Ella's State Championship Gymnastics Meet

 After much anticipation, the big day of Ella's state championship gymnastics meet arrived.  Ron and I were both able to slip away to take her to Tacoma to cheer her on in her biggest meet of the season.  It was held at the beautiful convention center downtown and we were all impressed by the fancy venue and the size of the competition.  Since there are so many different ages in Level 2, it was broken up into three different meets today.  Ella competed in the second of three meets against the four youngest group of girls.  Although she was nervous about competing at the state level and also competing on the beam for the first time since falling off at her last meet, she did a great job!  Luckily, she was able to start off on the bars which is one of her strongest events and got an amazing score of 9.5.  This helped to start her meet off on a good note.  Then Ella moved to the beam where she had to wait over twenty minutes until the judges were ready for her group.  I was so nervous for her and worried that all of this time waiting would make it worse.  Luckily, Ella was the third in her group to go on the beam and she performed her best routine of the season.  She nailed every skill and earned a score of 9.125 which is her highest one yet.  I was so relieved when it was all over that I started crying!  Good thing Ella didn't see me.  Ella then moved onto the flour and performed a solid routine.  Ron and I were both surprised to see that she only earned a score of 9.1, but we were still grateful that it was in the 9s.  Ella's than moved onto the vault for her last event which gave me high hopes for a strong finish since this is Ella's best event.  She did exactly what I had hoped for and earned her highest vault score of the season--a 9.650!  We were all so excited!  I immediately went and stood close to where Ella was sitting on the floor after her score popped up on the board and was able to snap the cutest picture of her reacting after seeing her high score!  Ella earned an all-around score of 37.375 which is her best all-around for the season and such an exciting way to end her first competitive season.

We then moved into the next room where the medals ceremony took place.  Ron and I were able to snag seats on the front row right after the Level 6 ceremony ended.  Although they awarded medals for each event for the Level 6 gymnasts, we quickly figured out that they were only awarding the top ten Level 2 gymnasts in each age group for their all-around score.  This was a bit of a bummer as we learned later that Ella was fifth in the vault and third on the bars and would have earned two more medals.  Regardless, we sat on the edge of our seats with anticipation as the announcer started with the youngest group and worked her way up the oldest and last group, Youth C, which was Ella's group.  We were so thrilled to hear her name announced over the microphone as she earned 7th place in her age group.  Since this meet was the state championship meet, earning this medal means that Ella is the 7th best, all-around gymnast in our state for her age group in Level 2 which is pretty amazing!  Ron and I were so happy that Ella placed on the podium and was able to go home with a medal around her neck!  Overall, we are so proud of how hard Ella has worked this past year putting in all of those long hours practicing in her gym without ever complaining.  Her determination, hard work, and endurance really paid off.  We are so proud of you, Ella, and can't wait to see what great things you accomplish next year in gymnastics!

Ella starting on her first event on the bars.

Ella doing a cast on the bars.

And a back hip circle.

Ella waiting nervously for her second event of the beam.

Ella doing her mount up onto the beam.

Ella going into a split handstand.

Landing her split handstand.

Ella pointing her toe.

Ella dismounting from the beam.

Saluting to the judge.

Ella signaling to the judges and beginning her floor routine.

Ella going into a backwards roll.

Going into a handstand.

Heading into a bridge.

Ella landing her bridge after kicking out of it.

Ella getting ready to run for her 1st attempt at the vault.

Ella taking off running.  I just love how this picture shows her strong and confident run.

Ella going into her handstand after jumping off of the springboard.

And landing her handstand.

Ella's happy and surprised reaction after seeing her 9.650 vault score!

The scoreboard with Ella's awesome vault score at the top.

Ella waiting for the Level 2 medals ceremony to start with her good friend who is also named Ella.

The top ten winners in Ella's age group saluting after receiving their medals.  Ella is the second gymnasts from the right.

A close up of Ella standing behind the #7 sign on the stage.

A close-up of cute Ella on stage after the medals ceremony was over.

Ella and Ella having fun posing in front of the photo backdrop after everything was over!

Way to go, Ella!

Lia's First 9th Grade Track Meet

Since Lia made the transition to high school sports this year, we were surprised to learn that the track season started on February 27th which is over a month earlier than when the junior high school season begins.  Although Lia had been training all winter long after taking five weeks off from cross country, she was still a little anxious about turning out for track for a couple of reasons.  Luckily, she bravely showed up on the first day with her good friend, Erika, who also has waivered into the same high school and who also carpools with us.  After immediately seeing all of the other long-distance girl runners who she became friends with this fall in XC, Lia quickly slipped back into the groove of high school running and training five days a week.  However, just like this fall, she has juggled this sport while rehearsing two nights a week for the 101 Dalmatians play that she is starring in as Cruella de Vil.  To top it all off, her directors decided to start their spring play (Footloose) a few weeks before 101 Dalmatians wrapped up which means that Lia is in the midst of five afternoons of track practice and five evenings of play practice every week for three weeks.  With seminary, school, and homework on top of it all, Lia is on week #2 of keeping up with this brutal schedule and I will be so grateful for her when it slows down a little bit in a week and a half.

On top of that all, Lia's weekly track meets began today.  Ron was able to get away from work early to join Emmett and me to root her on in frigid, 42 degree weather with on and off rain.  Lia was assigned to run the mile towards the beginning of the meet and then had to wait over two hours to run in the 4x4 relay which is always the last event.  I felt so sorry for all of the athletes on the field who were stuck outside in this horribly cold weather and who had to compete in skimpy outfits when it was their turn to run.  Luckily, Lia powered through it and was able to PR in the mile as she ran it in 6:37 which is seven seconds faster than her best mile last year.  She also did a great job in the relay and ran in the second of four legs. I was so proud of her though for giving it her all in such cold weather and during such a busy time of her life when I know that she is so exhausted.  Way to go, Lia!

Lia and the pack of girls coming around the corner on their first lap of the mile.

Lia passing several girls on her first lap.

Lia running by us on her second lap.

Lia waiting in her lane to run the second leg of the 4x4 relay.

Lia getting ready to take the baton from another runner.

And she's off!  Lia sprinting away after receiving the baton.

Running with the pack.

Lia passing off the baton after finishing her leg of the race.

On Top of the Mountain!

Although I didn't write a post about it, both Logan and Ella graduated off of the bunny hill last month and made it to the top of the mountain.  When we all went skiing as a family on February 18th, I spent the morning on the beginner hill with Logan and Ella while Ron went to the top of the mountain with Lia and our friends, Noel and Elle.  After a few runs, Ella started to get really brave and began following me into the trees on the side of the beginner hill.  After watching her maneuver between trees and even ski through some powder, I realized that she was more than ready to try out the top of the mountain.  After we all joined back up at the car, I announced to Ron that I was taking both Lia and Ella to the top after lunch.  Although Ella was a little afraid, Lia and I dragged her up there and she did great.  The three of us had so much fun skiing blue runs together all afternoon.  There was only one steep part on the way down to the bottom of the mountain that Ella had to take slowly.  Otherwise, she did an amazing job and I was so proud of her.

After hearing about this, it gave Ron the motivation to finally get Logan to the top of the mountain, especially since he has been snowboarding one season longer than Ella has been skiing.  After we got home that evening, Ron bought lift tickets for just the two of them so that they could go boarding alone the next Saturday, February 25th.  After going down the beginner run a few times, Ron brought Logan up to the top of the mountain for the majority of the rest of the day.  Just like Ella, Logan did a great job and seemed to really enjoy it which is something that he has struggled with more than the girls.  I was so excited to hear about Logan's success as it finally meant that our family of five could spend the entire day "skoarding" together instead of being split up on two different parts of the mountain which has been our experience ever since Logan started snowboarding two years ago.

I then scheduled a Saturday in March with my mom so that my parents could watch Emmett again, and bought our family's tickets.  We left  our house at 7 a.m. yesterday morning and got up to White Pass by 9:15.  Although it was really crowded, we made it to the top of the mountain an hour later and spent the funnest three hours together.  With the exception of Logan having a major attitude problem about boarding on the top of the mountain (that he did not have with Ron the previous time), we had a wonderful time.  It was so much fun to finally share this activity together as a family.  While we were up there, the clouds broke up and we were blessed with some beautiful, sunny weather and gorgeous views.  In addition, we had wonderful fresh snow on the groomed runs and powder in the trees.  After we finished eating a late lunch at 2:30, Lia offered to take the two kids with her back to the bunny slope for the rest of the afternoon since Logan was not happy about the idea of going back to the top of the mountain.  After talking it over, Ron and I decided that we could trust Lia being in charge and so we spent the next 1.5 hours skoarding together which isn't something we have done since 2010!  After going on several late afternoon runs together, we met up with the kids a little after 4 pm in the lodge and learned that they had had a great time together minus Ella losing her ski goggles.  I am so grateful for this fun day that we were able to spend together as a family and for the fact that three of my four children have officially graduated off of the beginner hill for life!  Hallelujah!  

The three kids at the top of the mountain before starting down a run.

Logan, Lia, and Ella taking off!

Since it had snowed a lot last week, the trees were covered in a thick layer of snow all over the mountain.  Here is Ron posing for me in front of some of those beautiful trees.

The one family picture we were able to get at the top of the Couloir Express chair lift.

Lia and Ella skiing down the mountain.

Ella going for it!

A mommy-daughter photo.

Logan having a meltdown at the top of a run with a glorious view in the background.

A fun picture that Ron was able to take of the girls and me from the chair lift behind us.

Lia and Ella.

Logan and Ron.

Logan boarding by some beautiful trees!

Ella's Cascadian Team Challenge Gymnastics Meet

Ella competed in her fourth gymnastics meet today in Seattle called the Cascadian Team Challenge.  After finishing so strong at the Coeur D'Alene meet last week, Ella was super excited to get out there today and keep her momentum going.  Her goal was to score in the 9s for all four events since she was so close last week getting an 8.9 on the beam and 9s in all three of her other events.  We left our house around 11:30 and drove the hour north to Seattle to compete in a large hanger that is located on the grounds of Magnuson Park on Lake Washington.  After getting her checked in, I sat with my friend, Olivia, who is the mother of the other Ella on the team.  I then spent the next three hours watching Ella warm up and then compete in all four of her events.  

Ella started off on the bars and just killed it, receiving a 9.66 which is her highest score of the season.  She then moved onto her most difficult event, the bars.  After waiting awhile, it finally was her turn and Ella began her routine.  Much to my surprise, she suddenly fell off the beam after coming down from her kickstand.  I was so shocked as she has been so consistent this season.  But, Ella immediately got up and finished her routine with near perfection.  After Ella finished and sat down on the mat, she saw her low score of 8.575 and was totally devastated.  She put her head down on her arms and just started crying.  It just broke my heart to see her so sad and to not be able to go out and comfort her and offer some words of encouragement.  It was a pretty rough 30 or so minutes as I stood completely helpless off to the side and watched my little girl work through these new feelings of disappointment.  I could tell that she had not been able to shake it off by the time her group moved to the floor.  She was still crying and looking very heartbroken while waiting to perform her routine last out of her entire group.  When she got up to perform, I could tell that she didn't give it her all and received an 8.950 (in comparison to the 9.525 that she received last week).  I was so sad for her that I actually started crying while sitting on my chair.  Luckily, as Ella's group moved to their fourth and final event, Ella's coach, Bree, noticed that something was wrong and pulled her aside.  I then watched Bree talk to her for a good two minutes and was so relieved to know that someone was giving Ella the pep talk that she needed to set these emotions aside and to go and give the vault her all.  I was so grateful to see that Ella's entire countenance changed back to happy and smiling while she was waiting to go second to last in the vault.  She was able to pull herself together and give it her best shot and got a great score of 9.475.  I was so relieved to see that Ella was able to finish strong after two disappointing events.

After the meet was over, I moved to the awards ceremony section of the hanger to watch the girls receive their awards.  Although Ella had placed really high in the bars and the vault, I didn't know how all of the other girls did in comparison to her and I wondered if she would even receive a ribbon.  Since the number of age groups for Level 2 changes for each meet depending on how many girls compete, I am never quite sure when it is Ella's group's turn to be recognized.  When they started handing out ribbons for the Youth B group, I though that this was Ella's group since a few girls from her team were called up who are normally in the same group as her.  My heart just sunk when I saw that Ella didn't even place in the top 12 spots of the Youth B group.  I was so sad for Ella as I knew that this would just be devastating for her not to place at all with such a large number of girls.  The announcer then moved on to the next age group which was Junior A.  After the top ten girls were called up, the announcer called the second place winner and I was totally shocked to hear Ella's name!  I just couldn't believe it.  Thanks to her high bars and vault scores, Ella was still able to place second out of twelve girls.  Although I have no idea why she was put in the Junior A group, I was so incredibly grateful to see her finish so close to the top after a disappointing beam and floor routine.  Ella was so happy to receive her ribbon and to stand on the podium.  It totally saved the day and helped to heal the wounds from earlier that afternoon.  I am so proud of Ella for being able to pull it together at the end of her meet and I am also grateful for this valuable learning opportunity for her to learn how to set her emotions to the side, turn it around, and give it her all.  I am sure that this lesson will be one that will help her in many meets to come.

Since I took video instead of pictures of all four of Ella's events, I only took a few pictures during the meet.  Here is Ella smiling at me while her team is getting ready to warm up.

A smiling Ella looking at me while waiting to compete on the bars.

Ella's amazing bars score up on the board!

Ella warming up on the beam before competing.

Ella practicing her dismount.

Talking to a friend before going on the beam.

Giving me a darling smile.

Ella standing on the 2nd place block on the winner's podium.

A proud Ella giving me a gymnast's salute after the award's ceremony was over!

Way to go, Ella!  I am so proud of you!