Mesquite Meet and the 51's

On the 20th and 21st we had our 2 day Mesquite Invitational Swim Meet.  We headed down a little early so we could start celebrating Sophie's birthday as well.  Her birthday wasn't until Monday but we decided to make an entire weekend of it since it was her 16th and even take our kids to Vegas for a 51's game since they'd never been.  It was a great weekend.  We got to Mesquite around 2 and went straight to the Virgin River Hotel/Casino and checked into our room.  Then went to see How To Train Your Dragon 2.  Which was the BEST movie I've seen since Frozen.  In fact, I'd say they tie for 1st place because 1 is a girly musical and the other is more boyish with cool effects and a great original story line.  I can't wait to see it again.  I rarely go see a show more than once in the theaters but I will for this one for sure.  Then we headed back to the hotel to change for the swim meet.  We got there early because I messed up on the time change but it ended up being SUPER early because they meet started 45 minutes late because they couldn't get their computer working.  So they had to stop it early because all of the lights were on and it was 11pm.  The next day we started on time but were already and hour behind because we stopped on event 31 the night before instead of 47.  Since Sophie is one of the oldest and David is one of the youngest we are always the first ones to start and the last ones to stop.  We never get a break either with all 4 of the kids swimming.  We were pretty much standing up the entire time waiting to watch the next person.  When it was just Shayne we'd often have a good hour between events to sleep of play a game or two.  But the time passed a lot faster with all 4 swimming.  Never a dull moment.

 Here is where we set up our base camp.  The kids got me this nice new canopy for Mother's Day.

Here are the kids showing off what number they are for the meet.

This is how dark is was once we started with David's Free Relay.

Here is Josh's freestyle and Sophie's too.  It got really dark by the time we left.

 This is Ben doing butterfly.  It was pitch black outside.

Here's the next morning.  David in the bullpen getting ready for his breaststroke.  His dives were getting much better by this time.  With the meet the coaches wanted all 4 of them to compete in the breaststroke since they hadn't yet.

 He did an awesome job!

Here's Josh's Butterfly and Breaststroke.

 Here is a picture of the 2024 Olympic Champion Medley Relay Team!  Ben does Backstroke,  Hyatt Iverson - Breaststroke, Carson Greer - Butterfly and Bridger Jones - Free.   They are incredible!  It too bad that they all will be going to different high schools when they grow up.

Here's David doing his 25 Free.  He and the kid next to him tied.  It was super close the entire way. 

Here is Hayden Wittwer. He is Evan's friend and we just love him.  He and David are best buds now. 

Josh's 50 Free.  This meet was more than just that.  It was an invitational and had 6 teams competing..  Bullhead AZ, Dixie State, DART, Fredonia, Hurricane Tigers and Mesquite.  All of the kids did excellent jobs with all of the competition they had.

Here is Sophie's Breaststroke.  I think she looks just like Shayne in this picture.  Thanks Bradie and Julia for cheering her on.

After the entire meet was over we went back to the room and got ready to go to Vegas.  It was a lot of fun.  We went to the M&M factory and Sophie had reminded us that the last time we had come was for her 8th birthday.  So it was all new for Ben and David.  We got Sophie a soccer ball and we also got a couple decks of playing cards because ours always seem to disappear due to a magic trick or two gone wrong.  We have a bunch of half and partial decks but no full ones.

Here everyone is standing in amazment at all of the different kinds of M&M's.

This far one is of the kids wearing their 3D glasses for the movie inside the factory.

Here They are with Blue in front of the Indy car...Sophie's hungry.
  
Then we headed over to the baseball game because the first 2000 people get a jersey!  It was Breast Cancer awareness night so the jersey's have pink pinstripes on them.  They are really cool.  So we got our shirts then went back out to go to the  Circus Circus buffet to eat.  My kids love it there.  I would hate to disappoint them and go to a nice buffet plus it's cheap.  So we ate and then headed to the game.  It was awesome.  A guy gave David one of the foul balls.  He was in heaven.  The 51's hit 5 homeruns and won 11-5.  The boys absolutely loved it.  A REAL game!  John and Kristal were there with a bunch a kids from Red Rock.  It was great.  After the game we drove down the strip so the kids could see the lights and we happened to time it just right so that they could see the Mirage Volcano erupt.  Then we headed back to the our room in Mesquite to sleep for the night.  It was perfect.  We got home at 10:30 and had a half an hour to get ready and go to church.  Joel only had 15 minutes.  It's a good thing he a man and doesn't have to do his hair or makeup.

I absolutely loved this weekend.  I wish we had money to to it more often.  There's nothing like making fun memories that hopefully will last a lifetime.