Last weekend were we all down in Colorado Springs to watch the boys compete at their Regional Gymnastics Meet. The region that the boys are in (Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado) is being broken up into 3 different regions next year. After decades of being region 9, Colorado along with Wyoming will join 9 other states to be region 2 next year. On Friday night before the meet kicked off, Yul Moldauer, who was on the 2020 Olympic team and a Colorado native (and Korean-adoptee) and will likely be on the 2024 Olympic team held a speaking event. It was so neat to sit in the room and hear him encourage all the boys and connect with them. He took photos with them and even let the boys see his medals, Paxton chose to put on his World championships medal. They also got shirts which they are pretty excited about. Paxton’s competition was Saturday morning. It was beyond windy but we made our way across the Air Force Academy to cheer him on. He started out super strong and then faded right at the end with his own version of his floor routine instead of the standard compulsory routine. But he competed and had fun. Our initial plan had been to go hiking, but the 100mph winds weren’t going to let us do that so we headed out for ice cream and then back to our Airbnb for an afternoon of cards and games and just hanging out as a family. There was plenty of laughter all around. On Sunday morning we fought the wind again as we headed back to the gym (I will have everyone know, I was the last one out of the van and ran and beat everyone inside of the building…..). Leighton had the opportunity to qualify for Western National Championships and I’m not sure who was more nervous, him or me. He had a great meet, struggled with his front giants and his double flip dismount on high bar, and he said after, I knew I’d score higher if I did the single flip, but also knew that I’d be disappointed that I didn’t give it my all and try the harder skill. Quite a growth for him. Leighton and one of his teammates was also awarded Academic All American which was pretty cool, only 8 boys out of the 57 there. I knew where he stood for qualifying at the end of the meet but he had no idea. It was fun during awards to see him get called up for 3rd place on pommel which he was surprised about. Also I saw him get more and more disappointed as they started calling the qualifiers for Westerns up and not hearing his name. And then at the very end he was called as a pommel horse specialist and first alternate for all around. He was so excited. And so if a few short weeks he and I will be headed to Phoenix with the top boys at his level this side of the Mississippi for him to compete. And then he gets to start working on new skills for next year which he is already talking about.
Hiking Mommy 