The One

Both girls’ teams got bids to compete in the National Competition “The One” in Orlando.  We had another send off at the gym and the whole family came to watch!

Just the girls and I traveled this time.

We had a couple of days free before competing and they were lovely!  Our first morning there happened to be a Skype morning, so Sof and I snuck down to the pool to talk to our girls.

Sof went ahead and started swimming because it was certainly hot enough!

We spent the whole day by the pool soaking up all the sun we could!

The next day we started at the pool early again, and were able to get in on a game of Bingo!

We did some shopping in the afternoon that day.  There was a great outlet mall and the girls cleaned up at the Lululemon store!

The Lulu outlet also carried some Ivivva stuff for Sof.  I would normally never pay those prices for a kid that grows so fast, but it was pretty cheap there!  Sof thought she was very cool in her “big girl” outfits and took my phone to take a selfie and send it to Adrienne!

All that fun was exhausting!

Finally it was time to actually compete!  Sof was up first!

They had an awesome first day performance!  They scored in the top 4, which qualified them to move on to the next day!  There were some happy girls!

Like usual, Lexi competed late that night.  So back to the convention center for us!  We were able to pass some time waiting in one of the restaurants.

Lexi’s team did fantastic as well!  They hit zero, and also qualified to move on to the next day!

Next day was the same thing all over again!  Sof up first!

There’s no other way to say it, they bombed this performance!  It just was one fall after another.  It was still a huge accomplishment to get to the second day, and as you can see, they had fun!

And then there was Lexi…

Finally, this team nailed it two days in a row!  It earned them the title and rings! 

There was a lot of tears, because not all the girls are coming back next year.

This was an amazing win for our coaches and owners.  This was the last team to compete as “Midwest Explosion”.  From here on out they will be Stingrays.  Exciting, but still bittersweet for these dedicated owners.  To go out with a win like this feels awesome! 

Ring fitting!

With all the hoopla of winning, we barely made it back in time for the uniform retirement!  That means-Jump in the pool with your uniform on!

It was such a fun tradition to be a part of!  Sof swam quite awhile in her uniform!

All week we kept talking about getting ice cream, but never did.  So for our last night we found a yogurt place!

The girls wanted one more late night swim!

When we got back I was packing up a few last things and turned around to see Sof was out!

The next morning it was back to reality.  I thought I was ready to go home, but once at the airport I realized I wasn’t super excited about work and school!

The benefit of being so far behind with blogging is that you already know the outcome of things you did months ago! 

When you get a bid to compete at Nationals there are a few different venues you can go to.  So “The One” actually has 3/4 different locations they hold nationals in.  However, when all the events are finished, the winners from each event go into a virtual competition.  So a new panel of judges reviews the taped performances of all the restricted level 5 winners from each location, and declare one team “The One National Grand Champs”!  Lexi’s team all gathered for lunch to wait for the announcement!

We were so excited to learn that these girls are the grand champs!!

They were sent jackets and everything!

Couldn’t have asked for a better end to the season!