Keaton's First Swim Meet

Keaton participated in his very first swim meet last Sunday, March 28th. Last summer he practiced with Connor's swim team, but I didn't sign him up to compete. This semester he had the opportunity to join a Special Olypmic Swim Team coached by Parker. (Parker works at the same school I do.)

I had never been to a Special Olympics event with Keaton. We got up early and headed off to Louisville for the event. (We got there way too early!!-but that's another story.) ~ The Louisville fans my niece, Ceceley, was way excited about all the Cardinal stuff at the event and at the McDonalds across the street. She snapped pictures of everything with an L on it. ~

Keaton was registered to participate in the developmental part of the meet. He can swim as well as any fish, but doesn't perform the strokes perfectly. Parker was worried that if she competed him in the regular events, he would be disqualified.

There was an extremely long wait between the beginning of the event and the start of the developmental events. Keaton behaved very well during the wait. The rest of us were losing our patients quickly.  (This is a picture of us trying to hold it together while we wait, and wait, and wait some more.)

At last it was time for Keaton to do his thing.

Keaton finished 2nd in the unassisted swim event. Yeah, Keaton!!

Keaton finished 1st in the kickboard event, but was disqualified because he let go of the board sometime before crossing the finish line. Oh well, he had fun and that is what matters most.

We were all glad that Keaton did well when he swam his events, but we were really excited to be going home after such a long day.