Snowed in!

Doug, Cooper and Kinley left on Friday right after school and headed for Utah for Thanksgiving and it's a good thing they did! It started snowing on Saturday and really hasn't quit yet. Parts of I-80 across Wyoming have been closed off and on and the biggest storm is on its way tonight!

Kaiya had her last meet before the big state meet on Saturday night and then flew to Utah early Sunday morning. I think we were both wondering, initially, if we should have just skipped the meet and headed to Utah with the rest of the family, but she quickly changed her mind after the very first event of the meet. This girl is like a new kid--no more nerves and just so much confidence! She started on beam and got her first 9.0 ever on that dumb piece of equipment! I've never seen her so happy. The rest of the meet followed suit and she had a season best of an 8.7 on floor, an 8.40 on vault and another 9.0 on bars. Her all-around score was a whopping 35.10--good enough for 7th place overall. So, now not only has she qualified for the state meet, but she has scored high enough to move up to Level 6!

Best meet ever--holding their team trophy!

We got to the airport by 6:30 on Sunday only to find out that our flight was delayed for an hour, so we both caught a quick cat nap on each other. Since being in Utah, it has been nonstop action of cousins, 4 wheeler rides, more cousins, sled rides behind the 4 wheeler and a trip up to Utah State's campus to check things out. I called the head gymnastics coach at Utah State (he was an assistant when I was there) and he was so excited to have us come up and watch practice. Kinley and Kaiya were both wide-eyed as I've ever seen them. The gymnasts were so nice and came up to introduce themselves. So fun! Then, we went down to the brand new athletic facilities and my best bud Lori gave them a full tour since she is the head physical therapist at this facility. Coop and Doug got to see the new football locker rooms and meeting facilities and Hall of Fame.

Checking out the USU gym practice

Because of the nasty weather, I am not going to try to fly home until Thursday (Lori and her family aren't even going to attempt the drive now) and will just work Thanksgiving night. Whew! Until then, we have lots more time to play with cousins and go hang out with Lori and her kids. Wohoo!!

Sled rides behind the 4-wheeler

Smoked 12 turkeys with dad, Grandpa and the uncles!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

A ginormous birthday weekend

I think Kaiya will remember her 10th birthday if for no other reason, it feels like it just keeps going! The weekend started with her birthday party at our house and ended tonight with getting to request what I made for dinner and getting presents from us.

I only let my kids have an actual birthday party every other year (I know, I'm mean) and this was Kaiya's year. We were going to have her party at Michael's (craft store), but they were busy with holiday crafts until late in the afternoon. So, we just took their list of party craft ideas and found one we wanted and got all the stuff to do at our house. It really turned out great and I was amazed at how into the craft these girls were. It was quite a mix of girls--her two besties from the gym, a handful of school friends and church friends and her buddy from Greeley that she's know since she was a baby. They each painted and decorated a wooden first letter of their name, played Just Dance on the Wii, ate pizza and a cookie pie and just giggled like girls. Kaiya hugged me after they all left and said it was her best birthday ever and almost had tears in her eyes. Made my day! After her friends left, we had a little spa night in which I helped her shave her legs for the first time and did a "green treatment" on her hair to remove the green stripes that continue to plague her blonde locks (from copper in our pipes).

Ready to party

Not a cake fan, so she requested a giant chocolate chip cookie

Hard at work on her craft

The whole gang

Fancy new leo from Sara

Thanks, Josi!

Have known each other since they were 5 months old!

A giant monkey for the Monkey girl

Showing off their finished products

She had a meet on Sunday (which is thankfully her only Sunday meet) and it was down to crunch time with only two meets left to qualify. I had my doubts as soon as we walked into the gym and I saw that the two most evil judges in the state were there. Both of them have been around forever (seriously . . . they both judged in my club and college meets 20 years ago!) and both have a reputation for being nasty. In fact, my college coach Ray once threw his shoe at the judge who was on floor! The other one is referred to as "Picky Vicky". So, I wasn't too optimistic.

The meet started kind of rough--the group before our girls were all tiny little robots and they were getting amazing scores. But, as soon as our group started, it was obvious that they preferred the tiny tikes. Kaiya did a good floor routine, but only got a 7.75. She needed a 33.0 in the all-around to qualify, which is an 8.25 average. Not a good start!

Then, she went to vault and completely screwed up her run into her first vault and barely made it over. Oops!! Luckily, they take the highest of the two vault scores and she nailed the second one for an 8.50--her highest of the year.

Off to bars, which is her best event by far, and she did a great routine and scored an 8.75. It all came down to beam and Picky Vicky. Ugh!!! She has worked so hard on beam during the last month because she has had such a rough time on beam in past meets. I think she probably did a hundred routines in the last two weeks.

My parents were both there and we all looked like we might throw up before her beam routine. I can't believe I'm putting them through this drama twice! I had to actually leave and go stand somewhere else to watch. As as added incentive to stay on the beam, they announced at the beginning that every girl who stuck beam got a cute pink and black bag that said "I stuck beam!"

And that she did--she stuck beam! We had all done the math and knew she needed an 7.95 to qualify. I later found out that Kaiya knew what she needed as well--she had done the math on a little notepad in her bag. Well, she did it! She got an 8.55 and we had some tears all around.

Gymnastics is a stupid, subjective sport sometimes, but she worked so hard toward this goal and it is neat to see her achieve it, especially since she was a Level 4 last year and was able to qualify in her first year as a Level 5.

After the meet, we went to Old Chicago to celebrate her birthday with family and she got spoiled again. What's so funny, though, is despite all these amazing gifts she got, she would tell you her favorite is probably the giant stuffed monkey she got from her gym buddy. Guess she's not totally grown up yet. :)

To round out her big weekend that just keeps going, she had a music concert at school on Monday night and tonight was just us. I took treats to her school class today and she got her presents from us and then we enjoyed a fairly low key night. Sure love this young lady--she is growing up so fast and I'm so proud of who she is becoming. She is going to give me a run for my money in the coming years, but she is a good kid and we love this blondie!!

New luggage from Papa

Guess we will all be listening to her iTunes now

The fan club

So spoiled

Key lime pie--her absolute fav!

iPods rule!

The pressure cooker, state qualifying beam routine!

Cute cat

Miss Kinley had another dance performance this weekend in Boulder. They did two dances--the Shining Star disco number that I've posted before and their new one from the musical CATS. They did a really good job and the girls loved dressing up as cats with makeup and all.

The stage where they performed was actually inside the Boulder Public Library and it was a great venue. They had dancers from all over the area performing all day.

Kinley is moving to a new dance studio starting today (and this should be the last move!). I have really loved her instructors at Mountain because they are so positive and she really had fun, which is the most important thing to me at this age. She also loved getting to do some gymnastics in her combo class like her big sis. One of the biggest problems was that the classes she should have been taking all started too early for us to get her there in time, which meant either being late or pulling her out of school early. It was nice having her at the same place as Kaiya, but the time frames didn't overlap as much as we had hoped, so it still meant multiple trips to Lafayette and back. That, coupled with the fact that Mountain was still trying to build their dance program made it tough. So, Kinley is moving to a closer studio in Longmont--the same one that she did the workshop a few weeks ago and loved. She is such an easy-going kid that as long as she gets to dance (and be with her buddy, Maddie), she is happy!

Two cute cats!

Here is her CATS performance and a fun one from her workshop a few weeks ago. I was having problems getting them to load--if they don't work now, I give up!