Gymnastics- Big Ten Woman's championships- or GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We headed to Ohio State University today to watch the Big ten (conferencce) championship for woman's Gynmastic.  this is college level gymnastics.  When I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I was a booster for the team and it was my Friday night treat to head over and watch the meets during the winter.  Since moving home, I have not been to a meet since 2005 and I miss going to them.  I love gymnastics.  We were so happy to be going with J and N.  J graduated from OSU (Ohio State University) and OSU and the University of Michigan (UM) are fierce rivals.  So of course, we had to make sure our boys were dressed appropriately for the day.

Hijo in his blue and yellow (as close to maize and blue as I could get) and N in in scarlet and gray. 

Of course the mommas had to be dressed appropriately too- J in her OSU outfit and me in my Michigcan Gymnastics sweatshirt.    We made a stop at the bookstore near campus. J wanted to pick up some OSU items,  I was worried we would be razed about our UM clothing, but we were left alone.

We let the boys run around te cafe area and they did a good job of terrorizing the other customers in the cafe.   As you can see, the cafe was just jammed packed with students and other folsk (hahaha- that was a joke).

Hijo "resting" after chasing N.

Then back to running some more.  J bought N a "Brutus" toy- Brutus is the name of the OSU mascot.  No way was I buying hijo a Brutus, so he got a giraffe in an OSU tee shirt- which he promptly named "Brutus".  I can see I am going to have to stock up on UM items when we go to Ann Arbor in a few weeks time.

The areana.  The UM fan club was directly across from us- they are in yellow (maize) in the picture

Under my sweatshirt, I had my Michigan athletics tee shirt (a gift from a co worker when I left Ann Arbor). So I was good to go.

The boys played cars for a good portion of the meet.  J and I had packed cars, trains, coloring books, sticker books and crayons for the boys- I think we did good as they did not start getting bored until the last rotation and award ceremony.  We also packed a bunch of snacks- popcorn, grapes, fruit snacks, turkey cheese roll ups, trail mix and juice boxes.  We made it through the meet without having to buy anything more than some extra water.  I think we saved at $50.00 in food by bring our own.  The meet was 4 hours, so with the drive to and from and the meet, we missed lunch and dinner.  So packing food was the best choice.  As we left the meet, some tailgaters (who knew people tailgated for gymnastics meets????) offered us hot dogs, so the boys had those on the way home.  And hijo ate 1.5 hot dogs!!!!! 

But, I digress, back to the meet

UM warming up on floor exercise

Team huddle to start the meet

team area during the vault rotation (3rd rotation for UM)- but right in front of us. And OSU is in the red rightnext to them

Working on sticker books!!!! And loving it.  Hijo was talking up a storm.  And yes, he took off his blue shirt- it was quite warm in the building.

Before the awards, a drumline entertained us.  Notice the little drummer second to the last in the row- this kid was probably right around hijo's age.  Amazing.

UM atop the winner's podium-Big 10 champs for the 5th straight year!!!!   OSU finished 7th out of 7 team (oh shucks and darn).  J was not too excited.  I wanted UM to win, but if they could not win, then I wanted them to beat OSU.  Of course, J will remind me of this in the football season- as OSU did much better than UM in football this past year.  But I really don't pay attention to college football.  Although with hijo getting older, it could be a fun afternoon to go watch a game at our local univeristy.

Aren't they jsut the cutiest things?  

I love how Hijo took Ns hand and they walked together, he really watches out for the younger kids, when he is not busy biting them.  Yes, hijo bit N today- all becuase N had his water bottle.  I am not sure what to do about it- to help him stop this.  This time there was no fussing, no whining before it happened, one moment they were fine and the next moment N is screaming because Hijo bit him.  This is not going to fly in school next year.

Best little buddies

One the way home, J and I were discussing how long it would take for the boys to fall asleep.  I guessed 20 minutes after we got on the road.  N was out in 45 minutes and Hijo never feel asleep on the way home.

This was a great day - I am so glad that we got to share it with N and J.  I am looking forward to more road trips and adventures with them and hijo this summer.

Love and hugs,

Deb