North Texas State Meet

What a weekend! Regan and I got home from the girl scout sleepover at the museum, she headed out to play, and I headed to bed! I took a little nap, then we loaded up for Garland, Texas and the North State Meet. Riley had to get an 82 score in order to move up to level 6, so that was his goal.

The kids rested on the way, we honored an Aldridge family tradition and stopped at the Czech Stop in West, Texas for kolaches, and made it to Garland in time for the 6:30pm warm up. Then it was hurry up and sit.

Finally the session started close to 8, and awards weren't over until almost 10. It was a very late night! The boys were exhausted. Riley did really well on the rings, and on the floor, and had a couple mistakes on the other routines, and so his overall score was almost 78. He's kind of bummed he didn't make the 82 cut off, and not sure he wants to continue in competitive gymnastics. He's tired of spending 9 hours a week or more in practice, having sore ankles and knees, and me always yelling at him to be careful climbing a tree or whatever because he has a meet coming up!

Then after the meet, we headed home, but first a stop for dinner, and so we didn't make it home till almost 3am, with some very tired, very dirty kids, and a very exhausted mom and dad. Needless to say, our Sunday afternoon consisted of a really good nap!

But we're proud of him, he gave it his all, and did a great job! Whether or not he continues in gymnastics, we still couldn't be more proud!

Riley's Gymnastics Picture

Here's the new picture of the year. Hot off the press! Last meet of the season is this Saturday.

Houston National Invitational

The reason for the trip, the HNI meet. There was cheerleading competitions going on in the next room, and girl's gymnastics going on in the same area, and 2 levels of boys competing, so it was a madhouse! And it dragged on and on and on. Riley is still a little off his game from his recent elbow injury, and he missed several practices from that, so he wasn't in top form. But he enjoyed competing. He didn't medal at this event, but there's always next time! We sat so far up in the bleachers, I didn't really get any good pictures, just this one of warm-up time and you can see how crowded that place was!

Alamo Invitational

Today was the 2nd meet for the traveling gymnastics team, and it wasn't too far, just to San Antonio, so that was a plus. We also had time to make the early service at church which was awesome cause Pastor Joe and Lori tag-teamed the message and they are hilarious. Then we grabbed a quick bite with Mimi and Papa and headed to the Alamo city. Thankfully Regan got to spend the day with Mimi and Papa cause I don't think she could have handled it there, David and I barely could!

It was long, crowded, hot (until the cold front blew in, then it was COLD) and stinky. The chairs were uncomfortable and there was no good spot to watch anything or get good pictures of anything. I didn't take many pictures at all, and wouldn't you know, Riley ended up medaling in 5 out of the 6 events! He didn't medal in floor, which isn't his favorite anyway, and there were a few areas where I think they scored him wrong. He did an awesome rings and parallel bar routine and for some reason got a lower score than some kids who did much worse. Who know about these gymnastics judges though, even at the Olympics I see people that I think got robbed, it's just much more personal when it's MY son out there! I was proud of him, he hardly slept the night before, he didn't feel well, he and I were both up at 5:30am, he told me to give him medicine so he could get out there and win a gold medal! He has such dedication.

And then I felt bad cause it was about a 6 hour competition and I forgot to pack him a snack, and he was starving when we left, and it was Valentine's night and there was no where on earth to eat without a super long wait, so we ended up at Taco Cabana where it took them about 30 minutes to fix our food. We were ravenous at that point. And by the time we got home, we were exhausted and Regan started in with an ear infection. It was most definitely a long, tiring, but satisfying day.

The photo of him on the rings is one we bought at the event, and this is the only video I got of him, on the high bar.

Star Center Meet

Today was Riley's first gymnastics meet for the traveling team. Thankfully it was in Austin so we didn't have to travel far! He has some coming up in other cities, so it was nice to get our feet wet here in town so to speak. He did really well. You could tell he was nervous, and there were a LOT of boys there. The age break down was 9 year olds, 10-11 year olds, and 12 and up. Some of the 9 year olds looked about 6 or 7, and some of those 11 year olds looked 16! The never ending gymnast-age issue. Anyway, he started on floor, slipped and lost his footing (almost everyone did, which makes me wonder what was up with their floor) but anyway, he won bronze on pommel horse, but I thought his best was parallel bars and rings. It was good to get the first meet out of the way and now he knows what to expect at the next one. Dave video taped so I'm sure we will have it on DVD for anyone who wants to see it. Until then, enjoy:

Fun Night at Gymnastics

Once a month they have a "fun night" at gymnastics and the kids get to bring a friend, and they have a blast and get nice and worn out. Riley brought Tristan who will think twice before referring to it as "girlnastics" from now on, I think he got tired of Riley showing him up on some of the equipment!

Regan brought her friend Natalie and they wanted to do a sleepover so bad, but we were getting up SUPER early to go to Sea World, so I didn't think that would be a good idea, those two get together, and there is NO sleeping going on!

Cartwheel-A-Thon

Today Riley had a Cartwheel-A-Thon to raise money for his upcoming competitions and I can't believe it, but I forgot my camera at home! But, he did 257 cartwheels in 10 minutes! I believe he was in 3rd place when we left, but there were still some other boys that had to go, so we'll see on Monday where he stands. I was proud of him, he went back and forth, and back and forth so fast, his face was red and he was super dizzy when it was over. But, he did them without stopping (except for when he would lose his balance, which wasn't often). He raised almost $200, which is great, I hear those competitions aren't cheap!

Am I Ready for This?

Registration time for gymnastics, Riley made the Level 5 team (congrats to him by the way) but it's 9, count them NINE hours of practice a week! I guess it's good we will be homeschooling, how would we fit it in otherwise?

Sent from my G1 phone

Gymnastics Meet

There's a lot of videos, so I am only going to post the GOLD MEDAL WINNER! They put Riley in the higher age bracket this time, he was competing with the MUCH bigger boys, they are also the 2nd year boys, they took 1st-4th place in just about every event, but Riley beat them in Parallel Bars, and he did it with a broken hand! I'm so proud of him. I wasn't going to let him compete and risk injuring it more, but he's a true competitor, he got out there and knocked it out, and after over 10 months of practice, I didn't have the heart to make him sit out on the last meet of the year. So he got a gold medal in P-Bars and a bunch of ribbons for the rest, he got 5th-7th in everything else I think. If they had him in with the first years, he would have gotten a TON more medals, I was keeping up with those scores and he got some super great ones today. But, at the end of this video, there will be links to the other ones on YouTube if you want to watch them, the ones from this meet say "April" on the title.

And a few pictures from the day as well:


A handstand contest (he's in the middle in white):


And the Gold Medal routine:

Videos of the Meet

Mini-Meet

Today was the big gymnastics meet! I mostly took video, so when I get those uploaded, I will post them. I was proud of Riley, he got 2nd place on Floor and Vault, 3rd place on Rings and P-Bars, 6th on High Bar and 7th on Pommel Horse (gotta work on that one!) Overall though, he placed 7th, which I'm still not sure how that happened with 2 2nd's and 2 3rd's, but oh well, he has 4 medals and 3 ribbons. And he rocked his leotard! We have been giving him a hard time about wearing it (technically it's a step-in) but we call it a leo-tard!

"She Cut Off All My Curls!"

After gymnastics I took Riley to get his hair cut, I thought I would work him gradually to the short cut he has to have for his meet in February, but he doesn't like it at ALL! He was so upset that she cut off all his luscious curls, poor thing, but I think he looks nice.

Slowing Down...

There hasn't been a whole lot going on lately, since school started. Bailey got a hair cut, looks like a cute little boy-dog again, minus all the stickers he got into from the field across the street. Our church had a Parent's Night Out and the kids had a blast while David and I went to see Tropic Thunder (that's what David gets for leaving me to make the plans!) He would always prefer to go somewhere and "talk" and I usually want to go see something get blown up. Total role reversal. But the movie was hilarious and we had time for dessert afterwards so we could "talk".

On Sunday we had a girl scout meeting at Texas Jumping Beans so they got to wear themselves out there for a while. We got Karate Kid from the library and watched that, they both really enjoyed it, and I think it's so funny to watch these movies that I grew up with and watch them enjoy them for the first time. My poor brother is gonna have to gear up for another few years of being called "Daniel-son" though.

Other than that, we've been watching the Olympics, the gymnastics are amazing, and it's kind of given Riley a vision of what he's working towards, not that we are pushing him to that level of competition, but it's good to see what you can accomplish with all the hard work that he puts into it. He's still doing 4 hours a week for the gymnastics team, so who knows, maybe 2016 Olympics will be his year. Regan is still in it, but her hearts not really in it like Riley's. She wants to drop it and take horseback riding lessons. I told her she's going to have to wait until it's not 100 degrees every day!

And that's about all that's going on in our corner of the world these days. We have the circus coming up this weekend, and our annual trip to see Aunt Kathy and the lake in Jacksonville, and fingers crossed, a trip to the beach for fall break.

Park, Gymastics and Skating, Oh My!

We've been trying to keep busy close to home lately, so we haven't done a whole lot this past week. Ran some errands, went to the free movie to see Water Horse which was much better than I was expecting it to be, I even teared up a bit towards the end.

And then, the thing I've been so excited about for weeks and weeks...one of my friends is a professional photographer and I finally managed to get it together and have her photograph the kids. I have wanted to do this forever, and you know how it goes, something always comes up. I can't WAIT to see the pictures she took, she's REALLY good, as you can see at her blog, Mollie Kendall Photography, so we met up with her at this really awesome park in Georgetown and she took off with the kids to get some pictures. I think Riley was a little confused about it, he thought this was his first paid modeling gig, he asked her how much SHE was paying US to take his picture. He doesn't have a big head or anything does he?

I had to bribe the kids with McDonald's lunch and time at the park if they behaved, so we went to the playscape after, which is like this wooden fortress, it's really neat, and we ate and ran around while I took my own, very inferior pictures. But we had fun for about 1 hour, then it got about as hot as the surface of the sun, and even Regan said, "Mom, my hair is sweating, I want to leave."

San Gabriel Park

So we went home to rest up a bit before gymnastics and then after gymnastics we met up with some of Regan's Girl Scout friends for Family night at the skating rink. Now, Regan has never liked skating too much. I bought her those kiddie skates that fit over your shoes and she never wanted to wear them, and when we've gone skating in the past, she would do one lap around the rink and be done. This time was no exception. Only she was mad that she didn't know how to skate. I told her, it's not like something you're just born knowing how to do, you have to practice, but her friends were quite good, and she was upset that she couldn't be out there going fast with them, but she spent most of her night holding the rail and taking her skates on and off.

Skating

They were wiped out by the time we got home!

Regan's Olympics

Regan's gymnastics had their "Olympics" today, and it was so cute! They had the kids separated by age group, and had them demonstrate all their skills: the mat, bars, trampoline, beam, and vault. It was so cute, and Regan had a great time. At the end she got a really cool gymnastics medal!

Gymnastics Boy

I signed the kids up for gymnastics just a couple of months ago, Riley used to do gymnastics when he was younger, Regan had it at her school, but it was just very basic. So, they both went in a beginner class. Regan is doing great, but I have to totally brag on my boy Riley. It's time for summer registration and the teachers gave them all certificates saying what level or class they would be going into for summer, and they want Riley on the team! The boys level 4 team, which is advanced! The only drawback is it's 4 hours of training a week, which also means about quadruple the bill!!

Edited to add that we bit the bullet and signed him up for the team for the summer. We'll see how it goes, but he's excited about it, and so am I!