Courtney's Gymnastics Competition

And finallly the big day had come. It was 9:00 on Saturday morning when all the parents and grandparents showed up at the MAC (Multnomah Athletic Club) in Portland for the State competition.

There were 4 teams present for the morning session. We were so impressed by all of the girls participating.

Perhaps we were just prejudiced (but I don't think so) in thinking that Courtney was surely the most lovely competitor there.

This shot was taken during the warm up period. Of course, the teams were not even in size. MAC had 4 times the number of competitors than Courtney's team. And Courtney's team had 3 times as many as one of the other teams.

Dayton and Grandpa kept each other entertained. You remember from the skating competitions that much of the time is spent waiting.

I was impressed with Dayton, Emma, and Melanie who with a little water and some graham crackers never acted up or made a fuss.

I should explain that this all started with their hour car trip from Washington to Portland. There were chairs only for a little more than 1/2 of the audience. Though we got there right at 9:00 the chairs were all taken.

That meant that we all had to stand from 9:00 until about 1:00 when the morning session ended.

It even got crazier when the guests and competitors for the afternoon session arrived.

Poor Don had been bitten by a hornet or wasp and had gotten a very bad infection. The bite was on his shin and was so bruised. We could see the pain on his face. What a good Daddy he was as he stood on that leg for so many hours. His ankle was swollen and his leg throbbed. I would estimate that the bruise was approximately 4 or 5 inches across and perhaps 8 inches long. And in the midst of it was a tiny little scab where the ferocious little beast had made lunch. I thought of the comment that a Missionary companion of a Newberg friend had made when he crashed his bike and skinned himself up pretty badly, "Oh, Osborne, I die ugly". Had it not been for the antibiotics that Don has to take for 10 days, he surely would have died ugly!


This shot was taken just as Courtney's team began to assemble themselves.

In the back you see the windows and green trees but actually that is a large mirror reflecting what is behind us.

Though it looks shaded...No, No, the sun was shining down brightly on us. I was sweating more than the athletes!

The floor that they are walking on is a spring board and assists the gymnasts with their hand springs etc. It was very interesting to watch.



And here they are as they are introduced to the audience.

It was very difficult to get good photographs in the gymnasium. The lighting was bad and the teams were too far away for my camera to get anything more than just "memory" shots.

Courtney is the second girl in the line and looked so cute. Gaylynne had worked very hard to get that pony tail good and secure.

Courtney competed in the 9 to 11 year old group. A lot of muscle development can happen in 2 years.

At first I think that Courtney was terrified. She was like a little bundle of nerves.

After she competed for the first event her coach said something to her which seemed to give her a boost of confidence. She calmed way down and just had a good time.

She was poised and self-confident as she went through her routines.

In this photo she is just about to compete in something that I have no name for. The girls run a distance of 30 feet or so, jump on a spring board putting their hands on a mat flip themselves over and land on their backs.

Yeah. I have no idea what they were supposed to accomplish or what they were scored on. But in comparing Court to the other girls, I'd say she did very well. I believe her score was 8.5 or 8.7, can't remember.

She ran over to report the scores. Second Place. Second Place. Fifth Place.

She ran off before we could learn if those were her scores within her team, or the team scores in the competition, or... So we'll have to wait for Gaylynne to explain all of that to us.

As I said before a lot of the time is just waiting. Courtney is sitting on the floor with her team members waiting for the very large MAC team (dressed in red and black) to take their turns for this same event.

You can just imagine how long that took since there must have been about 40 on their team.

The aisle that surrounded only the end and one side of the actual gym floor was only about 5 feet wide. Put a fold up chair there and you can imagine about 2 1/2 feet for those of us who stood in front of the sunny window.

Amazingly, it was not too uncomfortable and we were having a very good time because it was all so new to us.

Probably all competitions are similar. Just new rules.

The cramped quarters didn't seem to bother Dayton at all. He is so cute he conned some women into letting him take their kids' toy cars to play with.

There was one episode which made us all laugh. I guess Mel or Emma wanted to play with Dayton and he was having a very nice time by himself.

He protested their interference shall we say quite enthusiastically. People turned to see what was happening and Don said, "Whose kid is that anyway?"

The parents were laughing as they turned back to the competition and the little girl in front of me asked, "Daddy, what's so funny?" He patted her on the back and answered still chuckling, "It's a parent thing, honey".

I could see the Dad's shoulders still bouncing as he laughed.

This is a photo of Courtney on the balance beams. I had been able to go to the gym when the girls first started taking gymnastics.

I can still remember how difficult it was for all of the little girls to walk on the beam that was only 6 inches off the ground.

I remember when they first got on the higher beams and the frightened expressions on their faces.

I was quite impressed to watch as Courtney made it through the routine with such poise.

This photo isn't very good but you can see that she has good form. She wasn't wobbly at all like some of the others.

Perhaps it is like skating. It feels spooky but no one ever sees the little flaws that seem so apparent to the performer.

I think that Don said this is not one of her favorite events.

She likes the floor exercise and the uneven bars. Yeah,

watch your grandaughter propel herself around a bar and see what that does to your heart! I remember feeling the same way as Dad lifted you three kids high overhead on ice skates.

This is Courtney during the floor exercise. She was very good and got an 8.5 or 8.7 I'm not sure which because I remember she did close to the same score on the first event.

This was exciting because I could see that she was really enjoying herself.

So how many times can they play the same song? Yeah, every one of the girls in her category did the same routine to the same music.

That made it easy to see who was doing well and who wasn't.

Way far away on the mat in the corner... Yes, that is Courtney in the middle of her routine.

I am hoping that Don got some good shots for you to see using his telephoto lens.

Dad took these photos after Don pointed out to him that our camera actually has a sports setting. Who knew?

Yes, I did read the manual. When I did my brain probably said something like, "sports setting yada yada".

And maybe I read it and forgot it!!!!

After the competition but before the awards Courtney came by to converse with her Mom and Dad. They were so cute.

They are a great family.

Though Don was very uncomfortable he suggested that we all go to the kid's park near the Rose Garden. I think the temperature was in the high 80's or low 90's. There were hardly any people there at all.

Melanie was the first to get on the swings.

Gaylynne and I found a shaded bench while Don followed the kids all over the park getting photos of them. Neal played with kids for a while and then joined us in watching Dayton chasing a little boy trying to splash him with water from a fountain.

The boy was slightly older and Dayton was like fiesty little puppy chasing him without even knowing that older boy was soaking him. We were laughing so hard.

Since none of the kids had sunscreen on and we hadn't eaten since about 7:00 (oh, and did I mention how hot it was?) we headed for our house for a quick barbecue before they all piled in their car and headed to their house.

I think I heard someone say that they had a wedding reception to attend around dinner time.

Those might look like teeny weeny arms but this little girl can work the rings! There are about 5 or 6 rings on this piece of equipment. She just easily worked her way from one to the other over and over again.

What a great day! Good work Courtney. Congratulations on your great scores!

Wish everyone could have been there. I know they would have enjoyed it very much.