Gymnastics

 

Last Sunday the girls were invited to be in an exhibition for the girls' gymnastics team at their club. They had never done anything like this before, so it was all very new to them.

 

A and E watching the older girls to see what's next. There were a few of the oldest members of the team leading warm ups before each individual level did their routines.

 

Getting ready to do straight jumps.

 

I loved Alyssa's mouth in this photo. She does this funny thing with her mouth a lot when she's concentrating hard on something.

 

Emma in her beginning pose of their routine.

 

They learned their routine on Thursday, then performed it that Sunday. The difficult part was that many of the more experienced kids who had done the routine before, did not come to the exhibition, so they didn't have much of an example to follow. Alyssa took the routine very seriously, trying to make everything perfect, Emma was more relaxed.

 

Finish arms up!

 

Preparing for their full turn.


The rest of these pictures were taken in the gym a few weeks ago during practice.

 

They do a lot of drill work in rows on the floor. I think it's been helpful for the girls in learning proper technique.

 

Kicks.

 

Playtime!

 

The gym is very relaxed, they pretty much give Rebekah free run of the place because one of the coach's daughter is her same age and they love to run around and play together during class.

 

Rolling on the mat.

 

Arms up and (you might have to click the pic to see it) her tongue is out. It's funny how little kids often feel like they have to stick their tongues out to get the rest of their body to work. I had a teammate who bit her tongue pretty badly doing the same thing.

 

Playing on the p-bars.

 

Alyssa loves bars, but she told me that beam is her favorite.

 

Right before class starts the girls usually have a few minutes of free time, and they always run right to the bars or trampoline.

 
Emma was very disappointed to learn that p-bars is a boys event, she swings like a monkey on them!

Land of the Giant Pumpkins

A couple of weekends ago, we went to the Land of the Giant Pumpkins. My parents met us there on their way up to our house on a Saturday afternoon.

 

In the ginger bread house. The broom hanging out of the roof is from the witch who had an accident on her flying broomstick. She's splatted against the roof (not in a gross way, of course).

 

They had alpacas on the farm. Rebekah looked at them and asked Dave what these "weird giraffes" were.

 

It was a kind of windy and chilly afternoon, which made getting good pics a little hard (no one wanted to stand still very long), but the kids had fun running around.

 

Ka'iulani and Kamele on top of the huge haystack.

 

Having fun on the whale.

 

Going in the hay maze. A and E LOVED this, but for me it was too dark and cramped. Crawling room only!!

 

She found her way back out!

 

Looking at the alpacas again. They were very cute, and well taken care of. They seemed very gentle and their fur was soft.

 

Little Kamele ringing the clown's bell.

 

Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters!!

 

In the corn maze.

 

Kahiwa trying to hide from Daddy in the corn.

 

The older girls had fun running ahead of us through the corn maze. It was a little too muddy for Rebekah, she didn't want to walk through it, and I don't blame her. The bottoms of all our shoes and pant legs were caked with mud when we left.

 

Taking off ahead.

 

Some corn that had fallen in the mud.

 

Must be rough to get carried through the whole thing :-)

 

With the cutie pie (I guess) pig.

 

Ooops!

 
A with a grey looking fall sky behind her.

 

They had goats that were trained to walk up these planks when they heard their food being served up there.

 

The girls with Grandma and Grandpa.

 

In the naughty cage.

 
Silly licorice chewing face.

 

Sitting on a big pumpkin, drinking cocoa.

 

Standing in the pumpkin patch.

 

Grandma and Bekah by the huge pumpkins.

 
Peeking out the big pumpkin.

 

The girls had so much fun chasing each other around the inside of the pumpkin. Their excited faces as they played were cute.

 

Laughing at each other.

 

 

They played in the bounce house, and it's always so hard to get good action shots that don't come out blurry when they're jumping so wildly, but I had a lot of fun editing these. I'm not even sure what I was doing, but I was able to blend out the background in some.

 

And spread a faded color across other pics.

 
And give some a tint in black and white. It was interesting to be able to make changes like that.