Saturday? Must mean gymnastics

Elizabeth had her fourth meet yesterday in Mountain View. Elizabeth had to be there at 10:30am for warmup and then the competition goes from 11am - 2pm or so, including the award ceremony. Here are the girls listening to what I assume was an inspirational talk from Coach Jenna:



Elizabeth seems to be in her element during these events, marching around dead serious and doing her thing. There is a large amount of waiting in line for her turn, during which I think there is plenty of idle socializing, which must be just heaven for her.

She had a hard time on Beam last week, so it was nice to see her get an 8.3 here.

I continue to be thoroughly dazzled by her floor routine, and her ability to do a round-off back handwpring. I realize I am just a big galoot, but it seems pretty awesome.



The award ceremony is engineered to ensure that every girl gets at least one medal, and it's very generous overall, with medals by age group for each team, so for example at this meet, Elizabeth was competing against 13 other 8 year olds, but none of the 9 or 10 year olds. Yesterday she got 7th in floor, and I think 11th overall in her age group. Everyone also got a teddy bear. Except for Miranda, who didn't care for that one bit.

Each meet is essentially a fundraiser for the hosting gym, with $10 tickets, and raffle baskets, and plates of donuts and baked goods at 2 for $5, etc. This one had a bit clothing booth, and they gave each girl a $10 credit there, which I thought was awfully sneaky as I shelled out another $30 for the sweatshirt my little gymnast simply had to have.

And then we went to sushi.