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Tristin cleared 9.5' last night!
Yesterday was Senior Day at the Track & Field meet. Aaron and I escorted Tristin across the track field to the applause of the rest of the team and crowd, and then we waited around for the pole vault event to start. It was scheduled for an hour later, and not knowing anything about how this event works (Tristin just started Track & Field this year), we figured that we would get to see him before we had to go get Katie and head off to her last swimming lesson.
Little did we know that this event takes hours to get through. They start off at 6' with some of the girls. Competitors can start at whatever minimum height they feel they can clear, so the 6' girls are mostly beginners. They each get 3 tries to clear a level, and most of them took all three tries. I think only one of those first-rounders actually made it to the next level. While only one moved ahead, a new group started at 6.5', so we repeated some 15 more vaults at that height, then more at 7', 7.5' and 8' before Tristin even started competing. Needless to say, after the 6' round, it was already time to pick up Katie.
I can't seem to formulate this next part into anything but a run-on sentence, so bear with me. Since I was in no condition to drive, having had a hefty dose of Tylenol 3 that morning, due to having my splints removed at my post-op appointment from the sinus surgery I had last week, we decided that I would stay and take videos and Aaron would take Katie to her 6:45 swimming lesson. (Can I claim the Codine is still affecting me?) On his way to the swimming lesson, Aaron texted me that we had forgotten that Dallin and Brandon had to get to Webelos den meeting at 7:30 (Brandon is den chief of Dallin's den). Whoops! In my drug-induced state, I had forgotten all about Webelos. I tried to think of someone who lives nearby and has a Webelos Scout, but couldn't come up with anyone. Our ward boundaries are really weird, so all of his school friends who are members of our church are in the ward that surrounds us. We stick out into their boundaries like a hook, and come within blocks of being in their ward on three points of the compass. The other kids his age from his den all live by the church, a 15-minute drive from us, or in the boundaries of yet another ward that we combine Scouting activities with.
The solution to the problem was for Aaron to leave Katie at her lesson and return to get Dallin and Brandon. Since one of the kids in Katie's class happens to be in our ward, I suggested Aaron ask her mom to keep an eye on Katie while he made the run. The church being 5 minutes away from the community center, he was able to make the round trip in plenty of time.
Back at the field, we had finally cleared 9.5'. Tristin was working on 10', but didn't quite have that in him yet. The other senior from his team did, however (he'd been on the team every year), and made it up to 10.5', but never cleared 11'. Tristin took 2nd place. I couldn't have been more proud of him! He has worked so hard after school each day to acquire this new skill, and has made it really far really fast. His coach came over and invited him to Friday's invitational - way cool!
Tristin has a little bit of regret in him that he didn't listen to his old gym teacher back in Waconia, who badgered him regularly to join the track team after seeing his natural jumping skills and flexibility. But, no looking back - he is looking forward to what he can accomplish in the next 2 months. Today, he will start with a new pole. His was on the short side, which is a real limiting factor in getting over the bar. His hands were at the very end of it by the end of his competition yesterday. The next size up wasn't something his form could manage last week, but now he is bending correctly and should be able to handle it.
Aaron was so tired after chauffeuring the family non-stop for hours on an empty stomach that he had to be coerced to heat some dinner up before crashing for the night. He is a real trooper in this, taking over my seminary runs in the mornings and driving the kids to activities in the evenings. His Portuguese test is only four school days away, and he is ready, thankfully, but I wish the timing on this surgery had been a little better for his sake.
As for me, I don't regret going to Senior Day at all, but my body is telling me that I probably shouldn't have stayed after Aaron left. By the end of the meet, I was famished, having not brought a meal with me, and the concession stand being on the opposite side of the track from where Tristin was competing. We stopped on the way to the parking lot for a quick hamburger, which proved to be too much for my stomach to handle after a week of soft foods and heavy medication. I returned home with stomach cramps and a dizzy head. I'll be taking it easy today to make up for it.
