Fun videos to share!

Here is Rowan rocking the freehands (no apparatus) routine. She cleaned up at this meet! 2nd all around, and 1st in hoop (finally- she's been so close!)Gryphon totally rocked the hoop event, a clean, no mistakes routine that earned her 6th place (thats really good!).

We drove out with a gymnastics buddy, Becky, to freezing cold Ohio for this meet. It was literally a degree- yuck! Gryphon was great fun to watch, she is super expressive and just a joy to watch. The girl has some serious flair. She wasn't nervous at all, I am in awe of her confidence and moxie, this was her first meet, and she's been doing this all of 6 months.

A quick gymnastics meet update:

I dunno if anyone cares, but the score mix-up at the meet was ironed out, and Rowan came in 3rd all around. Pretty cool. Cooler, if she got proper scores *at* the meet (they switched one of hers with another girl!) and got that 3rd place medal instead of the generic "great job" medal, but still cool.

Go elasti-girl, go!

New York in winter

We had a gymnastics meet in Rahway, NJ, this weekend. The girls and I went up early on Friday, and hopped aboard the train to go into NYC.Rowan saw a rat the size of our house cat in the subway, but we think the NY subways have "personality" so I guess that just adds to it.We got off at Columbus Circle and headed into Central Park, which was freezing cold but still so neat. Of course our purpose was to see NYC #1 attraction: the statue of Balto, hero of the 192? serum run in Alaska.

We also walked around and rode the carousel, climbed on rocks, all the typical Central Park stuff. But it was cold, cold, COLD!

After the park and some 5th Ave exploring, we ate dinner at a cute little diner and warmed up with hot chocolate. We sat by the window and people watched, great fun in a city like New York!


We took the train back to Rahway and did some swimming with the girls' teammates, and got up early the next morning for the meet.

Rowan did *fabulous*. New York has the most rhythmic gymnasts of any area in the US, so the competition at this meet is the stiffest all season. And she did wonderfully! It was really fun to watch. I know its not all about "winning", but sometimes, it sure is cool to see your kid come in at the top!

Above, warm ups (Rowan is in orange) and below, the hoop awards- Rowan got 2nd! (Out of 16, pretty cool!)

We are really going to miss NYC and this fun meet. It was sad for the girls to say goodbye to Balto, knowing they wouldn't be back for some time. I am glad they have the opportunity to visit all these neat places, though. The trade-offs of military life, I suppose!

We're off to Ohio (not such a glamorous location!) for a meet next weekend, Gryphon's *first*. Stay tuned for more pictures, and possibly video. I had more technical difficulty at this meet with video- namely, Gryphon did the taping and she taped other people, not her sister. Which is cool, now we can watch them. But we can't watch Rowan!?! Oh well, I tried all year last year and only successfully taped 2 routines at the last meet, so I can't really hold it against her! But hopefully, there will be video of next weekends meet for both girls!

Christmas a little bit late!

I left my camera cord in Virginia, so I couldn't post any photos during Christmas while we were in St. Louis. We also had a flooded basement to come to, so things have been a little crazy here. Now back in the groove (sort of at least) so here are the belated Christmas posts.
We went downtown and saw the Capitol tree (from Montana this year) and the White House tree. We will miss having this stuff in our backyard!

The White House tree and Washington monument in the background.

Then it was off to St Louis, to stay with Mark's parents. The girls enjoyed seeing the cousins, especially Adam who was home for Christmas for the first time in many years.

Gryphon rounded up the little cousins and her sister and put on a Christmas concert.

Cleo liked being "Christmas Cleo" with her jingle bell collar. Sam ran around yelling "Its Christmas Cleo!! Christmas Cleo!!" every time he caught sight of her. Too cute. Sam has one tone of voice only- loud. It is adorable!

Christmas morning brought the much-anticipated Wii, Santa was predictable this year. ;) We did make the girls go on a scavenger hunt for it though.

Goosebumps Horror Land was a big hit with Rowan- Gryphon and I prefer Animal Crossing. Its a totally pointless game, and its great. If you play, give us your friend code so we can visit your town! We don't have the Wii online yet but will soon.

Merry Christmas to everyone, and here's to a happy 2009!