So we went to Utah last weekend for Emmy's first-ever gymnastics meet. We were able to leave Friday morning by 9am - which was good because the weather over Soldier Summit was crummy and even worse by nighttime. We stopped off at Provo for some fun garment-shopping by the parents and BYU bookstore perusal by the kids.
We got Brigham out on BYU property - his first time - before we left him in the car while we wondered around campus a bit.
That night we had some fun with Grandma and Grandpa - playing a couple of fun games. Splatzi was something my mom picked up and it was fun for everyone. Then we played the Bean Boozled "game," which consists of getting a random jelly bean and having to eat it - the jelly bean could either be a yummy flavor or disgusting one. For example, a pinkish one could either be barf or tutti-frutti. It's an awful game and I don't think I can do it again! Lucky for Ben (he hates Bean Boozled) he was on the phone and missed it. My dad is a nut and could eat any and every yucky bean - including barf (three times), rotten egg, dead fish, and more. He only flinched once while eating a jelly bean - a coconut one, as he hates coconut. Ha! I had to spit out spoiled milk and barf. So gross, but funny to watch everyone. My mom did pretty well, too. I owe it to their old-age and lack of great taste-buds. :)
Saturday was pretty much spent in Ogden. Emmy's meet started at 11 and we were there by 10:30. Emmy and her group of Level 3s were very nervous - it was everyone's first time competing. Emmy was very first on the floor and got a little flustered - starting before the music began and then almost forgetting a few moves when the music did start. But she ended up doing just fine and got a good score. She rocked it on the vault - getting a 9.4, which came to 2nd place in her division. I only saw one other score higher (a 9.45) and I am pretty confident that she got 2nd out of all the Level 3 girls in the entire meet. Next up for her team was bars. She didn't fall off, but did fall over the bar on her stride-circle, but other than that she looked pretty good. She was super nervous for the beam and got a little flustered again on her warm-up. But she looked pretty good and didn't fall! Her score was quite low and I still don't know why . . . Her all-around score was a 31.75. She had a great performance for her first time! I realized it is much harder watching your gymnast daughter than being the gymnast that competes. :)
Emmy and her three Level 3 teammates on the floor with the other competing gymnasts.
Getting ready for the pledge. Go Team Snow Shadow! The girls are: Natasha, Miley, Jocelyn, and Emmy.
Warm-up time!
Meeting the judges at their first event, floor. Coach Kirk is with them.
Emmy flying high and looking good on "vault." So the Level 3 vault is done on the mats and is a "handstand flat-back." Kind of lame, but Emmy rocks it. :)
Emmy warming up on beam!
Emmy getting 2nd place on vault - yeah!
Emmy got 6th-place overall in her division.
The Level 3 girls with their medals - they all got a couple, yay!
Here is the whole team after the Level 4's went as well. Again, every girl got medals. It was fun!
Afterwards, Emmy and Ben went with the rest of the teammates (we had stayed to watch the Level 4 girls, three of them from our team, compete in the afternoon) to dinner. We had already made plans to go to my Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Randy's home (who live just a few blocks from the gym!) and meet up with their kids for some pizza and visiting. Emmy, of course, really wanted to go with her teammates and so that's why Ben and she went out to dinner. She had a lot of fun! I had a great time visiting with my family - turns out I haven't seen them all in like 15-plus years. Crazy!
Last row: Sam (Mike's son), Cousin Mike, Aunt Bonnie. Middle row: Cousin Betsy, Briggs (Mike's son), dad, Miles, Jonas, Uncle Randy, mom, Cousin Mary, Piper (Cousin Andrew's daughter. Andrew wasn't there, now were his other two daughters. But his wife, Tera, was there and took the photo.) Front row: me, Lucy, and Archer (Mike's son. Mike also had a girl, Lily. But she was gone with friends by this time.)
Oh, my kids loved Randy and Bonnie's home! Actually, they took a break during the Level 4 meet and got a tour of Ogden by my dad and stopped off at Randy's home. Jonas told us several times how Randy promised to take him for a drive in his porsche. The kids all loved Bonnie's self-playing piano - which is very cool! Fun, fun.
Here's Jonas trying on one of Randy and Bonnie's British police hats. :)
Sunday was church - and, lucky for us, it was the primary program. It was a great program - practically perfect! The rest of church was pretty good, too. Ben and I took Brigham for a walk and some playing in the dog-park with a bunch of other dogs.
On Monday I ran with Brigham up to Memorial Hill and back. We left around 10:30 and went to the Southtown Mall to check out the Harry Potter event that was happening there. The line was long and we were able to view the "event" (which was basically a small-ish store selling over-priced HP merchandise) from stairs in the mall and called that good. Then it was on to home - where we finished listening to the first HP book and the kids got to watch the movie.
Outside of the Harry Potter event at the mall.
When we got home Jonas made a cake for Emmy. He had bought the mix and frosting at the dollar-store next to the gym on Saturday.
Cute, cute.
What a great weekend!
