salt palace excitement

Sorry I have been MIA for a while.  You see, when I am pregnant, my joints get all slippery and loose and my grip is terrible.  I am constantly dropping stuff.  I dropped the keys 4 times in a row the other day.  I would pick them up, and then drop them again before I had even stood completely up from picking them up.  I think I literally growled out of frustration at one point.  The computer became a victim of this, and it took a good week to get it repaired and back home again.  The screen was shattered. Yeah, not good.

Anyway, it is all good now, and I am extremely careful when carrying the laptop anywhere now.

Mary had a tumbling meet last weekend at the Salt Palace.

It was a HUGE meet, with over 1,000 athletes coming from Canada, Texas, California, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and several other states.  It was a 2 day long event, but we lucked out, and Mary did all of her events on Saturday.

The meet was set up so professionally that it was extremely intimidating when we first walked in.  The events were up on podiums and the judges were all in black suits.  It was awesome, and pretty scary for Mary.

There were about 40 girls in Mary's age group for each event.  Some had a few less, and some had a few more.

Mary did great!  I tried to get pictures, but it was so hard being far away, and with her moving so fast. 

Meeting the judges.  Mary is in her group to compete in the double mini.

 

They split Mary's age group into groups of 10, called Flights.  That way it was easier to score them and the events didn't take as long.  She was given her place out of the 10 girls, and her overall place out of the 40 girls in her age group.

Double mini

Mary placed 9th out of her Flight, and 16th overall on Double Mini.

Trampoline

 

Mary placed 6th in her Flight on trampoline, and we never found out her overall placement.

Floor

And on floor, Mary got...

1st in her Flight and overall!!!!

This meet was a fundraiser for a World Class Gold Medal tumbler who broke his neck and was paralyzed from the chest down, just 8 months ago.  In honor of him, several Olympic Gymnasts, including Nastia Leukin, Missy Marlow, and numerous other Gold Medalists came and signed autographs.  They signed a shirt Mary has, and you better believe it is a big keepsake!

It was a great meet for Mary, and more than her placement, I am so proud of the way she handled it all.  She acted the same when she placed 16th and when she placed 1st.  Just happy she did her best and glad to be there.  After seeing athletes bawling, throwing fits, and even upset parents, I realized that, to me, her good attitude no matter her placement, is truly what matters.