Finally, the Floor...

Last weekend, Kaia finally got to compete in her favorite event, tumbling! And she didn't disappoint, as she took a first in her flight, and second overall.  She also took second in her flight, and second overall, on the double mini.  Here's one of her two runs...

Mike took a video of her flight award too, so thought I would share since we've never posted this experience before. The award for her flight (those in her age group and same level) took place on the floor. You can hear the proud dad in the background!

But at the end, she got second out of all age groups at her level, so she got her medal on the podium.

And here's a cute photo of the team. Hard to believe she's one of the older ones now, since she was the youngest her first two seasons. Now she is a seasoned veteran! She still is one of the tiniest though;) Her nickname on the team is appropriately, Mighty Mouse.

Now we are on a break for a couple weeks. Felt good to stay home and be lazy today. The first Saturday we've had off in some time.

My Monkey...

I have several monkeys in my house, but only one is officially a monkey who is celebrating her special year, according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar!

We didn't go down for Chinese New Year celebrations in Seattle, like we did last year, as Kaia had a gymnastics meet. We did celebrate at a restaurant with local adoptive families. In fact, we have been getting together with local families to celebrate since 2004, before we even brought Kaia into our family!  Check out this throw-back photo from 2011 and see if you can pick out some of the kids you see in the 2016 picture.

What is fun to see now is how much the kids really enjoy interacting with one another. Before they would all be together, but not really talk to the kids they did not know, other than this one day of the year. Now the kids all sit together and jabber away! I was happy to see my own kids wanted to wear their traditional dresses. Looks like I will need to put new ones on the shopping list for this summer's trip...

Let the Games Begin...

So yesterday Kaia had her first competition of the season. This year she moved up one level for her double mini event, so is now a level 6. Her first fun her momentum took her forward, causing her to take a big step on her landing. Her second pass looked much cleaner to me, but apparently not to the judges;) Her flight was mixed in with two age groups, so she was with 11-14 year olds. She got a medal, but then again, so does everyone in tumbling and trampoline. Annoying to me! She looked cleaner than a couple people who fell, but her coach later told us that she didn't do one of the required moves correctly. Oops, what do I know?  She moved up to Level Six mid-season last year and is looking good.

She is level 5 on the trampoline. This tends to be her least favorite event.  She nailed it yesterday, scoring a 25, and easily taking first place out of a flight of 10 or so.  She told us she almost "happy cried" when she finished, as she was very proud of herself. She typically focuses on her mistakes, so this was very encouraging to hear from her. Now the question is "Does she move up a level on trampoline?" She met mobility for this event, which means she met the required score to move up (by quite a bit). She and her coach will be visiting this topic at practice this week.

Unfortunately, Kaia did not get to compete in her favorite event, tumbling. This gym does not have a big long enough floor for Level 6 and above, so she was excluded. That will have to wait until next's week's competition. Check back next week to see how her first time on floor goes.