Ella Competes at the PDX Invitational

Ron and I drove to Portland on Friday afternoon with the three youngest children so that Ella could compete in the PDX Invitational in Portland on Saturday.  We were able to get there in a little over two hours which was lucky considering the fact that we were driving there during rush hour.  We checked into our hotel in downtown Portland and then walked to Smash Burgers for dinner.  We then had enough time to enjoy an hour at the hotel pool before heading to bed.  After a slow morning that included breakfast at the hotel and a little more time at the pool, we checked out around 10:30 and headed to Ella's gymnastics meet at the Oregon Convention Center.  We spent the next four hours watching Ella compete in her four events.  The judges were tougher at this meet than normal, so Ella did not score as high as she usually does.  She earned an 8.95 on bars, an 8.425 on beam, an 9.175 on floor, and an 8.35 on vault with an all around score of 34.9.  She earned a medal for her performance on floor and did a great job overall.  As always, we are so proud of Ella's hard work and effort she puts into every meet that she competes at.

Ella and Emmett standing behind the Oregon sign inside the entrance of the convention center.

Ella posing with the balloons before heading into the meet.

Ella's first event was vault.  Here she is doing a squat on.

Ella on the top bar.

Ella doing a tap swing.

Ella looking directly at us after finishing up with the bars.

Ella's second event was the beam.  Here she is getting onto the beam.

Jumping in the air.

Doing one of her two cartwheels on the beam.

Ella's third event was floor.  Here she is starting her routine.

An awesome action shot of Ella doing her front pike.

A cute shot of Ella doing a shimmy in her routine.

Doing her tuck jump.

Doing a handstand.

Ella's final pose in her floor routine.

Ella's fourth and final event was the vault.  Here she is jumping on the springboard after running down the runway.

Going over the vault.

And landing it!

Ella smiling at us after finishing vault.