First Level 5 Gymnastics Meet

We had an exciting first gym meet for McKenna this past Friday. It's been a year since she competed because it took her awhile to get her kip (a hard skill on the bars). But she never gave up and finally got it! Yea McKenna!!!!

Level 5 is different than 4 because the girls are scored individually by age group. I learn something new each time I go. I also cannot believe how nervous she was (I was pretty nervous too....). We had to leave here by 3:30 and the clock could not move fast enough for her! She was a bundle of nerves, and I kept asking her if she was ok. I thought she was getting sick but I think she was just super nervous. One cool thing about this gym was there was a kid's play area! How awesome is that. I didn't see Eth the entire time! Maecee went up for awhile and then got tired of it. I tried to get her to go back in, and she screamed her eyes out. So much for that :) But at least Eth got to enjoy himself! Last time we had competitions Maec was a baby, so it was easy to watch without having to worry about her running onto the floor or something. So it will be interesting to see how it goes with her.



Her first event was Vault (she scored 8.0). Level 5 uses the actual vault, not just a handstand and fall onto a mat like level 4, so that was exciting. Then she moved to Bars (she scored 9.0). I was so distracted talking, watching Maecee, off in my own world, etc. that I thought they were just warming up on bars and missed watching her!!! Everyone was saying how awesome she did, and I missed the whole thing! Way to score one for the team Heather! She then went to the Beam (she scored 8.55). She has a love/hate relationship with the beam. She loves the challenge, but it messes with her mind :). The skills for 5 are alot harder on beam, for example you have to do a cartwheel, and she didn't land it and fell off. But she looked so sharp and stuck it! Then the last event was the floor (she scored 8.6). I know I am biased but she rocks at floor. It's her strongest event and really easy for her. It helps that she took a few years of dance before gymnastics so she "gets the beat". But she is just tight, has fun, and makes it look simple.

So, I was excited about how well she did, but had no idea how she did compared to the other girls. It seemed to me and some of the other people that the scores were pretty low for everyone but I wasn't paying too much attention to what the other teams got. So awards time came and her two other team mates were in the 7-8 age group and did really good. Then McKenna's age group came. Well she did AMAZING!!!! She got 2nd place overall on Vault, 1st overall on bars (wish I would have seen it...), 2nd overall on beam and 1st overall on Floor. Then they do an All Around winner for the total amount of points and she got 1ST PLACE IN HER AGE GROUP! I was pretty excited! She was too :) Thank you everyone that came to support her (Jamma, Grandpa Horsey, Kim, Uncle Alan and Kiley) It meant alot to us to have you all there! Thanks a million!



So we are headed to St. George next week for her next competition. We are excited to go, but not to excited about the drive. In fact she asked me if we could fly :) Then she has 2 competitions in May and State is in June. In the Fall she will compete level 6 then be in level 7 by the end of the year. Pretty exciting stuff, and the fun part is that she absolutely loves it! It's so fun to watch your kids find something they love and are excited about and excel at it.

I'll keep everyone updated........

p.s. Our family has had a VERY stressful crazy last month or so and need to blog about for therapy reasons, so that is up and coming! Beware!