Gymnastics...

Last night, Wednesday, February 10, 2010, Claude and I scooped Papa up at his apartment and headed to LaGrange. The mini-Marx's are taking gymnastics again and wanted a full audience to view their amazing skills. All our kids took gymnastics when we lived in Denver. It is just a great sport to get your kids involved in. It uses lots of coordination and strength. Hayden and Bailey love gymnastics. This is their 2nd round of lessons. We made it to LaGrange in good time and stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick up dinner for all of us. We arrived at the Marx home just as Miss Bailey was waking from her nap. She and Hayden were so happy and surprised to see all this family coming for a visit. With the snow and ice on the roads, we were not sure if our plan to visit would happen. But we determined it was a go in the late morning. After a good dinner where we learned the Mini's will eat cole slaw, we dressed in our warm coats and headed to the cars. The drive to Louisville Gymnastics was slowed down a bit by a train. There is a plant that makes salsa and, I think, jelly down the road from the Marx home just before you get to the on-ramp for I-71. There are two buildings there and a train track from them to the main train track across our highway. The bar came down across the road, the lights were flashing to warn us to stop, and traffic all slowed to a stop on the snowy road. The engines of the train pulled across the road and then stopped on the road. A man got off the train and flipped the switch to change the direction of the train. Then the train backed up to 2 more tanker cars (it already had 2 coupled to the engines). It coupled these two cars to the two tanker cars already on the train. Then the entire train and cars pulled forward. Now Hayden and Bailey were enjoying this movement of trains. Bailey was sure it was Thomas and Hayden was telling her he wasn't believing that but she could if she wanted to. The engines got the cars on the road and stopped again. We could see the writing on the wall, we might be late for gymnastics. Then the engine started to reverse again and backed all it's cars down the track to the 2nd building. Finally the gate was lifted and we could proceed to gymnastics. When we were taking the kids into gymnastics Bailey said, "That's daddy's car!!" Sure enough, there was Michael. Good eyes on that child. I walked right past and didn't notice. Granted, it was cold and I wanted to be inside where it was warm. There are many classes going on at one time. Hayden's class starts at 6pm and Bailey's starts at 6:15pm. Hayden's class goes first to get a little padded plastic square. This is strictly for the kids to sit on when they are waiting for their turn to participate. There were only two other little boys in Hayden's class. They first went to the bars. They practiced doing flips on one bar. Then they walked on the parallel bars first with their backs facing the ground and second with their tummy facing the ground. When they got to the opposite end of the parallel bars they were to swing 3 times and then dismount. While Hayden's class was doing this, Bailey's class proceeded to the back of the gym. There was a great obstacle course made out of all kinds of shapes and sizes of mats. They even had tunnels rigged up for the kids to go through. Bailey and Coach Jennifer proceeded to the top of a huge incline shaped mat and Bailey was taught to put her hands in the air and slide down the mat. At the bottom she went through a tunnel, up some steps down a slide, through a tunnel, over a raised path and then did a foreward roll down a small incline mat. Well, it was something like that. There was only one other little girl in Bailey's class last night so they had lots of fun navigating this path and doing these skills over and over again. Hayden's class moved to the water fountain for a drink and then to the trampolines. They were to learn half-twists and full-twists on the trampolines. After their turn jumping and doing the twists, they were to go to an incline mat and do a forward roll into a pit of foam cubes. Great fun. Bailey's class moved to learning cartwheels over arch-shaped mats. Then they were off to their trampolines. Coach Jennifer drew a heart with chalk on each trampoline and the little girls tried to jump inside the heart and then stop when their coach said 'freeze'. Hayden's class moved from the trampoline to the mats on the ground to learn to do cartwheels on them. They had a succession of two mats so the boys could do a cartwheel and then walk a few steps and do a 2nd cartwheel. Bailey's class moved to another obstacle course. This course had a path to walk. At one point there were some steps and at the top you jumped onto the mats. At another point there was a spring board and the little girls jumped on it and, with a little help, bounced to the top of a high mat, then they walked across this mat to a little slide and back to their path. At the end of Bailey's class she gets stamps on her hands and feet and belly. It was great fun to watch Hayden and Bailey. Then we headed ourselves back to Georgetown and Sadieville with a quick stop at the Dairy Queen for ice cream to eat in our warm car as we drove. I'm posting a link below that should, if we are very, very fortunate, lead you to a slide show of Hayden and Bailey at gymnastics. http://s742.photobucket.com/albums/xx70/SandiPhotos_13/Gymnastics%2002-10-2010/