Im a little late on yesterday’s post because we spent most of the day getting ready to leave and traveling. We then spent the evening at the pool watching Zoey compete in her first 500m swim. I will not announce any times yet as I will reserve that for Wednesday.  For now let’s discuss what a swimming meet weekend looks like for the family as that is the adventure we are going on this week.

Let’s start with the hardest part, lodging. These things are never cheap when it’s the biggest trip of the year. First off we have to get a hotel room. We have a family of 6, so for now, a 2 queen bedroom is where we live when it comes to hotel rooms. I barely fit in a queen, add my wife, and you have an uncomfortable night. We already have to have one child sleeping on the  floor and another in bed with us because she’s 7 months old and likes our warmth. We are a couple years off of adjoining two rooms.

We discussed last Saturday our meal plans. We spent Thursday cooking and packing. We did mess up one thing the team chose a hotel that did not come with breakfast, so we did not have a breakfast plan and had to improvise this morning and will have to do so again tomorrow. Luckily for us, we did plan on a $150 budget for food and only spent $60 for reasons of God answering prayers. So we had a little wiggle room in the budget for breakfast that I was saving just in case.  So, it’s not a big deal overall worse came to worse 5 bucks, and some pop tarts would have sufficed most of my minions

I told my two middle children that they didn’t want to come on this trip, and staying with Grandpa and Grandma would have been a ton more fun. Guess who didn’t listen and was convinced this was going to be a blast. My two children that after the first night of 2 hours of waiting were ready to go home. I now have two more days of children sitting in a stands bored as can be drawing and getting antsy. The truth is all sporting events are 90% boring for everyone not participating. Parents are in for a long drought of wait and then a few minutes of go and then another long drought of wait. Siblings, on the other hand, are just bored. They could care less their sister is swimming its interesting when she jumps in, and then they are back to “I’m hungry.””” “I gotta pee, “and “When are we going home?”  All in all, it’s pretty much a hard trip for any  kid not in the sport. We explained to all of them that eventually it will be their weekend trip we are on for a special sporting event, so be nice to her sister and her event.

Overall, we are enjoying ourselves so far and should have a good next couple of days, but sports trips are hard, and I want my bed back lol.