Eliza's Special Date Night

We're trying to do a better job of having one-on-one (or two-on-one) dates with the kids.  We let the kids decide what they want to do, so already this has included such activities playing Nintendo Classic at home, eating ice cream before dinner, pizza at Costco, going out to a movie, shopping, the nickel arcade, and for Eliza... a trip to see No. 3 Utah and No. 14 BYU gymnastics teams battle it out at the Marriott Center.  (Admittedly, this activity was my idea but she was thrilled about it.)  Both teams were amazing, but Utah ended up winning - by less than a point! - with a final score of 196.475-197.25.  I just chose to bring Eliza to that meet because it worked best in our calendar, but I'm glad we attended because it was really exciting to see both of these teams.

"Mom, hurry and take the picture!  They're about to start!"

While other kids and parents flocked to Cosmo for pictures, Eliza was much
more interested in watching the gymnasts than in hugging a man in a cougar suit.

I think both of these pictures are of Abbey Miner.  We were excited to see her because she
and her sister, also on the BYU team, trained at Eliza's gym when they were younger.

When the meet was over Eliza did NOT want to leave.  She wanted to hang out and dance
to the music on the loudspeakers.  We stayed so long that the only people left were the gymnasts
and their friends and family.  I asked Eliza if she wanted to go say hi to one of them.

So she introduced herself to this woman, who turned out to be Brittney Vitkauskas.
Brittney asked what level class Eliza is taking and Eliza asked Brittney what the hardest thing
she did during the meet was.  Brittney was very sweet and encouraging.

Below is the full coverage from the meet but I have it cued to start at the end with Shannon Evans' "Mario Brothers" floor routine.  She scored a very impressive 9.9 for this cool routine.  Also, I loved watching the teammates dancing along with the competitors since they all know eachother's routines so well.

Read BYU's Recap here.

The leaderboard after each event:



Such a fun date!  I hope we will continue to find fun, affordable, and personalized things to do with the kids to help make memories and build relationships.  I hope this isn't a fleeting thing.  It's definitely challenging to add a few more things to the calendar, but I think it's worth it.