We were on the road with gymnastics again this past week for T&T Jr. Olympic Nationals in Kansas City, MO.  After Tulsa, Sacramento and Bakersfield, KC was a pleasant surprise.  The week started out with the final Olympic trials for men's trampoline on Monday and Tuesday, where 2 of the boys from our team took 2nd (actually, a controversial tie for 1st, which was broken in the other guy's favor) and 3rd.  We arrived on Wednesday, and our luggage followed slowly behind on Thursday - grrrr.  Be wary when the pilot mysteriously says he's solved the plane's weight issues.  Thursday was spent touring the Union Station area, greeting arriving families and trying to organize a small party of 30 for dinner reservations.  We ended up at Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue, which was a surprise with it's linen napkins, but delicious none the less.  The girls spent the rest of the evening buzzing from floor to floor signing door posters and crashing the big kids' dance party.  Friday, July 4th, was open training, the craziness of Grand March In (1,600 competitors, 37 states and 191 gyms!), Liv's Jump Start exhibition and, of course, fire works.  In addition to the gazillions of little shows we saw all along the river, we were front and center for the '08 Riverfest show, which was spectacular.  Another free day on Saturday was spent watching friends compete in the am, a couple hours in the Plaza area, and a family dinner at Arthur Bryant's BBQ, where we finally, after a few reprimands, managed to follow all ordering protocol and get our 3 giant platters of meat and french fries.

At the end of that hectic and tiring week, we come to Olivia's competition day, Sunday, July 6, 2008, where she competed in her first Junior Olympic National Championships in all three events - trampoline, double mini and tumbling.  She had a 9am flight time on trampoline, her weakest event of all 3, where she called on some internal reserves to pull out the tramp routine of her lifetime.  She was in 1st place for her entire flight, until the last girl knocked her to 2nd by .2 of a point.  She was knocked to 3rd by the next flight, but we'll just call it a tie for 2nd, broken in some arbitrary way in the other girl's favor.  Anyways, our girl ended up with a second place ribbon in her flight and a 3rd place bronze medal for her age group of 40 girls (from across the nation!) with a 24.6.  Next up, double mini, which is usually a good event for our girl, but that day it was a great one.  She came in 1st place in her flight and won the gold in her age group of 33 girls with a 58.5 - almost a full point lead.  You'd think at that point we could sit back and relax, because Olivia is not only the reigning CA state champ in tumbling, but also already holds a national title from Jump Start, but no.  From where I was sitting, which was the judges table, she had 2 beautiful passes - beautiful enough for a 1st in flight, but only good enough for the bronze in her age group of 48(!) girls with a 54.5.  Considering each event only gave medals for the top three athletes in each age group, and she was competing in a field of 33-48 athletes, and she walked away with medals in all three, our girl had a great day.  Another small dinner for 30+ at Ted's and then the girls had their own official dance party with DJ, flashing lights, the works.  They were the first revelers on the dance floor when the doors opened at 8pm, and we literally had to pry them off when it ended at 11pm.  No shrinking wallflowers here.  She went to sleep that night with a smile on her face - she's a National Champion, she made a ton of friends and she had the time of her life.  We are so proud of our Livie Lu!

We have placed links to the professional pictures, but they will only be available for 45 days, so if you want to order any make sure to do so by then.

Trampoline and Tumbling State Meet - Bakersfield, CA

We spent this past weekend in lovely Bakersfield, CA, with Olivia's gymnastics team.  Her main sport is traditional artistic gymnastics (bars, beam, vault, floor), but her coach thinks the girls get some value out of competing trampoline and tumbling (T&T) during their off season.  There isn't a lot of pressure on the girls during this season, and they only practice the events literally minutes out of their 18 hour a week practice schedule, but they all did fantastic.  Most qualified in all three events (trampoline, tumbling and double-mini) for JO Nationals in Kansas City, MO, in July.  Our Livie Lu had a good meet.  She's the 1st place Level 5 9-10 year old State Tumbling Champion, 2nd place double-mini (one judge gave her a 9.9 on her first pass - wow), and 3rd place trampoline.  Her team mates took the 1st place spots in DM and tramp, so her gym did really well.  As usual, when the meet was over and we all wanted to congratulate her and revel in the moment, she had thoughts of only one thing - food.  Oh well, I'm actually grateful it all doesn't go to her head.

As you can see, gymnastics takes us to the most interesting places - we've already been to Tulsa, OK, and Sacramento, CA, so far this year - all places I've been dying to spend my travel dollars.  I may not love every city we've landed in, but for Liv, it's all about the travel and hotels - handstands in the elevators with her team mates, sleepovers in the rooms, breakfast in their jammies, dinners in a large group at the restaurants - she loves it all.  Robbie and I got to skip some of the hotel hullaballoo this weekend by staying in his parents' RV, which was conveniently located in the RV park right behind the hotel where the other girls were staying - thanks Nan and Do.

2008 National Jump Start Testing - Tulsa, OK

Olivia qualified at the state level to attend JumpStart testing at the national level, which was this past January in Tulsa, OK.  JumpStart is a a special program designed to identify future elite athletes, specifically in trampoline and tumbling, which is not even her primary sport, so when her coach first invited her to train for the program, I figured yeah right, whatever.  However, Olivia's Red Nan happened to take her to gym on the night when the official invitations were handed out, and made promises to her that she could do the program and Nan would take her to Tulsa if she qualified.  I wasn't thrilled to add a 5th night to her practice schedule, but Olivia was enthusiastic, and how could I say no to that?

In the beginning, I really didn't have a lot of information on this program, and wasn't expecting a lot to happen, especially because she was so new to the sport.  Her coach assessed her and she had the skills to attend the State meet, which happened to be at our gym.  Testing is closed, so I had no idea how she did, and it took a while for results to be official, because they needed to be posted by all the states across the nation.  When all was said and done, she qualified in tumbling for National Testing.  So, Olivia had this promise from her Nan that she would take her to Tulsa, and off we went, having no idea what to expect.  This is an annual event, hosted by USA Gymnastics, for kids between the ages of 7-12, coming from all over the United States, and of the many who come, only 21 are chosen.  They are tested on strength, flexibility, speed, skills and routines.  The top 3 from each age group (7-8, 9-10, 11-12) are automatically selected, and then the next top 12 are chosen regardless of age.  This 21 is supposed to show the highest potential of being successful elite athletes. 

Olivia, I could just squish her I was so proud, took 1st place in her age group, which meant she was named to the 2008 National JumpStart Team.  You can see her name on the official USAG website and everything, which was very exciting.  Because she was on the team, she was invited to attend the US National Team Training Circuit, with the US Pre-elite National Team and the National Team coaches.  Their training camp was in Sacramento, CA, this past March.  She got to travel with a good friend from the gym, make some new friends at the camp, sleep in a hotel, eat in restaurants with her coaches, get sparkly new leos and sweats, and see the Jelly Belly Factory - she had a blast.  At the end of it all, she had only one question... when's the next travel meet??