The Gymnast

Eliza was so excited to be able to compete in away meets this year!  She wanted to do it last year but we weren't willing to pay the extra fees to participate.  So she worked to save up $100 to contribute so that she could be on the traveling team this year.  (She also paid for her own warm-up jacket, which we also did not pay for last year.)

She's worked really hard and mastered several new skills, and ended the season with a lot of bling.  Her favorite event is still uneven bars, with vault as the second-favorite.

Uneven Bars
Look for pullover, cast, back hip circle, cast, squat on jump to high bar,
tap swing, and a twist dismount.  

Beam

Look for handstand, split jump, half turn, and a twist dismount.

Vault

Front handspring over the mat.

 

Floor

Look for cartwheel, round-off back handspring, leap pass, and a front walkover round-off.
 

The big hiccup this year was that she sprained her ankle in early February, the week after the first of four meets.  Her coaches encouraged her to continue to attend gym but to just scale back her training.  Against my better judgment, we went along with this plan, but it took Eliza's sprained ankle about five weeks to heal.  She wore a brace when training and competing.  She felt she was fully healed just before the final meet.  

For the fist meet, we not only did hair but also glitter and a little makeup.
Cat helped with the mascara, which was... tricky.

I'm proud of the job I did on that competition bun!
I watched a couple of YouTube videos and found out that the
secret is lots of hair gel.  Who knew?!?

First meet (called "Aspire to go Higher Invitational")
at AirTime in Spanish Fork!

Another mom attending the meet commented on how
Eliza smiled so much while she competed.  Someone else
admired how Eliza looked so graceful.  I completely agree.

Uneven bars is Eliza's favorite event.

2nd Place in Bars!

For this meet, like most of the meets, each competitor
was allowed to have two spectators because of Covid.
It was a fun date night, hanging out and watching our favorite gymnast!

Academy West's "Flip Out! Invitational" at the Davis County Convention Center.

Cat accompanied me to this meet, which was on a Friday afternoon.

Afterward we met up for dinner with Alysa and Brooke!

"This Girl is on Fire" meet at North Davis Gymnastics.  Everyone
attending was given a matching leotard and a different colored scrunchy.

It was harder to see which event Eliza was competing in at this meet since all of the
teams looked exactly the same, but oh well.  At least I was sitting near the bars!

We got faster and faster getting hair done.  By the fourth meet
we had time to admire the different shades of blonde in Eliza's hair.

I guess I take a lot of pictures of bars...
This was at the fourth and final meet, "Lucky Charm Meet,"
at Mountain West Gymnastics in Bountiful.

Suz was my buddy at this meet and she even made embarrassing signs for us to hold up
while we cheered really loudly for Eliza.  Deep, deep, deep down I know Eliza loved it.

The coach said Eliza could keep the team award because she did
such a great job on her bars routine!

I finally got a picture, just me and the superstar!

And check out these great pictures Suz took at the last meet: