**Penny's 2 Cents**: Beat the Heat and Evans Birthday in Pine Valley

Josh and Joel ran the Parowan Half Marathon this morning so Josh was only signed up for the very last events of the Beat the Heat Tournament. He was kinda bummed when a toddler pooped in the pool and they had to shut it down early. They did all the events except the last one. It's a good thing that he took 1st place in the race so he was able to at least get one swim in! He was able to do the IM but not the 50 free. The LAST meet of the summer is always the Hurricane Beat the Heat Meet. It is just with us Hurricane and a few Mesquite kids that could make it up but it is always a lot of fun.

JoEllen brought some Minion Twinkies that the kids enjoyed decorating.

The summer swim team is always a special little family. Here are Adam and his Mom talking to Shayne.

We always bring stuff to do during the down time when we are waiting for our turn. Sophie and George are playing Jenga.

It was a super hot day so JoEllen and Matty ran to the store and bought her a new swimsuit to play in so she didn't get heatstroke.

We started off the meet with relay races. Here's David getting ready to jump in.

This one is Evan.

And here's Ben.

Here's George's relay with Trevor first, then Adam, George and Cole.

Ben and David wore their Team Cole and Team Jake shirts that Shayne made for them. It was super cute. When everyone saw them they decided to get a marker and write it on their backs so it could be seen while they were swimming. They either wrote Team... or, I swim for....

So, the big thing nowadays is to combine the name of two people that are dating into one name and then call them that name. For example...we call Jan and Andy, Jandy. And Brad and Ashley, Brashley. Well, the swim team kids combine Sophie and Adam's name and came up with Sodum. Which truly was So Dumb.

Here's coach Shayne, poolside with her "Stopwatch" getting everyone splits. Her phone has an amazing stopwatch calculator that does that math of the split time for her. Now she just needs sunglasses.

Here's Emily's backstroke.

Here are the boys cheering her on.

Sophie's Backstroke.

Here's a picture of Adam wearing Sophie's cap. It's a Luchador! And when you do breaststroke or butterfly it looks really cool.

Here is Evan. Because his birthday was after swim team started he was put in the younger group than David. So he only had to swim 25 yards instead of 50. So he started down at the other side of the pool and swam back. He and David both have gotten so much better.

Here's David.

Here is an awesome picture. Let me explain why. It's obviously of Ben's butt, but I was taking the picture of Cole standing at the other end getting ready to cheer him on.

I don't know where any of the family members were at this moment but the fact that Cole and Daxton, his biggest rival, were there cheering him on meant the world to him and proved what a great spirit the swim team brings. It is it's own family. Everyone cares and supports everyone. I LOVE IT!

About half way through they took a break and did a coaches relay. The DIXIE NARWHALS WON! Woot! Shayne was awesome!

We won by a body length and you can't even see Mesquites coaches yet.

David and his cheering section.

Emily was up right after David.

Then Ben. Once again Cole is right there, cheering him on. Daxton is in the lane right next to him. That's his Mom Stacy in the pink shirt. They touched the wall at the same time.

But Ben out touched everyone at the end!

This is Sophie's IM.

Josh's one and only race, the IM. He was right next to George.

David's relay team. He started with backstroke.

Ben's relay team. He also did backstroke.

Emily's relay. She was the anchor. She is a great freestyle sprinter!

Sodum holding hands while pretending to be asleep.

Since they called the meet short they hurried and tallied up everyone's scores and at that time we just happened to be ahead!!!! We won! It was AWESOME!

Here are our personal times...

This was a great way to end the season. We had so much fun. I can't wait to see what text year bring and see how much they've grown.

Right after the meet we headed up to Pine Valley to celebrate Evan's birthday. He just turned 10. Brad and his family and some of Spencer's kids were up there too. JoEllen made him the awesome Chess Birthday Cake with edible pieces! He and Kyle played a game before people started eating it. It was really cool! She always seems to find these crazy, neat chocolate molds for every occasion. They are really fun.