YOTA award night

WHAT a weekend....! We had the YOTA awards banquet Friday night, my car was stolen from my garage, Cal got asked to play in a kid pitch game, making our baseball game total THREE for the weekend, and we had the Just tRYAN it triathalon, that was made a duathalon because the pool was too chilly, followed by a golf match!

The other parts up there need their own post, so I am just going to do the YOTA banquet now.

A few weeks ago, Cal's coach sent me this email:

Hi Carrie,
I just wanted to let you know that the Chapel Hill coaching staff has selected Cal as one of the YOTA Award recipients at the Awards Banquet in a few weeks. This award is presented to two athletes in each group who exemplify the YMCA Core Values, are great teammates, and work extremely hard.

I know that the banquet is a little ways away from Chapel Hill in Apex, but if you guys can make it that would be great! Here is the info for the event again if you need it:

________

Wow...! Keeping it a secret was hard! So so thankful the coach sent that because we definitely weren't planning on attending the banquet.... It was not a great location and the timing was hard, etc... but the night was so worth it!

We arrived and the place was suuuuuper packed. All the swimmers got their "crystal" awards, which   is just the trophy for participating. 

 I thought they were so nice!

And then the speeches started and then Cal was called up on stage. Oh my word! I about cried. I was so proud of him-- this was not an award for his athletic ability... which is also great, but this award was based on his character... and that means so much more to me. 

 Two kids from each "group" win the award, and we could not be more proud that Cal got it. He is not the fastest swimmer, but as his coach mentioned in his speech, Cal will say thank you every single practice... and at that, I did tear up.

 He was beaming when he sat back down.

 On the way home, he held that plaque oh so tight. He was proud! And so were his parents!

As we drove home, I started thinking how lucky and blessed I felt to have kids who are healthy enough to be able to play sports-- and be asked to play UP on a team, and who are also kind to their coaches, etc.

Karma wasn't having me thinking that way though. Because that night, my car was taken! ahhhhhhh!