Swimming, Singing, and Dining

Three notable events today:

1. The girls had their final swim team practice for the summer season.
2. Our family joined our friend Monica for dinner.
3. Our family joined the swim team for supper at a new restaurant in town.

Our daughters are on the Dickinson Dolphins Swim Team.  For elementary-school-aged kids, swimming is a club sport.  They can continue to swim and compete with the club in secondary school, or they can join the high school swim team at that point, or they can do both (e.g., the girls' high school swim season is in the fall, and the girls' club swim season is in the winter).  Suzanna is interested in joining the high school team this fall, which she could do because she's starting secondary school (7th grade)!

The short-course season is in the winter, and the long-course season is in the summer (although we have only ever gone to short-course swim meets, opting to practice but not compete in the summertime months).  After each season's end, the team has a banquet at which awards are given out.  At the short-course season-end banquet in April, the girls received plaques from which to hang engraved plates, one for each season in which they participate.  So at tonight's banquet, they received their plates for this summer session; and they received team T-shirts.

Tonight's team banquet was at Pizza Ranch, a restaurant that opened in town just last month.  It was our first time eating there, and we enjoyed it.  The food is served buffet-style with separate lines for salad bar, pizza, other hot food (e.g., chicken, potatoes, vegetables), dessert, and beverages.  I liked the variety of pizzas served, but even their broasted-style chicken was delicious.  We'll definitely be repeat customers.

In between swimming practice in the morning and the banquet in the evening, we brought Subway sandwiches to Monica's apartment at noon for dinner.  She is recuperating from surgery but was feeling up to having company, and we were happy to see her again.  We brought the seafood subs, and she provided beverages, chips, crudités, fruit, and dessert.  She even bought a beautiful floral bouquet for the occasion and had gifts waiting for the girls.  She's a dear woman whom the girls regard as a "foster grandma" and who treats the girls as though they were her own grandchildren.

Monica lives in an apartment complex with a common area in which several residents were gathering for fresh watermelon as we were leaving.  Monica thought they would enjoy hearing the girls sing, so our daughters sang the before-meal prayer that we learned at Norwegian camp last summer and now sing often in our own home:  "Å du som metter liten fugl, velsign vår mat, å Gud" ["O you who takes care of the little birds, bless our meal, O God"].  The girls were invited to return and perform again whenever they'd like, so I guess it was well received!