Last weekend Leighton had his first Junior Olympic level 4 gymnastics meet. He made the team at the end of the summer and was really excited about his first meet. The only thing he wasn’t looking forward to was being in front of everyone in his shorts. They are a little on the short side (or actually quite a bit) but so are every ones, and I had to remind him that he was only in his shorts for vault (which literally takes about 10 seconds) and floor and the rest of the events he wears his full length pants.
We left the house before the sun was up and it was fun to watch the sunrise and the sky change colors as we drove down to south Denver for his meet. He met up with his team while I found a set of chairs to help reserve for the rest of the teams parents. I ended up sitting with Coach Ryan’s girlfriend for the entire meet and we had a great time talking. After warm up they learned that they would be starting on mushroom (pommel horse) which is his favorite.
The meet went really well. He had some mess ups, like he forgot to do his tuck hold on rings and did too many swings on parallel bars, but all of those were likely related nerves with his first meet. In the end though he did great and actually placed in 5 out of the 6 events and finished 2nd in the All Around. He had a great smile the rest of the day. It was really nice to see all his hard work come to fruition and pay off and for him to do a good job. His next meet is in a couple of weeks and we are all excited to cheer him on again.
Hiking Mommy 