Gotta Catch 'Em All

There was an Easter somewhere in the spring.  We were too busy for very many egg hunts with Dax and Cora playing soccer.  But we did decorate some eggs, and this is a picture I took of that day:

Dax decorated his egg like a Pokemon ball because for most of his 4th grade year, Dax was pretty much obsessed with all things Pokemon.  He loved to collect the cards, of course.  Anytime the kid came into any kind of cash, he immediately wanted to buy some Pokemon cards.  Even if he only had $1, he would beg to go to the dollar store and buy a small pack there.

Then, he would bring the pack of cards home, and have a little pack-opening ritual.  He learned it by watching other people open packs of Pokemon cards on You Tube.  Yes, it is a thing.  There are actually multiple people with thousands of followers on You Tube who do nothing but open packs of Pokemon cards and discuss them.  Here is what I learned:  The shiny cards are best.  That's about the extent of my Pokemon knowledge. 

Dax would watch Pokemon movies, play with Pokemon toys, wear Pokemon clothes, etc.  He would talk your ear off about the different stages of each kind of Pokemon (and boy howdy there are a lot of kinds of Pokemon). 

The Pokemon stage has kind of petered out now, replaced by something else...Minecraft.  But I didn't want to leave Dax's Pokemon phase undocumented. 

Arden's gymnastics

Okay, whoa, that was a long break.  I'm not going to try and catch up, just hit the highlights! 

This post will be a catch-up-with-Arden's-gymnastics career post.  Arden has been pretty much dedicating her life to gymnastics more and more every day.  Back in the spring, it was meet season.  She was trying to score out of Level 4 and move up to Level 5.  Luckily for her, she was able to score out (she had to score a 35 total, so she had to average a 8.75 across all four events (vault, bars, beam, and floor).   

She had quite a few meets.  Some went better than others, but she usually placed 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in at least one event.  Gymnastics meets are VERY long!  Dax usually tried to stay home, or at least bring his tablet so he could play Minecraft.  Arden is in second in this picture:

I unfortunately don't know as much as most of the gymnastic moms, and so all of Arden's routines always looked pretty good to me!  She always had a smile on her face at the end of the meet, and I guess that is what is important!  I am always proud of her.  She is in third in this picture:

Arden did have a meet or two where she was just flawless.  For example, at one meet she won first in three out of the four events (I think she was third in the other one), and of course first overall.  Her team even won first place, so there were lots of podium pictures at that meet.  Here are just a couple of her at the top of the podium:

 And again:

 And one excited team!

As soon as the meets were over, Arden jumped right into practicing for Level 5, as she wanted to "score out" of Level 5 in the fall and then compete at Level 6 in Spring of 2019.  This meant no more Fridays off, Arden is at the gym five days a week for hours and hours!  Arden spends so much time at the gym, that I am sometimes a little jealous of her coaches, who sure get to spend more time with her than I do (at least while she is awake!) 

Just a week or so ago Arden had a special meet for her and her fellow Level 5s to try and score out.  She did it!  I missed the whole thing because Preston and I were on a belated 20th anniversary trip (a story for another post), but I was proud again from afar!

While I don't always love how much time Arden spends doing gymnastics (or how much of my money goes to paying for it), I do love all of the things Arden is learning.  She is learning to work HARD.  She is learning that hard work does pay off.  She is learning discipline.  She is learning about toughness, determination, dedication, teamwork, and friendship.  So I guess that is why I keep agreeing to all of the crazy hours and signing the checks.  

So far Arden has been keeping up with junior high and gymnastics pretty well, so we will let her keep plugging along!

Go Arden!