Summer Games

We are big fans of the Olympics around here. My favorite parts are the track and field events. You know, events where performances are timed or measured as opposed to "judged" by "experts". Our atlhetes have been on both the good and bad side of those judgments, so I really shouldn't complain much I guess. All that said, I was very taken by the story of Nastia Liukin who immigrated to the US with her parents when she was 2 and half. Maybe Grace will follow in her footsteps and be the next "Nastia".

Jason and Grace got Olympic fever as well. They thought the drummers during the opening cermony were really cool. Afterward Jason wanted to drive in Daddy's truck to the Olympics, but since it was so "far far away" we had our own in the back yard.

Here are Jason and Grace participating in the pool-to-fence water bucket relay.


If you recall, both our men's and women's 4x100 m relay teams dropped the baton in preliminary races and failed to appear in the finals. Ouch. Maybe we should propose switching from a little 1 ounce baton to a big water bucket with handles.

Jason learned that filling the bucket in the sprinkler killed his time...


While Grace got an early lead by dunking the bucket in the pool.


Once the bucket was filled it was a quick sprint to the fence to complete the difficult transition from full to empty water bucket.


Here is Jason trying to pass the "baton" to Daddy.


After an exciting relay race Grace was off to the dive pool.


The US diving team did not do very much this year, so Grace may really have a chance to excel here...


Meanwhile Jason entered the discus toss...That reminds me our "discus" has managed to make it over the fence and into our neighbor's yard after an out of bounds toss.


Jason had a full day of events to include the tricycle race...


...and basketball.


The end of the games saw the rusted trapeze bar competition. It was replaced by the shiny new trapeze bar with rings competition on Grace's birthday. Here is Jason flexing his mucles.


While Grace executes a perfect 10.
I guess there is a new scoring method in the real Olympics which somehow involves using "thrown out" scores to break ties. If the score is "thrown out", why use it to break ties? Someone explain, please.

This athlete worked up quite a thirst during the competition...


The nice thing about our summer games is that they are not over in two short weeks. They go on a long time here in Alabama. And when they do end, they come back quickly the very next year so we don't have to wait four long years like the Olympics.