Indy Jump Rope Competition 2013

Saturday was a day Rachel had been looking forward to for a long time!  She got to compete in her first out-of-state jump rope competition!  She was so excited and a bit nervous, which is to be expected.

We left Friday morning.  It was about a six hour bus ride down there.  I was prepared for the worst... it ended up not being too bad at all.  I was expecting a loud trip with mostly girls on the bus.  That wasn't the case at all.  Everyone was pretty quiet and very well-behaved.  The team is made up of such nice kids and parents.  I'm so happy that Rachel has had the opportunity to be part of the Cardinal Skippers. She's very proud to be part of the Skippers, too.

We got to our hotel mid-afternoon.  The kids had the opportunity to swim for awhile, which Rachel was super excited about!  It was so fun to watch her and about twenty other girls having a blast in the pool!

[view of our bus from our hotel room]

This sign was on our door when we got back from swimming... so neat ~ Rachel loved it!  Great message, too! "Whatever your 100% looks like, Give it!"  It was perfect... the team is at all different levels and this recognized that and told everyone to do THEIR best.  Thanks whoever did it!!

After that we got ready, Rachel had team pictures and then Olive Garden was brought in to our hotel.  It was very yummy!!!  We just hung out until about 8pm, which was time to start to get to bed.  We had an early morning and long day ahead of us.

Rachel went to bed very well and I was pretty tired myself.  I was very excited to sleep through the night!  I set my phone alarm, the alarm in the room and had a wake up call.  So, no worrying that I'd sleep through an alarm.  I think that made me get even better sleep, too.

Rachel was up by 6am (which was 5am FDL time).  We braided her hair, got her uniform on and headed down to load bus and get some breakfast.  Then it was off to the gym.

Rachel did some practicing and I had a meeting about my job as a pusher during the morning events.  I was nervous about having a job and everything being so new, but it wasn't a big deal at all and everyone was super nice and very helpful.

Rachel competed in six events, some individual and some team.  She did great... I was so proud of her!!  I could tell she was a little nervous, but she handled the day very well.  I could definitely sense her relief when her freestyle event was done.  Again, she did so good though!

[the start of her freestyle event]

Here is a video of her freestyle event.  I was so proud of her!  I don't think I would have ever stepped foot on a gym floor like that when I was eight!  She is very brave. : )

The Skippers is made up of kids ranging in ages from eight to 18.  It really is neat to see how the older kids take the younger ones under their wing.  There were several times when I experienced an "oldie moldy" as Rachel says, help her with something or give her advice about something.  Just a great group of kids... love it.

She didn't win any ribbons this year and handled it very well.  Many of the girls on her team did, so that can be hard for a young, competitive child.  I had a little chat with her before we left reminding her that the lowest age group for awards was ten and under.  She's pretty young in that group and this is her first year.  Hoping she gets the opportunity to practice, practice, practice and go back next year with another year under her belt.  She's learned so much this year... it really is pretty amazing.

So, the competition ended much earlier than in years past, which everyone was pretty excited about.  We even got to stop at McD's which the girls loved.

We were home around 11:30pm.  Rachel was so tired and went right to bed... I wasn't far behind her!

Great memories... I'm so happy to have gotten to share that special time with Rachel.

Keep smiling!