No rest for the weary. Among a pandemic, college visits, an unexpected passing in the family, a big “teen” birthday, and upcoming middle school basketball tryouts, Reece and I flew to Dallas for her first in-person USAG Tumbling & Trampoline competition. We’ve got this. Just keep piling it on and we’ll see what the breaking point is soon enough.

Having an out of town competition is always something my kids love and look forward to and this was no exception. I’m just happy that it didn’t cancel due to Covid concerns because that conversation would have been an extremely difficult one with Reece. She’s a competitor through and through. She’s trying a different spin on gymnastics, new gym, new people, and new ways of training. There’s a growing number of gym apparatus appearing in our family room. She’s always flipping around and doing what seems to be, very unsafe things.

Right after school on Friday, we set out for the airport and off we went!

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Once we arrived, we got our first Uber with quite a bit of reservation from Reece. She was checking my phone every 30 seconds to see when we would arrive at our hotel. If we started veering off course, you better believe she was going to alert me!

Our room was a giant executive suite, thanks to Papagiorgio (this is what we call Brian sometimes when we travel – a reference to Rusty, the character in the Vegas Vacation movie). Pool was closed which made all the little girl athletes very upset and the weather was cloudy and rainy. However, Reece only wanted to immerse herself in the atmosphere of the arena next door anyway, food was in walking distance, and I had a book to read. All good!

I was immediately mesmerized watching some of the elites who were doing absolutely insane things, followed by a sense of terror and second-guessing. Why was I putting my daughter in this sport? This is utter craziness. Is this safe? Why would anyone do this? Typical thoughts that run through my head. Meanwhile Reece is mesmerized and reciting the term for every skill, some nerves, but mostly excited to have her turn later in the day. I’d been told that all of these TX and OK athletes practice 20ish hours a week and Reece practices 4. Yikes, what in the world are we doing here!?! I’m throwing my 10 year old to the wolves!

It’s an exciting atmosphere for sure and watching the athletes do their walk in is fun to see. I would likely be curled up in the corner if someone asked me to do anything of the sort in this giant arena in Texas, with all eyes on me.

Her first event was Level 6 Double Mini age 11-12. Admittedly not her favorite event, but she always seems to do well. It’s two passes and for her first time ever doing this in front of a crowd in a USAG sanctioned event, she rocked it!

OH MY WORD SHE’S HIGH IN THE AIR! My heart was beating out of my chest as it has always done in previous gymnastics meets. Not only from the fear of getting hurt, but also the fear of possibly dealing with Reece when she is upset with a performance. She’s a tough one. I seriously think I was having a heart attack. This can’t be good for my health!

A very impressive 2nd place finish!

Next event was Level 6 Trampoline age 11-12. Some of these girls were amazing and Reece knew it. She did well – had a little bobble that could’ve thrown her way off her routine or off the tramp! It doesn’t seem quite uncommon for athletes to forget their routine or a skill in the routine or even fall into a mat. I can only imagine what is going through their little heads!

A few pics I snapped during warm ups–

She placed 6th in this event. I thought her routine looked GREAT!

Finally, she did her favorite event, Level 7 Tumbling age 11-12. Adjusting to the equipment is never easy. The tramps can either be super bouncy or not and the tumbling floor can have some give or be too firm. You have very little time to warm up, sometimes just 1 or 2 passes, so you just figure out how to adjust quickly!

She took 3rd place! So good!

There are so many flips in these passes, it’s not uncommon to see them get a little off balance at the end. Undoubtedly reorienting themselves, some look like they’ve just gotten off a merry-go-round going full speed. They do two passes and you are supposed to land in the yellow mat at the end (so I hear). Don’t even ask me how this is judged and all of the rules – I’ll leave that kind of detail to Reece! I’m just trying to situate myself in the right spot and not get completely annoyed with the spectator commentary and get videos of course to show my family and friends!

All of the videos of her passes can be found on my YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTZ_DCY0z7w2x9VSnBogF4g

If you have a minute, it really is very fun to watch after the fact. While it’s happening, I feel like I could jump out of my skin, but I calm down considerably once she’s done!

A little bit of dinner in the the room ended our evening, some tired early Sunday morning eyes, a much more-relaxed 2nd Uber ride, and we were home to cheer on our Chiefs by early afternoon.

Congrats Reecie on such a successful weekend. Really proud of my little KS girl among all of these intense competitors! She was the only one in her age group in these levels that made the trip from KS and she missed an overall medal in DM by 2 spots. Everything’s bigger in Texas, as they say, including the overall medals – they were the size of small plates and she really wanted one. She was so close!

Way to rise to the occasion Reece…loved spending the weekend with you!

and….GO CHIEFS! Going to the Super Bowl in back to back years – can’t believe my kids are getting to witness all of this home town success!

If I had to choose a quality in Morgan that needs a little improvement, it would be decision-making. She can’t make a decision to save her life! However, I give her full credit for being very thorough. Potentially she over-thinks things. hmmm…I wonder where she gets that from!? She put together a wonderful power point presentation of the pros and cons of the universities she was deciding between. I love this!

We gave her a deadline of noon today to have her decision made or we would be dragging on forever! It’s certainly not a decision to be taken lightly so we appreciate the thought and research she has put forth (and perhaps a touch of agony).

She chose K-State! We are thrilled! She’s going to fit right in and do amazing things, I am so confident!

Congratulations MoMo! It’s great to have another wildcat in the family (much to Drew’s dismay).

Morgan, you are so loved and have the support of all of us (even Drew). Can’t wait for you to start this journey and also allow me to visit and agree to come home from time to time 😉

K-State just gained a great one!!

We’re getting closer and closer to our first born leaving the nest. I’ve been cleaning out stuffed animals and selling all of my girls’ hair bows. Insert lots of tears right here!! These are the little things that get me. For most, it’s a relief to be rid of old things, but for this sentimental mom, it’s a reminder that they’re one step closer to adulthood. I clearly had a hair accessory buying addiction by the way…HOLY COW!

Morgan has already received some college prep gifts for Christmas…a laundry bag and other coordinating bags that I can already envision being stuffed to the max and dropped in the kitchen floor on her breaks from college. Might as well make them cute bags, I figure. We’ve done a lot of work in the basement making her a space perfect for her time at home. Some would say that is a little backwards. I mean she will be here less and less but in my mom brain it just makes sense for her to have a place she wants to come back to for visits! She will have some privacy, her own bathroom, and a window well that’s adorable and we’ve finally got it decorated wonderfully “MoMo.” She’s one lucky almost-college girl, I’d say!

How cute is her bathroom!?!

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Her goal was to get this heart picture wall done before the end of winter break. So at the very final hours, with help from the rest of the fam, it’s complete! 171 pictures. 13% of them, Drew is in (he counted of course)…he’s a stats man!

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Most college visits have been postponed, admission requirements changed, and college students are navigating online classes and closed residence/dining halls. All of this due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The ongoing nuisance that we’re all wondering if it will ever go away. Nuisance is actually the understatement of the century, it’s been an absolute abomination of evil. But, we are plugging along here and doing what we can to keep our lives on track for our kids and our community. Some have received the vaccine, including front line workers and those in assisted living facilities (including my Grammy and my Father-in-Law). My parents are clamoring to get theirs. And some of us in the family have had the virus and recovered.

We’ve gotten to finally do some campus tours with Morgan and it’s been so fun to experience this with her! She has two really solid universities in mind, the University of Arkansas and Kansas State University. Both of them have their pros and cons and the choice is a hard one! With her fantastic grades, she has qualified for 90% in-state tuition at Arkansas and qualifies for the Honors College. Actually, our mailbox is full of every day of schools wanting her — who wouldn’t!? Any university would be lucky to have this gem on their campus. She’s bright, beautiful, fun, courageous, out going, kind, and so many other things. My dad is still hoping she goes somewhere to play golf, which she absolutely could do, but the one decision she has made is she does not want to pursue college athletics. She just wants to focus on being a normal college student. Sorry Papa!

While we were at Arkansas we spent the evening driving around and exploring. We luckily got a tour of the Pi Phi house and all of our jaws were on the floor. What an incredible sight! I would move in there tomorrow if I was a college girl. Actually, one of them thought I was a senior, so maybe I could sneak in!? I loved my college days! We ate at a recommended dinner spot, Hugo’s, and it reminded us of our underground tour in Seattle (could that be a sign!?) The next day we had a campus tour with wonderful student guides. One of them a business major and ironically knew that we had knocked on the door of her sorority the night before and were turned down for a tour due to Covid. We loved the campus and I know MoMo would fit right in. Before leaving town, we ate tacos at Torchy’s and made the 3.5 hr drive home. The drive is a “con” by the way!

This past Tuesday we visited K-State for an official campus visit. We have been to Manhattan many times for fun and family and even Sophomore Day. However, we’ve never done a student-led tour or toured the new college of business building. Wow – it’s impressive! Brian and I met at K-State, have tons of memories and stories to tell but my hope is for Morgan to create her own stories whether that be at our Alma Mater or venturing off to do her own thing.

We had some interesting kids in our group – one declared that he was very into ping pong and “takes it very seriously” and the other decided to tell the guide that he couldn’t hear him and we were nearly done with the tour at that point. As Morgan said, why didn’t he move forward…I mean, let’s problem solve here people! Gotta love this girl! I have no doubt that she will be successfully navigating everything here in no time. And sorry dad, we didn’t have time to find your “St. Patrick Award” in the engineering building…another time! After peanut butter tacos for lunch at Taco Lucha (yes, that’s a thing…you should try it!). I’m sensing a theme here…tacos after campus visits are a must!

Stay tuned for her official decision!