Laurie's World

Last meet of the season this weekend, before Level 7 State. This meet was a little different from any other meet we have ever gone to, in that the top three finishers from each level (disregarding age) were invited back to Finals today. So Rachael’s session was yesterday at 5pm, and today we went back at 1pm for the finals as she placed 1st on Vault with a 9.10 (Personal best ever for Rachael on Vault). But i am getting ahead of myself…Let’s talk about yesterday first…Rachael placed third AA with a 35.10.

As I said before 1st place on Vault with a 9.10

3rd place on Beam with an 8.475 (she fell on her full turn),

Tied for 4th place on bars with an 8.65 (this is the best bar score she has had on bars this year as a level 7!),

and…
4th place on floor with an 8.875

So she came home with another neck-load of medals…we are going to need to rent a storage locker for all the medals soon.

Now for the big news…Rachael went back today to represent her team on the vault…and along with her team mates on the other events, they won first at the Finals today…so they won a $1000.00 cash prize!!! Wahoo!!!

Had a big meet today at the convention center in Seattle. I was a little off my game and forgot to take pictures at the awards ceremony…but Rachael had a great day! She had a personal best on beam with a score of 9.325…WOW! She placed on every event in a very tough age group, so we are very proud of her. Vault 8.55, bars 8.55, floor 8.65. AA she placed 4th…which is a major accomplishment due to the caliber of this meet…there were 33 gyms in attendance from many states including California, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon.

Rachael did not go to her meet today…she woke up perky as can be, but with a loose tooth. A tooth so loose she could not safely flail herself around like she would need to, to successfully compete. So she decided to give it a little tug…lo and behold it came out quite easily, but with it, created a small amount of trauma to the gum tissue it left behind. So not to alarm anyone, but she had a small episode (she passed out) and when she came to there was some throwing up to do…so needless to say, we stayed home to rest. She did not eat until supper time…which as anyone who knows Ruby can atest to…THAT IS WEIRD!

Went to see Rachael do her thing at a meet hosted by her own gym this time. Nice to have home court advantageAuntie (Patty) and Katie and Noelle were here to see the event…which was a special treat and undoubtably brought Rachael great luck! It was nice to have such a big cheer section…

Photos in this blog entry are courtesy of Brooklyn’s Photography services

As always…we are proud of her accomplishments…She has improved tremendously on bars…almost a whole point increase in her score…Still not high enough to place…But there is plenty of time for that…She got an 8.65

Beam was beautiful! 8.925…Not sure how they could not just round this up to a 9. Anyway it secured her a 1st place medal…proudly representing her gym on the podium

Floor…very nice…8.90…a second place finish behind her beloved team mate Baileywhom we love like our own

Vault…also very nice show…8.75…4th place finish…wahoo!

Once again…proudly representing her gym

So All Around, she placed second with a 35.225. This is a season high for her

OK…just got back from our adventure in Arizona. This was a great meet…huge meet…lots of girls and great competition. It was at the Rawhide at Wildhorse Pass in Chandler Arizona. We had 80 degree weather every day…which is a little warm for me, but the glrls were happy

We flew in Friday afternoon, so we swam (and I say "we" loosely, ‘ cuz it was NOT me in the pool, just the kids) until we went for supper, then we did hair and off to bed as the girls had an 8am session time on Sat morning. The place where the meet was held was really neat. It was an old western town. Rachael had the best way to describe it…she said it was like the town from Kid Nation.

Rachael did an awesome job…this was a very tough meet with gyms from Arizona, Nevada, and California among others. There were 17 gyms in her session. She placed 4th on vault with a 9.0

2nd on Beam with a 9.175

3rd on Floor Exercise with a 8.950

Unfortunately the decision was made for her to scratch on bars…so she was unable to take an All Around award…which she would have certainly!! This would have been a major coup for her given the caliber of the meet…but oh well.

After the meet, we got our souvenir T-shirt and then wandered around to enjoy the town…very bright sun for us Seattle-ites

"Seriously" in trouble

Seriously "having fun"

We went for lunch at Rain Forest Cafe on Sunday…that is always fun!!

Here is proof that Andrea and I were actually on this trip…not just the girls

Just droppin’ off the rental car…

Stop (in the name of love)

Check back often as Rachael has a meet every weekend for the next four weeks

This meet was fun…it was at Rachael’s old gym, Northwest Aerials, in Kirkland. Small meet, levels 7-9 in her session…so we got to see some really amazing stuff. Not that level 7 skills are not amazing, ‘cuz they are, but level 8s and 9s are doing some really scary stuff.

Rachael placed on all events, Vault tied for 5th with an 8.8

3rd on bars–7.75

4th on Beam–8.1

Floor –5th–8.85

So this gave her 5th AA (there were 12 gymnasts in her group) with a score of 33.50. She got a nice trophy for the AA award.

And her team came in 1st…so that was exciting also…Much bigger trophy–goes to the gym though

I posting this much later, so am relying on memory…YIKES!

This is Sammy, Marquesa, Bailey and Rachael at the awards

I could not get my camera to work for the actual awards, but Rachael placed 9th AA with a 32.35 (Vault 8.3, Bars 7.6, Beam 8.3, Floor 8.15)