team tent, the super hot baby pool (90 degrees so the divers could stay warm LOL as if they wouldn’t be warm in 87 degrees and so much humidity), and the mist tent.
While Dorothy was warming up, Minnie and I ran into the Clay on the Move van at the park across the street, and just like that, we have checked off the Art Cart, the Play on the Move van, and the Clay on the Move van, and we still have thirty days of summer left!
Of course after a long day at the pool, we went... to the pool
On Tuesday night (a night that Harry worked late OF COURSE), Jack had his All City age group. Last year was his first year in the 15-18 category, but he skipped the meet for camp, so we have never seen the 15-18 boys category, which is the very last category of the meet. Over 350 Madison divers competed over 2 days, so by the time the volunteers, coaches, and judges got to the last event of the tourney, they were all punchy. The pool deck was trashed. The fans were rowdy. There was an exhibition portion after the final round but before awards for coaches and kids to throw their weirdest stuff. And! The diving did not START until 7pm. Minnie usually goes to bed at 7:30. I was braced for disaster, but it was… the best night of the summer so far!
Jack was FABULOUS. Here’s his first dive:
And to give you a taste of the vibes, his second:
Meanwhile, Minnie and Dorothy raided the team glitter stash
The sun set right as the final 16 divers were announced (Jack made the cut), and Minnie moved her personal party to the baby pool. I snapped one (awesome) pic of final round warm ups and then resigned myself to watching from the other end of the pool deck, knowing Jack was having basically the best time ever.
Instead of the crowd thinning after cuts, which is what usually happens, all the lifeguards and swimmers from most of the area pools showed up to watch prime time diving under some truly dad-rigged lights (that cut out for about 30 minutes until a host pool dad arrived with a comically large extension cord).
Harry came straight to the host pool after he closed down our pool, so he joined the throng of bros behind the diving boards, while Dorothy and Minnie had their own night swim:
Shout out to Dorothy for hanging with her sister instead of the slightly bigger kids from the team, which is where she really wanted to be.
In the final round, Jack’s back 1.5 somersault with a twist was the best I have ever seen it, and he ended up in 9th right behind a high school teammate and with his 3rd best score ever.
His friend from our pool won the meet with a monster score, and he and Jack scored 457 points between the 2 of them, meaning they won the division’s high point trophy. Our pool has not won one of these in YEARS, and it usually happens when a team has 4 or more people in finals. NOT JUST TWO! They were so proud.
Then! Jack joined the final exhibition doing a belly flop so lavish that Ben got videos of it texted to him in West Virginia from other dive club parents.
It was a WONDERFUL night. We got home at 10:30, and everyone was in bed by midnight.
YOU GUYS! My class agreed that doing their final speeches a day early would make the most sense, so now I only have to fill 26 days of dresses! I will probably wear my bonus dress on grading day, but the challenge! Is almost over!
23/26: My favorite thing I even kept from Stitch Fix
24/26: Lands End comfy dress for an exam day (IT HAS POCKETS)
1. WATER SLIDE with Minnie: She is so delighted and giggles the whole time. Yes it’s cold, but also? That slide is fast and really fun. I wish I could tell my former self that she’d ride again.
She’s also really fun to swim with generally now— LOOK AT HER GO!!
AND SHE WENT OFF THE DIVING BOARD!!!!
2. Glimpses of baby talk in our very conversational preschooler
3. The feeling when the house is still asleep and chilly from a night of a/c and so very quiet. It's the reason I get up so early. I love a steaming cup of coffee (coffee pot on a timer, of course) and a throw blanket and fogged up windows and a barely pink sky and Wordle through still bleary eyes.
4. Summer matinees. I love a cold, dark movie theater on a hot day. We saw Inside Out 2 and loved it. There's a line where the joy character says something like maybe Riley doesn't feel as much joy now that she's older, and Dorothy goes, "That's right."
5. Dive meets and date nights. I forget every year how adorable the summer dive league is in Madison. We had a terrific home meet with perfect weather. Jack had a PR. Coop set a new pool record. Dorothy got scores on all her dives! Success all around.
And then! Ben and I went out to a fancy dinner and even had time to walk somewhere for a pre-dinner cocktail. I had my very fave drink in town, a spicy, fruity marg-like tequila drink called hola from the other side because it;s been on the summer menu since Adele was first super cool because that's how good it is.
Teaching Outfit 12/27:
I have only taught 12 days in the first 3 weeks of summer school because my students have 2 days off for orientation this week and had a day off for the 4th. So! 12 dresses down, and 15 to go. This H&M number is older than both girls and still going strong:
