Stanford

The new year at our house also means gymnastics meet season. And meet season always means travel. Our first meet out of state this year was held at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. I was excited about the prospect of warmer weather. Because though I do love me a good Utah winter, sometimes it's nice in the middle of January to have a quick shot of warmth, you know? But though it was indeed warmer in California, we got there right in time for a rain storm. Hmph. Granted, it's hard to begrudge California any rain seeing as they have been plagued by drought....but, still.

(Did I mention the tiny little prop plane we flew to California? Yeah...that was a bit of bumpy, nauseous fun.)

Regardless, we had a lovely time. Brandon says that as much as he loves hanging out with his Dad on gymnastics trips and having all sorts of manly bonding time, he really enjoys the way I like to adventure while out and about. So though we were only in Palo Alto for 48 hours, we took an evening walk through town to find some great seafood (Bay Area after all, am I right?) and Starbucks for some hot cocoa as the day got chillier. We wandered through the very charming downtown area, finding one of the neatest little used book stores I'd ever seen...seriously, even Brandon thought it was awesome.

And we also headed out to Half Moon Bay for some beach time with the rest of Brandon's teammates. It was only 55 degrees or so, but when you live in a landlocked state apparently you strip down and play in waves regardless. Well, the boys did. We parents mostly just stood on the sand and watched the boys play in the waves. I did take off my shoes and socks so I could feel the sand between my toes. Because, well...how often do I get to the beach?

And the meet that we were there for? Well that went well also. The Stanford Open is always one of my favorite meets to attend as a spectator and I think it's one of Brandon's favs to compete in as well. Pommel was a bit of a nemesis but other than that, I think Brandon felt pretty good about his routines.

This cool display is in a courtyard on campus in front of one of the buildings in the Graduate School of Business area right next door to the Burnham Pavillon where we were competing. The display is a bunch of colored cards that flip and make neat colored designs. It's actually rather fascinating to watch. A few years ago when we were attending the Stanford Open, we took some pictures in front of it....and decided that this year we needed to do another one. We didn't have our whole level 9 team with us, and some of the faces from a few years ago aren't with us anymore. But it was fun to do the same picture again.

2016:

2013: