Jr. Olympics and Middle School Camp

Last week, Nina had the very cool opportunity to compete in Junior Olympics.  She qualifiied in high jump as being one of the top six high jumpers in our region for her age group.  Mark, Nina, and I drove down to Greensboro, NC, (this year’s location for JO) on Tuesday, got in town for a late dinner, then stopped by her coach’s hotel to pick up her bib, certificate, shirt, bag, etc., then finally made it to our hotel just before 9pm to check in.  Thankfully, she didn’t need to be at the stadium until Wednesday afternoon, so we had time to get a good night’s sleep, a good breakfast, and take our time getting over to the stadium.

 

The event was quite impressive.  The track and field area was awesome, and stands for spectators lines three sides of the track.  While the experience was a great one, Nina didn’t feel like she jumped her best.  It was just one of those off days, unfortunately.  Regardless of the end result, it was a fantastic accomplishment to make it to Junior Olympics her first year in track, and we shared with her that our experiences have taught us that sometimes we can learn a lot more from disappointing experiences than triumphant ones.  

She noticed some areas in her form that she needed to change like throwing her head back while going over the bar rather than tucking her chin, and her very next summer session practice after JO, she almost completely changed her technique over the bar to throw her head back and arch more.  So, already, we saw how taking an experience and learning from it can be so helpful in the long run.

  

  

The morning after we returned from Greensboro, the girls left for our church’s Jr. High Summer Camp.  The church takes the kids from Thurs-Sun to North Bay Adventure Camp just off the Chesapeake Bay.  Nina had gone last year, but this was Lyla’s first year going, so we were so happy that they wanted to take this opportunity to go.  They had an awesome time, felt that they grew deeper in their relationship with the Lord, and built friendships with kids from church.  Mark and I were so happy that camp was a wonderful experience again!