So I found Danbury, CT a little chilly this year. It was particularly frosty when we went to check into the host hotel and found out they didn't have a room for us because they underestimated the size of their renovation. They were smart though, they didn't bother to call or provide any other advanced warning because they knew that we were with a large group and they wanted to grab all the business they could before they ran out of rooms, and before people found out their group was being split up. They could learn a lot from Stew Leonard's customer policy! Fortunately, there were no hitches when we checked into our second hotel. We are eternally grateful to all the Level 4 Moms who offered us space in their rooms when they heard what happened at the Plaza. You guys are awesome TEAM members and we really appreciate you! We had a lot of fun poolside and in the Palen Party Room. Thank heavens the kids were in the Lanouette Lounge! 
There was a minor problem with the Make-A-Wish Foundation stars. Last year the whole back wall where the concessions are located was covered in stars and we could easily identify ours because Audrey had tied gold ribbons to them and they were neatly hung by those ribbons. This year Nicole and I added ribbons in our team colors and decorated several of them with glow in the dark paint. The idea being when they turned out the lights for march-in our stars would look awesome.
Wellllllll.....this year there was one small strip of maybe 18 stars on the back wall.... so I chatted up the Make-A-Wish volunteer and found they ran out of tape to hang the stars. Funny, but the volunteer had nothing to do but hang the stars. The meet volunteers collected the stars and the money and gave them to the Make-A-Wish volunteer to hang. She had huge piles of them on her table, but no tape.......hummmmmm. Not the best planning. Later when were apparel shopping the volunteer and her Supervisor told me they had tape and they loved our stars so much they were going to hang them on the top of the bleacher and rehang them in their office after the weekend. So I thought ok good and went on my merry way. Later back in the stands I looked over and saw our stars hung in 3 bunches instead of spread out nicely so we could see them glow. Well... they were at the top, unfortunately on top of each other as well, but oh wellll... the important thing is that we helped make the Make-A-Wish Foundation the biggest winner of all. Together, the Team Challenge gymnasts collected $11,400, and they we're still counting at the end of the weekend! Congratulations, to everyone who helped make this possible! 
Things warmed up when our Level 4s racked up 15 9+ scores and get this 
this........7 of them were on beam! Great job girls! Congrats to Alana who scored 9+ on each event and finished the meet 3rd AA with a whopping 36.7. Alana scored the Team's only 9 (2nd) on floor which was articularly awesome because the Floor Judges definitely were not giving anything away at this meet! Hannah E. followed closely with an 8.9 (4th). Hannah E. and Hannah B. were the Team Beam Queens each scoring a whopping 9.375 for their beautiful routines and tying for 5th. Alana and Grace placed 3rd and 4th with 9.2+ scores and Katie followed closely with 9.175. Madi (5th) and Tatyana both scored 9.05. Hannah E. received the Team's highest bar score...a whopping 9.6 (1st) and finished the meet with a 36.725 AA! Alana placed 4th on bars with a 9.25. Grace received a whopping 9.625 (2nd) for her awesome vault. Alana and Hanah B. received 9.1+ s and Tatyana and Katie received 9+ scores. 
The Level 5s chalked up 7 9+ scores. 3 of those were awarded to Rachel for vault (9.05), beam (9.05), and floor (9.0). Sarah M. tied Rachel with 9.05 on vault. She received a 9.075 on beam as well. Sarah Casey earned the Team's remaining 9+ scores on beam (9.0) and floor (9.0). Rachel (35.65) and Sarah M. (35.3) earned the Team's top AA scores.
For the Level 6s Emily received a 9.3 on beam.
For the Level 7s Jordan and Ellie each racked up 3 9+ scores. Jordan scored 9.250 on vault, 9.025 on bars and 9.150 on beam. Ellie scored
9.250 on vault, 9.350 on bars and 9.200 on floor. Great job girls!
For the Level 8s, Kadianne and Jackie continued their winning streak achieving high 9s in every event. Kadianne received a whopping 9.45 on vault, bars, and beam and 9.125 on floor. She finished the meet with an awesome AA of 37.475. Jackie received a 9.1 on floor, a whopping 9.475 on bars, 9.225 on beam, and a 9.05 on floor. She finished the meet with a 36.9 AA. Nicole a 9.1 on beam and placed 5th on vault with a score of 8.8. The team was thrilled to have Sarah back competing with them. She competed both bars(8.1) and beam (8.55). Yippeee! 
Kaylee (Level 9) chalked up a 9.05 on vault and a 9.15 on beam. She finished the meet with a 35.825 AA.
Congratulations to Alyssa (Level 10) who received a 9.3 on vault and 9.175 on bars and qualified to Event Finals for both of these events. She placed 2nd on bars at Event finals and received a lovely Coach bag. Just prior to Alyssa's bar routine at the Event Finals another gymnast fell on bars and after quite some time was imobolized by paramedics and wheeled out on a stretcher. Alyssa did an incredible job of maintaining her focus during the 20 to 30 minutes she was left standing at the bars waiting her turn, knowing the last gymnast on the same event suffered a bad fall. She placed 2nd on bars. Now that is focus and determination! Her reward was a large Coach bag. Event final awards are always great gifts! Since Nicole's meet and Event Finals were back to back we decided to get a couple of cheeseburgers at that snack bar so that wouldn't miss any of
the Finals. The woman took our money and gave us our cheeseburgers and told us they were cheeseburgers with no cheese. Nicole and I kind of giggled thinking it was a lame joke, but she didn't smile and repeated it. There was something of a language barrier, but I did a couple rounds of...... I don't understand how can a cheeseburger have no cheese and if it doesn't have any cheese why did I get charged for cheeseburgers instead of the lower price for hamburgers........mind you the volunteer at the Make-A-Wish table is getting a big kick out of this conversation.....after about three go arounds of this silly conversation we got our cheeseburgers. We were afraid to eat them, but we got them! LOL!
On the way home from CT we stopped at Stew Leonards which was completely packed with Giants fans picking up their Super Bowl snacks. I had my camera, but was told by the Police Officer at the door that pictures weren't allowed. What a bummer! Kind of like a cheeseburger without cheese! But the customer is always right - right?
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